NOT A TEACHER
Great question, David.
I shall be super brief and super careful, for the moderators allow only language discussion on this form.
1. With 100% respect to the person who wrote that sentence, I should prefer something like this:
The crisis of the colonial order between 1918 (the end of World War I) and 1939 (the beginning of World War II)
was directly ....
2. As SoothingDave told us, the terms "constitutional reform," "disillusionment," and "militant anti-colonialist
struggles" explain why there was a "crisis" between the two world wars in regard to the European nations'
African and Asian colonies.
3. Finally, I hope that I am permitted to share a quotation that perfectly sums up the fear among European
leaders that there would be big changes after World War II ended. The Honorable Winston Churchill (the famous
leader of the United Kingdom during World War II) said this (in 1942, during the war):
"I have not become the King's First Minister [prime minister] in order to preside over the liquidation of the
British Empire."