colonial powers and independent only in name. In this chapter, we will read about
the difficult situations faced by these colonies and how they began to fight against
the domination of the European powers. Most of these countries had different
kinds of people who spoke many different languages, or followed different religions.
They did not think of themselves as one nation. The traditional rulers in almost all
these countries had been kings and emperors. These emperors did not support the
ideas of democracy and freedom. As new movements took shape, people in the colonies
were inspired by the new ideas from Europe, like nationalism, democracy and even
socialism. We will study the experiences of some of these countries and compare them
with our own country to how the lives of millions of people of the colonies
transformed over time.
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At the beginning of the 20th century, China was ruled by emperors of Manchu
dynasty. Manchu dynasty was unsuccessful in defending the interests of China from
the western colonial powers. These powers had become very powerful and influential
in different parts of China. They had also forced the emperors to give them economic
and political concessions like low import taxes, immunity from Chinese laws,
maintaining armed forces, etc. The common people as well as the administrators
of the empire were unhappy with this. The administrators tried to reform the
systems. The people also revolted against the domination of the western powers.
The Manchu empire was overthrown in 1911and a republic was established
under Sun-Yat-Sen (1866-1925). Yat-Sen is regarded as the founder of modern
China. He came from a poor family and studied in missionary schools where he
was introduced to democracy and Christianity. He studied medicine but he was
greatly concerned about the fate of China. He studied the problems of China and
designed a programme of action. His programme was called the Three Principles
(San min chui). These principles were: “nationalism” – this meant overthrowing
the Manchu dynasty, which was seen as a foreign dynasty, as well as other western
imperialists; “democracy” or establishing democratic government; and “socialism”
which meant controlling industries and land reforms to distribute land to the
landless peasants. Even after the Manchu dynasty was overthrown and a republic
was declared, the republican government led by Sun-Yat-Sen was unable to come to
power. The country was soon controlled by regional military powers called “war
lords”.