| Summary: | The First World War was a great test of the cohesion of autonomous parts of the British Empire with the mother country. The hardships of war and involvement of the dominions contributed to the fact that ever more British representatives endeavoured to ensure that the dominions began to be regarded at a constitutional level as equal partners who could speak out freely on all issues of post-war arrangements, and not just those immediately affecting them. At the same time, dominion politicians sought to ensure the international community recognised them as separate nations within the British Empire. At the Paris Peace Conference, the dominions annoyed the other countries due to their dual representation not just as members of the British Empire delegation, but also as warring parties with specific interests expressed in particular in regard to the division of the former German colonies in Africa and the Pacific and the related introduction of the mandate system. The status of the dominions at the Paris Peace Conference was also reflected during negotiations on the League of Nations. South Africa’s General Smuts in particular played an important role in establishing this new international organisation which set itself the goal in the post-war period of replacing the Great Powers in policing international law and general peace between the nations. Although there were doubts as to whether the dominions were true states and not mere dependent territories of Great Britain, a compromise formulation meant that in the end all British autonomous units (except for Newfoundland) were included amongst the founding members of the League of Nations. Despite the expectations of dominion representatives, there was no symbolic international recognition of the dominions’ new status; the world continued to regard them as an integral part of the British Empire, i.e. Britain continued to represent them to the outside world in many regards. Not even membership of the League of Nations, which the dominions perceived as a clear equivalent ...
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