Full Description:
The system of colonial administration authorized by the League of Nations, granting Britain governance over the territory of Palestine following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. It was during this period that the infrastructure for the future conflict was laid. The British Mandate was a “trusteeship” that governed the region for three decades. The British administration was tasked with a “dual obligation”: to facilitate the establishment of a “Jewish national home” (as promised in the Balfour Declaration) while ostensibly protecting the civil rights of the “non-Jewish communities” (the Arab majority).

Critical Perspective:
The Mandate represents the failure of imperial management. Britain made contradictory promises to both Arabs and Jews to secure wartime support, creating a situation where two distinct national movements were competing for the same territory under the umbrella of a single colonial state. When the violence became unmanageable and the empire’s resources waned, Britain withdrew, leaving a vacuum that led immediately to war.