Empires Between the Wars
Colonial holdings mostly held
- Between the two world wars, Western and Japanese imperial states predominantly maintained control over colonial holdings.
- Predominantly maintained is the CED's own verdict — this is a period of continuity in territorial terms.
- That matters because the great wave of decolonisation comes after 1945, in unit 8.
The CED's verdict on interwar colonial holdings is that imperial states...
The great wave of decolonisation comes after 1945, in unit 8.
Some empires gained territory
- In some cases, they gained additional territories through conquest or treaty settlement.
- The CED's examples: the transfer of former German colonies to Great Britain and France under League of Nations mandates, and Manchukuo / the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere.
- One came from a treaty and one from conquest — the CED names both mechanisms in the same clause.
Select all the territorial gains the CED names.
One came by treaty and one by conquest; the independences come later.
And faced organised resistance
- In other cases, they faced anti-imperial resistance.
- The CED names the Indian National Congress and West African resistance — strikes and congresses — to French rule.
- Note the forms: a political party and a labour movement, not only armed revolt. Organised civilian politics is the interwar pattern.
Continuity, gain, or resistance?
Sort each interwar development in territorial terms.
Select all the forms of interwar anti-imperial resistance the CED names.
A political party and a labour movement — organised civilian politics is the pattern.
Decolonisation is not an interwar story. The CED's verdict is that imperial states predominantly maintained control between the wars, and in some cases gained territory. The organisations that would end empire were forming, but the empires were not yet ending.
The interwar movements are the political ____ that will lead decolonisation after 1945.
The organisations existed before the moment arrived.
Continuity and change together
- The objective is continuities and changes in territorial holdings from 1900 to the present.
- Continuity: most colonies stayed colonies through the interwar decades.
- Change: mandates redrew who held what, Japan expanded in East Asia, and organised anticolonial politics matured.
A League of Nations mandate changed the category without changing the arrangement on the ground.
Which is exactly what "continuity and change" asks you to notice.
Where unit 8 comes from
- The interwar resistance movements are the organisations that will lead decolonisation after 1945.
- So this subtopic is the setup: the political vehicles existed before the moment arrived.
- An answer that connects a named interwar movement to a postwar outcome is doing the CED's own chronology.
Former German colonies pass to Britain and France under League mandates. On paper this is a new kind of trusteeship; on the ground it is a transfer of colonial administration between empires. The category changed and the arrangement did not — which is exactly what "continuity and change" is asking you to notice.
Between the wars, Western and Japanese imperial states predominantly maintained control over colonial holdings, in some cases gaining territory through conquest or treaty settlement — League of Nations mandates, Manchukuo and the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere — and in others facing anti-imperial resistance — the Indian National Congress, West African strikes and congresses against French rule.