PUB - Publikationen an der Universität Bielefeld

This article argues that the shifts in the colonial administration after World War One should be analyzed from two intertwined perspectives: Firstly the new international system of the mandates and its language of development, and secondly the concrete colonial situations in Africa. While the new international system provided different norms and rationalizations, as well as alternative opportunities for African actors in the colonies, continuity was nonetheless more commonly experienced and dominated societal currents more so than the shifts. The same argument might also be put forward in case of the transferred German colonies as mandates of the League of Nations, administered by the Allied Forces Great Britain, France, Belgium and South Africa.