lated by the movements
against native despotism in Turkey and Persia. Nevertheless, the two
sets of phenomena must be sharply distinguished from each other. The
Turkish and Persian agitations were essentially movements of liberal
reform. The Indian, Egyptian, Algerian, and kindred agitations were
essentially movements for independence, with no settled programme as to
how that independence should be used after it had been attained. These
latter movements are, in fact, "nationalist" rather than liberal in
character, and it is in the chapters devoted to nationalism that they
will be discussed. The point to be noted here is that they are really
coalitions, against the foreign ruler, of men holding very diverse
political ideas, embracing as these "nationalist" coalitions do not
merely genuine liberals but also self-seeking demagogues and even stark
reactionaries who would like to fasten upon their liberated countries
the yoke of the blackest despotism. Of course all the nationalist groups
use the familiar slogans "freedom" and "liberty"; nevertheless, what
many of them mean is merely freedom and liberty _from foreign
tutelage_--in other words, independence. We must always remember that
patriotism has no essential connection with liberalism. The Spanish
peasants, who shouted "liberty" as they rose against Napoleon's armies,
greeted their contemptible tyrant-king with delirious enthusiasm and
welcomed his glorification of absolutism with cries of "Long live
chains!"

The period of despotic reaction which had afflicted Turkey and Persia
since the beginning of the last quarter of the nineteenth century came
dramatically to an end in the year 1908. Both countries exploded into
revolution, the Turks deposing the tyrant Abdul Hamid, the Persians
rising against their infamous ruler Muhammad Ali Shah, "perhaps the most
perverted, cowardly, and vice-sodden monster that had disgraced the
throne of Persia in many generations."[118] These revolutions released
the pent-up liberal forces which had been slowly gathering strength
under the repression of the previous generation, and the upshot was that
Turkey and Persia alike blossomed out with constitutions, parliaments,
and all the other political machinery of the West.

How the new regimes would have worked in normal times it is profitless
to speculate, because, as a matter of fact, the times were abnormal to
the highest degree. Unfortunately for the Turks and Persians, they had
made the