PALGRAVE MACMILLAN TRANSNATIONAL HISTORY SERIES ke geared Unive and Rana Mier (ives of Ox Competing Visions of World Order Global Moments and Movements, 1880s—1930s Edited by ph nn Rea soe Cone Non dl Rede Seif Fines sing Sebastian Conrad Peau ethnic en Trl fest f History, Unive of New South Wes and Dominic Sachsenmaier Published by Palgrave Macmillan: ‘he ion, Pyag neni Pos 1701919 Byer mpeg Vi of Wold Okla omen and Moment, 18018301 ‘Eel ty Suan Conn and Domine Somer rp Hy in a eros od By Monae Nidil Mel Geyer and Michel Eapage (orboming palgreve macmillan |CHAPTER 5 Dawn of a New Era: The “Wilsonian Moment” in Colonial Contexts and the Transformation of World Order, 1917-1920 Erez Manela Introduction the president ofthe United Stats, steamed into the fench Atlantic coast on Friday, December ‘met the president at the dock, hailed him as an lieve the peoples of Europe from their sufering The next morning, driving along the strets of Pars, Wilson was cheered by rowds of ecstatic Parisians: “Vive Wilson! Vive Amérique, vive la iberté™ ‘The press in France and elsewhere sang his praises, and labor leaders hailed him as “the incarnation of the hope of the future.”? Similar receptions met Wilson when hi to London and Rome in the next several weeks.? ‘The French pacifist author and Nobel laureate, Romain Rolland, seemed to capress these widespread sentiments when he hailed Wilson as figure poised to lead humanity toward a better, more just world, and called on him “to «stablish the new Charer of enfranchisement and of union’ that would bring together all peoples.‘ Great wars are transformative events; they destroy not only ki property, but also established world orders—norms, institut perceptions —in short, che old ways of thought and practice. The Gr ‘When Woodrow Wil122. © ErezManela Dawn of a New Era: The “Wi nian Moment” ¢ 123 ‘of 1914-1918 was an evenc unprecedented in the shee scale of ts destruction Icextinguished millions of lives and ca ened the collapse of all order and ‘wake of che war many around the was becoming clear - of selEdetrminaon would not be immed pple lc Europe. This eazadon brought widespread dlleronsee With the Wisnian promise and fled a series of atonal pheno res eda waterbed tations, even compared to other cataclysmic conflicts. In 191 fora new and bester world ran much higher and wider: sovereign actors in international society, Although prodigious and outstanding scholarship has been produced on the genesis impact of Wiltonian ideals and on the role of the United 4 president a rillennial figure, a prophet of a new world of illusory moment, came to symbolize to millio and aspirations ‘Moreover, Wilsonian chetoric captured imaginations not only in America European sertlement To figure in narratives of 19 hhumanicy ruled ot pa Oss large sections of che colonized sustained attention from scholars ional history.” A recent survey of the current state of lrow Wilson and his influen the People of Annam,” echoed the liberal interationalst hetoric of the ‘American president. The young man from Indochina, who signed the petition as Nguyen Ai Quoc, or Nguyen the Patros, sought a personal audience with the American president to plead his people's case before him. According t0 some accounts, he even rented a formal morning occasion. The meeting, howe never even saw Nguyen’ pet ‘Within less than a year this world as Ho Chi Minh, adop Bolshevik leader Vi. Lenin replaced Wilson as his inspiration on the road to self-determination for his people” Ho's experience in Paris was far from unique. As the peace conference convened in early 1919, representatives from around the world—Chinese the scholarship on srena concluded that understanding how “the: the imaginations of countless nationalists in anding the rise, since 1919, of nd, and the emergence of the self legitimate unit of international society ‘Method and Arguments This chapter sets out co uncover the nature and significance of the responses of colonized peoples to that Wilsonian moment, and in the process reinte. tate the voices of non-Western peoples back into the natrat ope, on the perceptions, presentations, seony adopt ian thetorie co formulate and justify theit i They adopred Wilsonian sh f justify mn in the international arena of four groups—Chinese,