PublishedOxford University Press, July 2015 |
ISBN9780199570485 |
FormatHardcover, 592 pages |
Dimensions23.8cm × 15.6cm × 3.8cm |
The Guardians offers an entirely new account of the transformation of the imperial order after World War I. It recovers the crucial role played in that process by the mandates system of the League of Nations, the international regime set up to oversee the colonies and territories seized from Germany and the Ottoman Empire. The League mattered because it created an arena in which imperial rule came under intense public scrutiny and contestation. Colonial
nationalists, Western humanitarians, international lawyers, and German and Italian colonial revisionists all brought their claims to Geneva, and these scandals and crises shaped international norms about
sovereignty and trade, changing how imperial states sought to exercise power. We live today in a world in which statehood is ubiquitous but global inequality still rife. If we look back at the interwar era with international eyes, we can see our modern world in formation.
