The Wilsonian Moment Summary

World War I (WWI) changed the world forever. It brought the destruction of empires, the deaths of millions of people, the introduction of new weapons to wage war with, and created a desire for political independence amongst people in colonial nations. These desires resulted in movements across many of the Great Powers’ colonies after WWI. In The Wilsonian Moment, Erez Manela argues that President Woodrow Wilson’s rhetoric on self-determination created an opportunity for people under colonial occupation to seek their political freedom, and that the anticolonial movements that occurred after WWI were a response to this opportunity diminishing. Manela claims that a “Wilsonian moment” began when Wilson’s vision for the postwar world spread with

As frameworks for the peace treaty became public, it was clear the leaders at the Paris Peace Conference would not grant the colonies self-determination. But that did not mean people in the colonies no longer wanted their political freedom. Manela states, “the period between 1917 and 1920 saw a sharp escalation or realignment of institutions and individuals that would play central roles in subsequent anticolonial struggles” (9). In Egypt, the imprisonment of Zaghlul led to the 1919 Revolution in March, which Egyptians of all classes participated in. Zaghlul was later released and led a delegation to the peace conference to bring Wilson’s attention to the Revolution and Egyptians’ desire for self-determination. Mahatma Gandhi advocated for nonviolent demonstrations in India in the years following WWI. Eventually, Gandhi became the leader of the Indian National Congress, which fought for India’s right to home-rule until it was finally granted in 1947. Mao Zedong, after participating in the May Fourth protests in China, felt like Wilsonian principles had failed the people of China and began to believe in the Bolshevist ideology from Russia. He would later lead the Chinese Communist Party to power after World War II. And in Korea, the March First movement, and movements amongst Koreans worldwide, were an attempt to try and get Wilson’s attention to their call for independence from Japan. Like Mao in China, Koreans would turn to Bolshevism in the years after WWI in the wake of Wilson’s failed vision. The Wilsonian moment might have failed, but it changed the way colonized people saw their relationship with their colonial power