How Did The First World War Affect South Asia

The impact of The First World War and its undeniable consequences were felt around the globe. Both the Middle East and South Asia found themselves greatly affected, socially, politically and economically. Yet it would be the Middle East where the changes would be most apparent.

During the war, both Middle east and South Asia played a major role in the defeat of the Axis powers and for their hard work and sacrifice many territories and nations upon this regions were promised independence and political freedom by the European powers. It was in 1918 when Indian, Jordanian and Syrian fighter returned home with the promise of independence and political freedom only to find themselves in the same situation as before. All of these promises happen

Yet the form of protest over European rule in these two regions would be vastly different. Once the Ottoman empire crumbled to the ground its territory was roughly split up following the Sykes-picot agreement drawn in 1916 by the European powers. This agreement was formulated without the presence of any representative of the regions that would become affected, this would lead to the carved up countries to be filled with people that didn't necessarily agree with each other political and social ideologies. This clear mismanagement by the European powers plus a series of mandates issued by the European rulers of the regions, that were found by the locals to be an extension of colonial rule, would be the last straw that would lead to revolts in the affected regions. A perfect example of a violent revolt would be the Great Iraqi revolution of 1920. A revolt in which angered Iraqis fought the British in hope for their once promised independence. The revolution was lost and Iraq didn't manage independence until it was granted to them in 1932. Meanwhile in India the total polar opposite happened. Even Though Indian protest against British colonial rule brought violence it was in the form of the Amritsar Massacre, which was committed by the british. This massacre instead of leading to a violent uprising within the Indian people led it to a

It rested on the use of this regions as sources of revenue during and after the war. As india stood as a colony before the war the true concern for the british when the war started was not only the availability of men but the founding of the war effort. At the end of the war India had contributed over 146 million pound to the allied war effort. This money came all from higher taxation from the Indian people as war expenditure arose monumentally as the war continued. For the time being as mayor part of the middle east was under Ottoman rule they would not truly face the devastating effects of the Europeans powers greed. Once it has been made clear that the Middle East held some of the biggest oil reserves they became an economic target for the European powers as the new mechanised warfare dependent on oil to turn its deadly wheels. Once the Ottoman empire fell and the European powers gained control over most of the middle east their funneling of the oil destabilized the region as oil became one of their biggest concerns while keeping peace and stability to the region came second. The concern over the stability of the region was so poor that the British used ideological differences and revolts to gain access to oil and to take the attention off their nefarious deeds. This is surprisingly something that can be seen in the modern age, back