The trusteeship concept bore a close relationship to Woodrow Wilson’s post–World War I mandate system. Roosevelt conceded that very few nations had actually evolved from the mandate system, but he insisted on its essential soundness. Under his plan, the mandate name was dropped in favor of trusteeship, so as to not have the stigma of the moribund League of Nations; this time the enforcement mechanism would be a greater degree of international accountability. As before, the core principle was that a colonial territory is not the exclusive preserve of the power that controls it but constitutes a
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