ABSTRACT
The First World War was a watershed event for colonial peoples. As citizens of European empires, large numbers of colonial peoples were called upon to serve the war effort, sometimes as soldiers, sometimes in other capacities, and many of them did so willingly. In Europe, they encountered racism and other demeaning behavior that served only to remind them that they would never be treated as equals within the imperial order. At the same time, however, colonial peoples serving in Europe were also exposed to Western notions of nationalism, democracy, and self-determination, all of which inspired them to believe that there might be broad support among Westerners for their own independence movements. In fact, the Western powers had no intention of extending these political ideals to the colonies. Instead, the colonial powers colluded to support each other. Not only did the European powers not interfere in each other’s affairs, the United States also “respected” their claims overseas and continued to extend its own influence in the Americas. Forgotten were the colonized people who were left to develop their own tools to express their anticolonial sentiments.
