Imperial Internationalisms’ in the 1920s: The Shaping of Colonial Affairs at the League of Nations

Abstract

ABSTRACT The evolving internationalisation of imperial and colonial affairs fostered the emergence of specific, and interrelated, arguments, institutional arrangements and repertoires of political action regarding colonial societies. The actors and the institutions aiming to shape colonial dynamics in a number of fields of intervention, with different agendas and expertise, multiplied, and the topics under debated expanded. Expressions of imperial internationalism – that is, discourses and projects promoted by groups and institutions aiming at developing forms of internationalism dealing with imperial and colonial affairs, namely through international organisations – proliferated. This article deals with two: The Union Catholique d’Études Internationales (UCEI), an example of (conservative) religious internationalism, and the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), a case of (progressive) ‘international feminism’. Alongside other important transnational, non-governmental organisations, which competed for protagonism in the historical unfolding of the intersections between internationalism and imperialism and colonialism, the UCEI and the WILPF were active voices in the most important debates carried out by the League of Nations and its specialised agencies (from slavery and ‘native labour’ to opium trade), influencing their content and direction.