Detachment (territory)
Detachment under international law is the formal, permanent separation of and loss of sovereignty over some territory to another geopolitical entity. After World War I, Alsace and Lorraine were a formal detachment from Germany. More often, detachment occurs as a process within a country, for example the creation of the federal District of Columbia resulted from a detachment of territory from the State of Maryland. The removal of territory from a city or special district is also detachment. Within a country, detachment is governed by the laws of the supervening entity. Detachment can be considered the opposite or the reverse of annexation.The formal detachment of Egypt from the Ottoman Empire was a condition for British investment in the Suez Canal.After World War I, a number of colonial territories and border territories were detached from the German Empire as well as portions of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire and the Ottoman Empire. Some of the detachments were incorporated directly into new countries, such as Yugoslavia, or annexed by existing countries such as Northern Schleswig into Denmark. Some, however, particularly in the Middle East and those of the German colonies, were placed under the "protection" of one or another of the Allied countries that had won the war, including Germany's concessions in China, Kiautschou and Chefoo. From a rule of law standpoint, the protectoratess were not war booty but "mandates" from a legally-constituted international body and so detachment occurred without annexation.
