Nationalism has been shaping world events for the last 500 years. The desire for self-rule can cause tremendous change both positively and negatively. Individuals have also played huge roles in leading nationalistic movements that effect people and nations. Two people very well recognized for their nationalist movements are Mohandas Gandhi and Mao Zedong. The movements which they headed greatly shaped the countries in which they lived.
Mohandas Gandhi, from the country of India, is world renowned for his actions against the British in India. The problems started before Gandhi was even born. The British East India company had gained control of India by winning a battle with France. They began using the country for it's natural resources. They didn't hold the Indians in very high regard and thus treated them differently. After Gandhi was born and became an adult, he went to a university in England to become a lawyer. During his time there, he read books by English authors. These books supported the idea that all men are created equal and that everyone should be treated the same. Gandhi began to realize that the British were contradicting themselves in India. The Indians were never treated the same by the British. They were always looked at as a lower class. This led Gandhi into his movement for freedom of India from the British. His passive resistence and civil disobedience were key factors in the journey to freedom. After many years of conflict, India finally became independent of the British, but not before Gandhi's assassination. His teachings of equality and tolerance were a main reason why the caste system was discarded from Indian culture. Gandhi had many dreams for India, and though his dream of unity was not fulfilled, he brought India freedom, his main goal.
Mao Zedong was a Chinese communist who wanted nothing more than to convert China to communism, then to rule the country himself.