This course examines how great powers sought to justify, expand and stabilize their colonial empires in the period after the First World War. We will examine both the rhetorical frameworks through which imperial powers understood and explained their colonial efforts, and the practices and consequences of colonial rule on the ground. Particular attention will be paid to the impact of international movements and institutions on colonial governance, to colonial legal systems and economic structures, to conflicts between metropole and colony, and to the ways in which colonial governments and administrators reacted to, and learned from, each other across national lines. 4 pts.