INDIA AND VIETNAM… THE ROAD TO INDEPENDENCE SS7H3: The student will analyze continuity and change in Asia leading to the 21st century

VOCABULARY Nationalism Rowlatt Act Civil Disobedience Dominion Vietminh League Apartheid Moral advantage

NATIONALISM The belief that people should be loyal to those with whom they share common history, customs, origins, and sometimes language or religion

INDIA A feeling of nationalism began to happen in India in the 1800s The people began to be upset that their country was under British rule and part of the British colonial empire They felt like 2nd class citizens in their own country Their best jobs and education were reserved for the British Indians grew fine cotton and were excellent weavers; they were forced to sell their cotton to the British and then had to buy the finished cloth from British factories

INDIA Two groups worked for the rights of Indians: Indian National Congress (1885) and the Muslim League (1906) One of the early goals of both groups was Indian independence from British control During World War I many Indians fought with the British hoping the British would give them greater freedom After the war nothing changed and those Indians that protested were arrested

INDIA Rowlatt Act gave the British the power to send Indians to jail without a trial 1919 the British open fire on a large gathering of Indians at Amritsar and over 400 were killed and 1200 wounded This Amritsar massacre made Indians unite for complete independence

INDIA Mohandas Gandhi urged Indians to refuse to cooperate with British laws they felt were unjust and to make sure they did nothing violent during the protests (this is called civil disobedience) The boycotts began to hurt the British economy and the Indians were arrested and beaten; the Indians never responded back with violence

INDIA When WW II broke out, Great Britain offered India dominion (control or the exercise of control) over their country if they would help them in the war Gandhi and the Indians refused the offer because it didn’t offer complete independence; Gandhi urged the Indians not to take sides in the war

INDIA After the war, the British granted India their independence; Lord Louis Mountbatten divided the country into Hindu and Muslim sections which made the people unhappy India was divided into 3 new countries Hindu India would be in the center and the largest The Muslims countries would be along the east and west Indian borders and would be named East and West Pakistan India became a Federal Republic

VIETNAM Vietnam was another Asian country controlled by a European country; Vietnam was controlled by France Vietnam at this time was called Indochina Nationalism was a reason the people of Indochina (Vietnam) wanted to stay free They had worked hard to stay free from China to their north Ho Chi Minh worked for Vietnamese independence from the French; he belonged to the Communist party because the communist didn’t believe in European colonialism

VIETNAM When WWII began, Ho Chi Minh hoped it would mean an end to the French rule in Vietnam He founded the Vietminh League and the goal of the group was Vietnamese independence After WWII Ho Chi Minh and his forces fought the French for their independence; in 1954 the French surrendered control of Vietnam to Ho Chi Minh because they couldn’t get military control of the country

VIETNAM The U.S. was worried that if Ho Chi Minh ruled Vietnam, then other countries around Vietnam would also become communist At the Geneva Conference in 1954, the U.S. had Vietnam divided into 2 parts; Ho Chi Minh controlled the north and the U.S. had control of the south until the country could stabilize and vote in a government

VIETNAM The two parts of the country were to be reunited after the elections in 2 years As the years stretched out, the Vietnamese became more anxious to be independent Feelings of nationalism was more important than which political system they should be After many years of fighting and the loss of many Americans and Vietnamese, the U.S. withdrew from Vietnam in 1975; it was clear to the U.S. that the Vietnamese wanted to control their own country The forces in North Vietnam took over the country and the next day it became the Republic of Vietnam; it was and still is a communist country