when the war ended, the nationalists began to press the british again for independence. in addition to their other reasons, the egyptians were influenced by american president woodrow wilson, who was advocating self-determination for all nations. in september 1918, egypt made the first moves toward the formation of a wafd, or delegation, to voice its demands for independence at the paris peace conference. the idea for a wafd had originated among prominent members of the umma party, including lutfi as sayyid, saad zaghlul, muhammad mahmud pasha, ali sharawi, and abd al aziz fahmi.