Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Thesis Format

Monograph

Degree

Master of Arts

Program

History

Supervisor

Vance, Jonathan F.

Abstract

After the First World War the international order was reorganized by the victorious powers, including the creation of the League of Nations, and under its supervision the mandates system. This system was designed to manage the colonies detached from the defeated Central Powers and to mitigate the worst effects of colonialism through international oversight and the imposition of conditions on the rule of these territories. This paper investigates the origins of this system, tracing it back through earlier precedents and discerning between different variations of colonialism practiced by different empires. This analysis shows that the mandates system was an Americanized version of colonialism, created through compromises between President Wilson’s ideology and European and colonial politics. This paper utilizes diplomatic documents to analyze the precedents for the system and to understand how the United States changed European colonialism in the captured territories to match its preferred colonial methodologies.

Summary for Lay Audience

After the First World War the international order was reorganized by the victorious powers, including the creation of the League of Nations, and under its supervision the mandates system. This system was designed to manage the colonies detached from the defeated Central Powers and to mitigate the worst effects of colonialism through international oversight and the imposition of conditions on the rule of these territories. This paper investigates the origins of this system, tracing it back through earlier precedents and discerning between different variations of colonialism practiced by different empires. This analysis shows that the mandates system was an Americanized version of colonialism, created through compromises between President Wilson’s ideology and European and colonial politics. This paper utilizes diplomatic documents to analyze the precedents for the system and to understand how the United States changed European colonialism in the captured territories to match its preferred colonial methodologies.

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