The Interwar Period - Democratic Yearnings

THE INTERWAR PERIOD HIST 1301 | History Democratic Yearnings While the fall of empires at the conclusion of the war was undoubtedly beneficial to democracy, emerging nations found it difficult to embrace new political structures at times. The turbulent times in Ireland throughout the 1920s were but one instance. The Anglo-Irish Treaty established the Irish Free State in 1922. The Irish Republican Army (IRA) and the Irish Nationalist Party battled British control during the Irish War of Independence, which had started in 1918, until this 1921 agreement put a stop to it. In contrast to the more moderate Irish Nationalist Party, organisations like Sinn Féin ("We Ourselves"), which was founded in 1905 to fight for an independent Ireland, were frequently linked to the IRA and occasionally used more violent tactics. Despite using somewhat diverse approaches, they had the same objective. Ireland's future was put to a vote by the Anglo-Irish Treaty. The majority-Protestant six northern counties chose to stay in the United Kingdom, while the remaining twenty-six founded the Irish Free State and were granted dominion status within the British Empire. The Irish Free State had the authority to establish and implement its own laws, negotiate and sign treaties, choose ambassadors, and designate representatives to international bodies as a dominion. But there were still a lot of Catholics in the northern counties, which eventually resulted in protracted conflict. However, many Irish republicans, who desired total independence for Ireland, were not entirely satisfied with the new arrangement, even if it was a substantial improvement over the previous one. Sinn Féin itself was divided; some desired more Irish sovereignty and to remove British rule from the entire island. The IRA and the Free State engaged in a brief civil war, from which the Free State won. It was reorganised in 1937 and given the name "Ireland" under a new administration led by anti-treaty activist Éamon de Valera. For a short while following World War I, Japan too started moving towards democracy. Taisho, the new emperor, had ushered in a liberal age marked by democratic and progressive politics in 1912. For instance, when workers battled for better pay and working conditions, labour strikes—like the 1918 rice riots, in which tens of thousands of people protested the government's reluctance to pay market rates for rice—became more frequent. For the first time, women were involved in politics and labour unions, and in the 1910s, the number of unions more than tripled. Japan was seen as a success story of constitutional governance at this time. Nevertheless, the progressive era was brief. The Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, with a Richter rating of 7.8, completely devastated Tokyo and Yokohama, two important cities. The earthquake, the ensuing fires, and the tsunamis claimed the lives of around 150,000 people. Soon, there were rumours that the local Korean population was planning a political uprising, was taking advantage of the disarray, and had already contaminated wells with poison to taint the drinking water. In reaction, thousands of Koreans were singled out and massacred. The destruction also gave the pro-military and conservative factions in the Japanese government a chance to exert more social control. Radicals were more severely suppressed once martial law was proclaimed. Political activists who raised issues with the policies of the administration vanished. The Shöwa era started when the emperor's son Hirohito took over as ruler in 1926. The military now controlled a larger portion of Japan's governmental structure, and the emperor's position was veiled in devotion and mystery. The military chiefs of the nation thought that in order for Japan to maintain the dominance over the Pacific, more forceful measures were required. The military establishment of Japan, along with some elements of its army, developed a growing disdain for civilian authorities while operating with an elevated sense of duty and honour. By the late 1920s, they believed these leaders were unable to handle threats from the Soviet Union and China, let alone resolve domestic problems. Even while they worked for the emperor, a few disgruntled Japanese military commanders in China and the Japanese colony of Korea started to take direct action, organising criminal conspiracies and cover-ups to ensure Japan's future as they saw it. Nationalistic covert organisations like the Blood-Pledge Corps and the Cherry Blossom Association grew within the Japanese military, especially in the elite Kwantung Army that was based in Korea. Perceived unfair treatment in international affairs, as seen at the Washington Naval Conference, infuriated the Japanese. Concerns about what this would entail for Japanese interests in China as well as the rise of Chinese nationalism under Chiang Kai-shek and the nationalist Guomindang administration intensified. China's Manchuria was a semiautonomous province that shared a border with Korea. Hyper-patriots in the Japanese army planned to blow up a section of the South Manchurian Railway close to the Manchurian city of Mukden (Shenyang) in 1931 in order to incite a political crisis that would allow Japan to interfere. They then claimed responsibility for the event and accused Chinese nationalists. The Japanese officer in charge of the area seized Mukden, and field commanders in Korea sent troops without receiving instructions to do so from Tokyo. The general population in Japan approved of the army's action. The Kwantung force moved towards Pu Yi, the former Chinese Emperor, who had been residing in the Japanese concession—a section of Tianjin ceded to Japan—since 1925 as the Japanese force spread out throughout Manchuria. Pu Yi was persuaded by the Japanese that their actions had served the Manchurian people's interests in maintaining peace and order in his native country. After that, they brought him back into Manchuria by force, and by March 1932, he had been convinced to take up the post of "chief executive" of the recently formed state of Manchukuo, or Manchuria. A British ambassador in Japan warned of "an atmosphere of gun-grease" in Japan as the Chinese government called for the League of Nations to intervene and promised to abide by its decisions. The League formed the Lytton Commission to investigate the situation in the autumn of 1931. U.S. Secretary of State Henry Stimson declared the Stimson Doctrine in January 1932, rejecting Manchukuo's claim to independence. As a result of stirring up popular sentiment in China, Japanese marines and Chinese forces engaged in combat on Shanghai's outskirts in January 1932. The Guomindang government of China "was no longer exercising any political or administrative 'authority in any part of Manchuria,'" according to the findings of the Lytton Commission. Japan officially acknowledged Manchukuo's founding as a client state—a dependent and subservient region—as a theoretically free, fully sovereign, and independent country. Although it acknowledged faults on both sides, the October 1932 publication of the Lytton Report did not advocate