Self-Determination and its ambiguous application in the League of Nations’ Mandate system

Abstract

The League of Nations is forever linked with the end of the great empires and with colonial concerns. Yet, it is also linked with territorial claims. Perhaps under a new methodology, but not unlike previous forms of subjugation. As the self-determination of all peoples was one of the most discussed subjects, the system of mandates of the League of Nations was anything but a mechanism to achieve the autonomy of the former German colonies and Middle Eastern territories that were then divided into three types based on geographical and ideological assumptions. It was, therefore, more a form of sovereignty and an attempt to appease small manifestations of revolt than an unprecedented and complex method that sought only the tutelage and supervision of the governments of these peoples, which should attain their independence as soon as they were prepared to do so. [...]