Why colonial empires survived the First World War

Was ending the colonial empires after World War I politically possible?

No. Colonial fighting looked marginal beside the European war, so immediate decolonization had little political support.

Ending the colonial empires immediately after the First World War was not a viable political programme. Fighting had occurred in colonial theatres, but it appeared small beside the scale of the European conflict. Public and political opinion therefore did not treat the colonies as the central cause of the war. American preferences alone could not overcome that perception or make rapid decolonization acceptable at the time.