Versailles #28: Explaining Mandates

In our 28th installment, we attempt to explain mandates - that surprisingly elusive concept which it was the task of those assembled in Paris to understand. Once they understood it and got to grips with how mandates would fit into the international system, it was hoped that then, this new mandates system would usher in a new era of freedom and prosperity for the formerly colonial peoples...but not all formerly colonial peoples...just those of the vanquished powers.

In a prime example of 'one rule for me and one rule for everyone else', the victorious allies insisted that they had ruled their territories as benevolent actors more interested in the well-being and fortunes of their subjects than in imperial prestige, markets or resources. All assembled would trip over themselves on the 27 and 28 January in a bid to portray their rule as that which had benefited the colonies. Furthermore, on the basis of this idea that their record spoke for itself, the allies argued that mandates were not really necessary in many cases, because the world could trust them to directly rule the former colonies of Germany and the Ottoman Empire.

Convinced or not, what these powers neglected to do with much effect or conviction was actually DEFINE what a mandate was, and what role or future it would have in the new international system. The grab for spoils, it seemed, dominated the imaginations of the allies and their dominions. Was this a new era, or was it simply more of the same? The jury might have been absent, but the ambition to rule certainly was not...

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