Masters of Their Own Destiny

Accounts of the Great War tend to focus on Europe, the epicentre of this conflict, and find in its battlefields the later death of empires, spreading revolution and eventual decolonisation. However, the war was also global, drawing in people from all over the world while rapidly circulating ideas and innovations far beyond Europe. Almost two million non-Europeans participated in the war as soldiers, workers and professionals, Asians in particular. They were found many places, including in the battlefields of France, behind the lines in munitions factories and military hospitals, in the frozen construction sites of the Murmansk Railway and Mesopotamia's burning deserts. The voices of these volunteers and conscripts are rarely heard; the war's narratives are mainly European. And yet, here and there, lone voices pierce the silence. In a compelling intervention in First World War historiography, this volume offers a history from below, demonstrating how rare personal accounts may illuminate broader historical forces. Alongside the story of Nguyen Xuan Mai, a Vietnamese military doctor whose pursuit of professional recognition ended in disillusionment with colonial promises, the study draws on a wealth of material like Indian soldiers' letters, Vietnamese workers' censored correspondence, and records of Chinese laborers who witnessed revolution in Russia. They give voice to hitherto ignored wartime experiences later transforming the expectations of millions of colonial subjects and seeding the anticolonial movements that followed.