(i) France and the Great Britain were forced to respond to some of the growing agitations for self-governance and home-rule.
(ii) Britain started granting effective home rule to Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and parts of Canada, regions where Europeans had settled in large numbers since the 1600s, displacing or killing the 'natives'.
(iii) White settler colonists in those places were allowed to make decisions about 'domestic' affairs through elected legislatures and parliaments, but their relations with other colonies and nation-states were regulated by imperial authorities in London. After 1910, these colonial states were referred to as Dominions or a British Commonwealth of co-operative nations.
(iv) Britain also granted commonwealth status to the Union of South Africa (where Europeans were greatly out-numbered by black Africans, but the latter were not allowed to vote, etc.).
(v) Many French people too believed that certain 'races' and societies –especially their own–were 'advanced', whereas others were 'primitive'. They argued that it was the moral duty of the 'advanced' societies to guide or teach the more primitive societies.
(vi) After 1914, small numbers of non-French people in the French colonies were allowed to participate in governing their societies by voting for or serving on legislative assemblies.
(vii) British, French and Dutch colonial rulers were convinced that people in the colonies would accept this partial independence for sentimental reasons (e.g., appreciation for European culture) or because they might enjoy economic benefits from continued association with the mother country.
(viii) Many colonies did accept plans of loose federations under European guidance as a first step towards complete national independence. In some colonies, however, for example India, the nationalists continued to agitate and fight for complete independence.
