The Great War had left a lasting impact not only both on the world, in general, and on Europe, specifically. The winning side utterly dismantled the Vienna system of international relations, which was created after the Napoleonic wars and generally preserved for a century. This development owed much to the fact that many of the states previously forming the backbone of this system ceased existing as great powers. Germany lost some of its territories populated with ethnic minorities, such as Czechs or Poles, to the newly-founded nation-states. The multiethnic Hapsburg Empire of Austria-Hungary ceased existing, as the multitude of national states took its place. Finally, the Russian Empire, unable to withstand the challenges of total war, collapsed in the revolutions of 1917, to emerge as the Soviet Union after losing both Finland and Poland. Thus, the general trend of the after-war years was the dismantling of multiethnic empires and the establishment of new nation-states. However, if Europe became national rather than imperial, imperialism still triumphed in the colonies or under the guise of the League of Nations, with influential ideologies of fascism of communism either endorsing or challenging it. World War I might have led to the dissolution of the old continental empires in Europe, but this seemingly decline did not affect the colonial empires of Britain and France. If anything, the Great War made colonial empires both larger and more ruthless in their exercise of power overseas. Instead of promoting self-determination in Africa and Asia, as they did in Europe, victorious powers divided non-European territories of the defeated enemies between themselves, as when refusing to return German-colonized parts of China (Karl, 380). The post-war world also supplied the great powers with the new means to extend imperial control. The League of Nations – the organization, ironically stressing the national principle in its name – became a vehicle for imperialism sanctioning de facto colonial establishments under the guise of the mandate system. British rule over mandatory Iraq proved especially brutal, as the Royal Qir Force used bombarded villages and tribes for essentially policing purposes – “to put down unrest and subversive activities” (Satia, 16). Hence, World War I might have ended the old continental empires of Europe, but imperialism itself still flourished in the old and new forms alike. One of the notable developments testifying that the influence of imperialism was at its high point after the war was the emergence of the new ideologies stressing the struggle for dominance. Italian fascism was the earliest and one of the most prominent among those, and its main point revolved around the unshakable duty to the state in its perpetual struggle for power with other states. The chief ideologist and the leader of Italian fascists emphasized that the existence of a well-ordered state implies “expansion, potential if not actual” (Mussolini, 13). As a consequence, the fascist state would not limit itself “enforcing order and keeping the peace,” as in the liberal ideology, but aimed for the successful acquisition of new territories abroad (Mussolini, 13). While fascism declared the realization of human spiritual potential its main goal, the primary manifestation of th