Mandates, plebiscites, American rejection, and the road to a new war

Article 22 of the League of Nations Covenant established the mandate system to administer Germany's former colonies and the Arab territories of the dismembered Ottoman Empire, justified through the notion of a "sacred trust of civilization." Class A mandates in the Near East (Iraq and Palestine under Britain, Syria and Lebanon under France) were considered close to independence; Class B mandates in central Africa saw more direct administration; and Class C mandates, such as German Southwest Africa and the Pacific islands, were administered essentially as colonies. In practice the system functioned much like traditional colonialism, and it has been criticized historiographically as perpetuating European control under a new formal name, contradicting the self-determination principles of Wilson's Fourteen Points.