774 ★ CHAPTER 19 Safe for Democracy: The United States and WWI
Middle East. Nguyen That Thanh, a young Vietnamese patriot working in Paris,
pressed his people’s claim for greater rights within the French empire. Citing
the Declaration of Independence, he appealed unsuccessfully to Wilson to help
bring an end to French rule in Vietnam. W. E. B. Du Bois organized a Pan- African
Congress in Paris that put forward the idea of a self- governing nation to be
carved out of Germany’s African colonies. Koreans, Indians, Irish, and others
also pressed claims for self- determination.
The British and French, however, had no intention of applying this prin-
ciple to their own empires. They rebuffed the pleas of colonial peoples for
self- rule. During the war, the British had encouraged Arab nationalism as a
weapon against the Ottoman empire and had also pledged to create a home-
land in Palestine for the persecuted Jews of Europe. In fact, the victors of World
War I divided Ottoman territory into a series of new territories, including Syria,
Lebanon, Iraq, and Palestine, controlled by the victorious Allies under League
of Nations “mandates.” South Africa, Australia, and Japan acquired former
German colonies in Africa and Asia. Nor did Ireland achieve its independence
at Versailles. Only at the end of 1921 did Britain finally agree to the creation
(Free City)Danzig
Rhineland
Saar
GREAT
BRITAIN
FRANCE
BELGIUM
NETHERLANDS
DENMARK
NORWAY
FINLAND
SWEDEN
SPAIN
PORTUGAL ITALY
SWITZERLAND
GERMANY
ROMANIA
BULGARIA
ALBANIA
GREECE
TURKEY
RUSSIA
LUXEMBOURG
ESTONIA
LATVIA
LITHUANIA
EAST PRUSSIA(GERMANY)
CZECHOSLOVAKIA
AUSTRIA HUNGARY
POLAND
YUGOSLAVIA
Sicily
Crete Cyprus
Lorrai
ne^
Alsac
e^
Sardinia(It.)
Corsica(Fr.)
DodecaneseIs. (Italy)
North
Sea
Mediterranean Sea
Balt
ic^ S
ea^
Black^ Sea^
Atlantic
Ocean
0
0
250
250
500 miles
500 kilometers
New nationsDemilitarized or Allied occupied zone
EUROPE IN 1919