The Wilsonian Moment in East Asia: The March First Movement in Global Perspective

Abstract

The March First Movement of 1919 was a major watershed in Korean history, but it also, this essay argues, unfolded in a global context. It was shaped by the numerous currents of change in international affairs in the wake of World War I, including the rise of Wilsonian ideas, the impact of the Russian Revolution, the possibilities inherent in the Paris peace negotiations, and the growing upheaval elsewhere in the colonial world, in East Asia and beyond. It involved not only Koreans on the peninsula but also transnational network of activists abroad. The Korean experience sheds light on the relationship between international events and the development of national movements in the colonial world, showing how the emerging discourse of the especially the spread of the principle of self-determination as the bedrock of international legitimacy-shaped the events of 1919 and beyond.