The Wilsonian Moment Chapter Summary

The Wilsonian Moment: Self-Determination And The International Origins Of Anticolonial Nationalism was written by Erez Manela in 2007. As stated by the author “This book is an effort to reconstruct the story of the colonial world at the Wilsonian moment.” This book looks outside of the usual mold of international relations which encompass the events following the First World War, and instead Manela looks at how countries outside the European powers viewed the events of the Paris Peace conference. There is more to be said about the impact of Wilsonian ideology on the rest of the world apart from the notion that it fizzled as a utopian ideal within the context of the World’s great powers in 1919. Manela demonstrates the way any idea can have …show more content…
The first of these chapters show how Wilson’s ideas penetrated into Egypt. Egyptians in 1918 saw America as a non-imperialist power and for this reason they thought the Americans would get the British to leave Egypt. For Egyptians there was a belief at this time that “The United States was a nation where high-minded ideals trumped mere force.” Manela shows that the ruling elite of Egypt at this time had begun to seek independence. Manela’s writing shows the connection between Woodrow Wilson and Egypt’s search for independence. His ideals and America’s perceived power tilted the scales that led to Britain having to withdraw from Egypt. His universal concepts were perpetuated by Egyptian nationalists and Egypt was finally able to gain its independence in 1922. While it seems that the treatment of Woodrow Wilson as a definitive factor in the fight for independence in Egypt might be an overreach, Manela gives concise evidence that the ideas Wilson advocated for in his fourteen points, along with the end of a Great War, gave Egyptians the push that made the fight for independence …show more content…
Manela describes the year of 1919 as one of Turbulence. Wilson’s ideals may have permeated the Globe but he was seen as unwilling or unable to bring about the world which these colonies imagined. Wilson was alone at the Paris peace conference and the traditional institutions of power, the nations which were at the top of International Relations, wanted to stay there. Wilson seemed to be the odd man out in the Paris peace conference of 1919. He had grand ideals but the powers of Europe were uninterested and bogged down with territorial disputes. The ideals of self-determination were not necessarily ahead of their time but rather put down in place of European