Summary
Highlights
Despite colonial peoples fighting in World War I, victorious powers did not grant them independence or self-rule. Instead, European and Japanese powers largely maintained their colonial holdings, and in some cases, gained more territory. While new states like Turkey emerged, many colonial territories simply switched hands between imperial powers.
At the Paris Peace Conference, the victorious powers dismantled the Ottoman and German Empires, dividing their colonial territories among themselves. U.S. President Woodrow Wilson's idea of self-determination was largely ignored by Britain and France, leading to the creation of the mandate system. This system classified territories into three classes (A, B, and C) based on population and development. Class A mandates, despite being deemed suitable for independence, were treated as colonies by Britain (Israel and Iraq) and France (Syria and Lebanon), leading to strong anti-colonial resistance.
Japan, as a non-Western industrial power, expanded its empire in the interwar period. In 1931, Japan invaded Manchuria for natural resources, a blatant violation of League of Nations rules. When the League of Nations offered only weak condemnation, Japan quit the League and continued its conquest, establishing the puppet state of Manchukuo in China by 1932. Japan dubbed its area of influence the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere.
The dashed hopes of colonial peoples for independence led to various anti-imperial resistance movements. The Indian National Congress, formed before the war, intensified its efforts for self-rule under Mahatma Gandhi's leadership in the 1920s, employing peaceful protest. The African National Congress, founded in South Africa by Western-educated individuals, sought equal rights for colonial subjects and was influenced by Pan-Africanism. Both movements faced significant challenges and would not achieve their full goals until after World War II.