The Mariátegui Project

The Message of the East

In this brief section, Mariátegui looks at the key figures and cultural production surrounding the wave of anti-colonial and socialist sentiment in the Middle and Far East in the early 20th century. He locates the material impetus of the rise of nationalist and socialist sentiment among Asian and other colonial peoples in the increasing incorporation of these colonial outposts into the global capitalist economy, while identifying ideological roots in the rhetoric (often cynical) of Allied powers during and immediately following the first World War.