Development of Nationalism in East and Southeast Asia - Essay Example

In terms of East and Southeast Asia, critics assert that nationalism is the process that gave rise to different nationalist movements in the region in the twentieth century. The aim and objective of these movements was to rebel against the colonial ideologies of the West.Nationalism is considered to be a process, which develops with respect to time; it does not emerge abruptly or unexpectedly. “It is not a phenomenon that appears suddenly. It is the result of a process by which a people become conscious of themselves as a separate national entity in the modern world, a process by which they become willing to transfer their primary loyalty from the village, or the region, or the monarch, to the nation-state” It is this perspective, which can be found in East and Southeast Asia.

In order to integrate nationalism, several steps and measures have been adopted by the government. These measures include the suppression of opposition, the selection of a mutual language and the concentrate on economic growth in order to sustain and maintain liberty. Nationalism and Communism in Southeast Asia is the product of colonisation. The vast majority of the East and Southeast Asian countries were “controlled either by the British, French, Dutch, Americans or Portuguese, who sought to control unnatural boundaries and had no regard for the natives of those areas” After the end of World War II, majority of the East and Southeast Asian countries declared independence from the Western imperialist.

For instance, Indonesian nationalists fought with the Dutch in order to get their independence. Philippine got it independence from United States; Vietnam got its independence from France after the Indochina war. In Vietnam, the French did not have the ability to withstand Vietnamese nationalism and thus, they adopted repressive strategies in order to control it3. Majority of the Vietnamese nationalist’s politic leaders and activists were jailed. Furthermore, opposition from Vietnamese nationalists made the French to remove them from government positions and to create hurdles and obstacles in their education4.

Communism is considered to be movement, which concentrates on changing the social and political structure of the society. The change is brought by creating a society in which there is no class difference among the citizens, they can freely access the goods they need and wage labour and private property concepts are disregarded1. Frequently, nationalism and communism have crossed path. For instance, the civil war in China was between these two beliefs, which concentrated on controlling China. The Chinese Civil War started in 1947 and lasted for a period of three years.

China was divided into two parts; Republic of China and the People’s Republic of China. The fifties witnessed Communist China, which had gained full control of mainland China4. During the struggle for independence in Vietnam, Vietnamese nationalists fled to China, where they were ignored. However, they provided assistance to them once they realized the advantage of Vietnamese nationalists; they could be used to spy the Japanese military activities in Vietnam. In the year 1945, “the Emperor Bao Dai abdicated to Ho.

  Ho Chi Minh then formed a provisional government with himself as its president and Vietnam declared independence on 2nd of September, in the year 1945”1. During this time, the Americans feared the expansion of communism and thus, provided military