in the period between the first world war and 1931, a number of factors contributed to the rise of nationalist activity in catalonia: the birth of the irish state, the creation of several european countries from the disintegration of the european empires, the admission of the right of self-determination by both the americans (woodrow wilson) and the soviets (lenin), and the decline of the spanish empire (which lost its colonies of cuba and the philippines), against the backdrop of the growth of the catalan economy.