for complete autonomy for Manchukuo. In response, Japan left the League in March 1933. Manchukuo was governed as a puppet state by Japan, which exercised authority over the local Chinese officials. Up until the conclusion of the war, when China reclaimed power, Pu Yi remained the "head" of state there. The military's secret societies in Japan were driven by an overblown belief in Japan's future. They started a violent campaign against the civilian government of Japan. In March 1932, elements of the Imperial Navy overthrew the government of Japan by having Baron Dan, the chairman of Mitsui Corporation, and Junnosuke Inoue, the country's previous finance minister, executed for betraying the people of Japan. On May 15, eleven teenage naval officers shot and killed Prime Minister Inukai Tsuyoshi. The Japanese saw twenty acts of terrorism, four political figures assassinated, five more people attempted to be killed, and four coup attempts between 1930 and 1935. Meiji oligarchs, government bureaucrats, and recruits from other political parties came together to become Japan's dominant political party in the first half of the 20th century. Known as the Seiyukai, it was always in favour of a move towards totalitarian rule. High-ranking military commanders led "national unity" administrations began to seize power in 1932 and suppress challenges and adversaries. Midway through the 1930s, the military overthrew civilian administration, intimidated it, and established a military dictatorship, which led to the top-down establishment of authoritarian governance. In China, things changed a lot during the 1920s and 1930s. Civil war resulted from the contrasting ideologies of Nationalists and Communists, which caused revolutionary action to grow but then fragment. Sun Yat-sen commanded the Guomindang from 1912 until his passing in 1925. In order to create a more inclusive party, Sun Yat-sen formed an alliance with communists. Chiang Kai-shek emerged as the Nationalists' leader following his passing. Putting more emphasis on conventional stances, Chiang decided to publicly remove the Guomindang's communist members in the late 1920s. One of the new members of the communist ranks was Mao Zedong, a young man from Hunan Province. Despite his sporadic training, Mao was captivated by the revolutionary spirit of the 1917 Russian Revolution. Although he had backed the Guomindang and the communist cause, Mao turned to violence on him after Chiang drove out the communists. Mao had an unconventional perspective on both communism and marxism. Marxism generally assumed that the industrial workers in the factories, known as the proletariat, would eventually become aware of their class. But in China, where the majority of the population is rural and there has been minimal industrialization, this paradigm did not exist. Mao therefore began to think that peasants, not industrial workers, might be the foundation of a Marxist state. The landowners who controlled the land, not the capitalists, would be the target of Chinese communists. For the vast majority of Chinese peasants who were desperate for land reform, this was a potent remedy. A reform of this kind would drive out the landlords and give the peasants who worked the land back ownership. In the early 1920s, the Nationalists themselves had urged the Soviet Union to help, and the Soviet Union had responded by providing supplies and training. But after taking the helm of the Nationalists, Chiang made the decision to split from the Communists and organised the annihilation of the Communist army. Many were compelled to go into hiding as a result, but Mao was able to lead them on the Long March to a secure haven in northern China in 1935. Mao's speeches on a new Chinese government that represented the people's will drew large crowds. However, the Japanese Empire attacked China's mainland in 1937. By offering Mao a truce, Chiang encouraged him to focus on battling the invading forces rather than continuing the civil war. Nevertheless, the military effort against the Japanese was hindered by the internal conflicts between these two parties. Nationalism- related topics were also becoming more and more popular in Southeast Asia. Ho Chi Minh had returned to the northern region of French Indochina (Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia) after being ignored during the Treaty of Versailles discussions and had raised guerilla forces to start driving out the French. Ho, a supporter of Vietnamese nationalism, had trained in the Soviet Union and believed communism would offer his country the means to become independent. In the 1920s, Turkey embraced the expansion of democratic institutions. Following the early 1920s nationalist party victory, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk instituted a republic including regular elections and a constitution. By incorporating several Westernised aspects, the Republic of Turkey distanced itself from the previous Ottoman administration. The Arabic alphabet was abandoned, women were granted the opportunity to vote, and traditional attire—men in the fez and women in veils—was forbidden. European style took hold. Turkey underwent a significant change when it became a completely secular nation. The legal system was restructured with an emphasis on a civil code akin to that of other European nations, as opposed to Islamic law. In the 1920s, various Latin American nations also saw some progress in democratisation. In 1910, Mexico had a revolution. There was a power struggle that resulted in a series of revolutionary generals ruling Mexico without a clear path for the next president to take. This was intended to be corrected by the formation of a political party, and by the 1920s, the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, had been established. This party controlled Mexican politics until the twenty-first century, despite name changes throughout the years. At the very least, frequent elections and increased voting represented the external recognition of democratic institutions. Still, all presidents and almost all legislators belonged to the PRI, which essentially ruled the state as a one-party system. Lázaro Cárdenas, the country's new president in 1938, concentrated on the predicament of regular Mexican workers. In addition to promoting land reform, nationalising the oil sector, and supporting labour unions, he also tried to introduce more socialist ideas to Mexico. Early in the 20th century, voting rights were expanded in a number of Latin American nations. As reformers attempted to take over Chile's political system, there was some turbulence there. In the end, Chile was able to establish a string of coalition administrations throughout the 1930s that provided long-term stability. Political unrest had become more widespread by the 1920s in other countries, such as Argentina. General José Félix Uriburu took control of the nation's capital, Buenos Aires, in September 1930. Uriburu had been greatly impacted by the fascist movement in Italy. He suspended the constitution and outlawed political parties. His was the first of several military takeovers that Argentina would see in the decades that followed.