Asia after Versailles

Traces the complex and multifaceted story of the Asian response to the Paris Peace Conference of 1919
Asia After Versailles addresses an important but neglected watershed for Asian nations - the response to the Paris Peace Conference of 1919. The Conference marked the end of a conflict which, although intrinsically European, had globalized the world on many levels, politically as well as economically, culturally and socially. It also stood at the beginning of a new order that saw the power centre shift towards the US and Asia. Asian countries and people played a significant but so far largely neglected role in this momentous development. Bringing together an international range of experts in the history of China, Japan, India and the Ottoman Empire/Turkey, this pioneering volume demonstrates the importance of Asia in the multifaceted global transformations that revolved around the Paris Peace Conference and its aftermath.
Traditional historical analysis focuses almost exclusively on US and European responses to the Paris Peace Conference and the interwar order and often fails to take into account non-western, particularly Asian voices - this is the first book to demonstrate the far-reaching Asian dimensions of the impact of Versailles in an unprecedented way making this an invaluable and interdisciplinary resource for academics and researchers in the fields of politics, international relations, area studies and history.
Key Features
- Offers a multi-regional and interdisciplinary analysis of the global impact of the Paris Peace settlement
- Takes account of non-western voices in the response to the 1919 settlement
- Brings together a range of internationally renowned experts in the history of China, Japan, India and the Ottoman empire
- Anticipates and informs the debate on the Peace Conference and the League of Nations for the upcoming centennial in 2019/2020

Urs Matthias Zachmann is Professor of Modern Japanese History and Culture at Freie Universität Berlin.