Describe the Mandate System established by the League of Nations and how Britain and France were the primary beneficiaries of that arrangement

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

ANSWER:
At the Paris Peace Conference, France, Britain, Italy, and Japan proposed to divide the former German colonies and the territories of the Ottoman Empire among themselves, but their ambitions clashed with President Wilson’s ideal of national self-determination. Eventually, the victors arrived at a compromise solution called the mandate system: colonial rulers would administer the territories but would be accountable to the League of Nations for “the material and moral well-being and the social progress of the inhabitants.” Class C Mandates—those with the smallest populations—were treated as colonies by their conquerors. South Africa replaced Germany in Southwest Africa (now Namibia); Britain, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan took over the German islands in the Pacific. Class B Mandates, larger than Class C but still underdeveloped, were to be ruled for the benefit of their inhabitants under League of Nations supervision. Most of Germany’s African colonies, including Tanganyika, Cameroon, and Togo, fell into this category. The Arab-speaking territories of the old Ottoman Empire were Class A Mandates. TheLeague of Nations declared that they had “reached a state of development where their existence as independent nations can be provisionally recognized subject to the rendering of administrative advice and assistance by a Mandatory, until such time as they are able to stand alone.” While Arabs interpreted this ambiguous wording as a promise of independence, Britain and France sent troops into the region “for the benefit of its inhabitants.” Palestine (divided now into Israel in the west, Jordan in the east, and the Occupied West Bank in between) and Iraq (formerly Mesopotamia) became British mandates; France claimed Syria and Lebanon.