Vietnam: Nationalism and regionalism

Response to query from 1141B

The Vietnamese Nationalist Party (VNQDD), was a radical nationalist party during the colonial era of Vietnam. It was active in Tonkin. After their failed rebellion in the 1920s, they eventually fled to China. It only returned during World War Two. Unfortunately, it faced a rather established Indochinese Communist Party with a strong northern presence and failed to overcome them. Comparatively, other groups developed in Cochinchina like the Cao Dai starting from 1926. This was a religious organisation that grew up to 2 million strong with their own military arm; it began from Saigon city and was able to gain support from the peasantry (countryside). The Indochinese Communist Party led by Ho Chi Minh was not able to gain their support over the long term however and the Cao Dai ended up supporting the French after World War Two. Thus, one can see that regional differences and distance partly contributed to a weakened and disunited nationalist movement.

Mr Chen

Hungary and the Marshall Plan (1947)

Response to query from 1141B

Evidence suggests that Hungary, at least in the initial stages, like Poland and Czechosolovakia was interested in the Marshall Plan. However, eventually due to Soviet pressure and direction, all of them rejected the aid. Hence, the Marshall Plan led to economic division in the Cold War as the Soviet came up with the Molotov Plan and then COMECON.

See Hungary in the Cold War: 1945 -  1956 by Laszlo Borhi, Central European University Press, 2004, pg 122 (found on eBooks NLB eResources) and http://www.osaarchivum.org/files/holdings/300/8/3/text/128-5-130.shtml retrieved 20 May 2011.

Q and A: Rise and Development of Southeast Asian Nationalism

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Q and A: Cold War

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Mr Chen

Philippines in the Colonial Era (1900-1941)

Personally, I somehow have had a strong interest in the Philippines. I read about it though I was not taught in secondary school and later on, I grew concerned about the  poverty there.

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From a long term viewpoint, the Philippines had been colonised by the Spanish before the Americans took over. By there, unlike other Southeast Asian colonies, it was relatively developed in terms of nationalist thinking. Emilio Aguinaldo and his forces fought against the Americans, mostly through guerilla warfare till 1911.  Battling for full immediate independence for their nation-state, they nevertheless became the minority view. 

As Milton Osborne suggested in his book "Southeast Asia: An Introductory History" (9th edition, 2004, p.148), the colonisers and the colonised elites (upper class) trusted each other and had similar goals of gradual independence. This made for generally cordial relations and less repression. The evidence is provided by the following:

- first chief judge was a Filipino

- 1912, 50% of lower court judges were Filipinos; by 1926, only 2 out of 55 judges lower court  were American

- voting began from 1907; by 1916, the Jones Act replaced the 8 member American dominated commission (upper house in a bicameral parliament) into a democratically elected 24 member Senate, two of which represented non-Christian areas

- In 1936, the Commonwealth of Philippines was set up which gave locals control over nearly all domestic matters (Damien Kingsbury, South-east Asia: A political profile, 2nd edition, 2005, p.295).

The above thus showed a consistent movement towards independence occuring in 1946.

Acts of violence against the colonial regime therefore were less nationalistic than economic. The Americans wanted the Philippines to provide primary products for its economy. To achieve this, it needed to ensure a stable government and depended on the local landed elite since trade was largely controlled by the minority Chinese. Hence, the US enacted laws to stimulate agricultural exports. These included sugar and Manila hemp. It contributed to the number of tenant farmers doubling from 1900 to 1935. As such, there were 3 small scale rebellions on the island of Luzon during the 1920s and 30s. Yet, one must be reminded that this was within the context of "remarkably little manifestation of nationalist resentment." (Osborne, p.147)

Thence, the Japanese invasion far from being a turning point for Philippine nationalism, actually delayed independence.

[By: Mr Chen]