Nations and nation-building in East and Southeast Asia

Abstract

the premise for national self-determination and an end to colonialism was elaborated in US President Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points of January 1918. He argued that all nations should enjoy self-government, and that it was the failure of the colonial powers to grant independent nation status to their colonies that had led to conflicts and wars such as World War I. Colonial powers should commence the process of decolonisation, and prepare their colonies for independence and self-government. However, the impact of Wilson's doctrine of self-determination had less impact on the colonial powers than the emerging nationalist movements in the colonies, and it acted as a powerful ideological justification for their goals and actions. For the most part, the colonial powers chose to ignore the doctrine of self-determination, and showed little if any inclination to divest themselves of the economic and political benefits that possession of colonies had brought. If anything, the behaviour of some colonial powers – particularly France, Britain and Holland – became even more intransigent towards their colonies in the face of nationalist demands that they honour Wilson's doctrine of national self-determination. They responded brutally towards colonial subjects who dared articulate demands for independence and an end to colonialism. Suppression of nationalist movements in the colonies of East and Southeast Asia was successful prior to the outbreak of World War II in the Pacific (1941–45). It appeared that colonial administrations could continue indefinitely to suppress any internal nationalist opposition.