LEAGUE OF NATIONS
Zohaib Ahmed Anjum
LEAGUE OF NATIONS
• The Covenant of the League of Nations was built
into the Treaty of Versailles at the end of the First
World War
• The League was Wilson's dream for a new world
order - a new way of conducting foreign affairs
that would abolish war and keep the world safe.
• On paper, the purpose and aims of the League
seemed admirable, but, in practice, there were
inherent weaknesses that led to its eventual failure.
LEAGUE OF NATIONS: BACKGROUND
• Headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland
• Covenant of LON: 26 articles taken from Treaty
of Versailles of 28 June, 1919.
• Propoent was “Woodrow Wilson in his 14 points
speech to ensure guarantee of peace
• America didn’t join despite Wilson’s 8000kms
journey and over 40 speeches
• LON was disolved in April 1946 by its own
Motions
AIMS
• Its aims were:
• to stop wars,
• encourage disarmament,
• and make the world a better place by
• improving people's working conditions,
• and by tackling disease.
• Preserve peace through Collective Action, Peaceful Settlement of
Disputes and Arbitration and Reconciliation
• Promote International cooperation in economic and social affairs
• Article 10 called for territorial integrity and political Independence
of members and collective action against acts of aggression
ORGANISATION
• Its organisation comprised:
• an assembly, which met once a year; (regular diplomatic
conference… single vote…sovereign equality….for peace)
• a council, which met more regularly to consider crises;
(sovereign equality…. Unanimous voting….everyone can veto)
• a small secretariat to handle the paperwork;
• a Permanent Court of International Justice;
• and a number of committees such as
• the International Labour Organisation (1921)
• and the Health Committee to carry out its humanitarian work.
MEMBERSHIP STATUS
• USA never joined
• Germany (1926-33) and Russia (1934-39)…expelled
• Japan left in 1933 and Italy in 1937
STRENGTHS
• Its main strengths was that it had set up by
the Treaty of Versailles, which every nation
had signed.
• It had 58 nations as members by the 1930s.
• To enforce its will, it could offer arbitration
through the Court of International Justice, or
apply trade sanctions against countries that
went to war.
WEAKNESSES
• Its main weaknesses were:
• the fact that it was set up by the Treaty of Versailles
(which every nation hated);
• that its aims were too ambitious;
• that Germany, Russia and the USA were not members;
• that it had no army;
• that its organisation was cumbersome;
• and that decisions had to be unanimous.
SUCCESSES AND FAILURES IN THE
1920S
• It was quite successful in its work for a
better world, taking war prisioners home,
helping refugees, attacking slave traders and
drug sellers and supporting measures against
leprosy and malaria
• It was quite successful in settling border
disputes
SUCCESSES AND FAILURES IN THE 1920S
• Prisoners of War •
• The League took home
half a million First
World War prisoners of
war.
SUCCESSES AND FAILURES IN THE 1920S
• Aaland Islands
• Sweden and Finland
accepted the League's
arbitration to give the
Aaland Islands to
Finland
SUCCESSES AND FAILURES IN THE 1920S
• Poland
• The Poles invaded Vilna
(the capital of Lithuania).
• The League ordered Poland
to withdraw.
• Poland refused;
• the League could do
nothing
SUCCESSES AND FAILURES IN THE 1920S
• Turkey
• The League set up camps and fed Turkish refugees.
SUCCESSES AND FAILURES IN THE 1920S
• Corfú
• Mussolini ignored the
League's orders to pull
out of Corfu,
• and made Greece pay
money to Italy.
SUCCESSES AND FAILURES IN THE 1920S
• Disarmament
• Disarmament talks failed, because Germany
demanded as many weapons as everyone else.
SUCCESSES AND FAILURES IN THE 1920S
• Austria
• The League sent
economics experts to
help Austria when its
government went
bankrupt.
SUCCESSES AND FAILURES IN THE 1920S
• Bulgaria
• Greece obeyed the League's orders to pull out of
Bulgaria in 1925.
SUCCESSES AND FAILURES IN THE 1920S
• Kellog-Briand pact
• Sixty-five countries
signed a treaty to end
war - but then they just
ignored it.
Kellogg-Briand Pact, also called Pact of
Paris, (August 27, 1928), multilateral
agreement attempting to eliminate war as
an instrument of national policy. It was the
most grandiose of a series of peacekeeping
efforts after World War I.
SUCCESSES AND FAILURES IN THE 1920S
• Slaves
• The League approved
the Slavery convention;
• altogether, the League
freed 200,000 slaves
SUCCESSES AND FAILURES IN THE 1920S
• Drugs
• After more than ten years of work, 26 League nations
signed an international convention to combat the drugs
trade
• a law that is still in force.
SUCCESSES AND FAILURES IN THE 1920S
• Disease
• The League worked to
prevent malaria and
leprosy.
SUCCESSES AND FAILURES IN THE 1920S
• Jobs
• The International
Labour Organisation
failed to persuade
countries to adopt a 48-
hour week
THE LEAGUE IN THE 1930S
• In 1932, Japan (a member of the
League's Council) invaded
Manchuria.
• It took the League nearly a year
to send a commission and
declare that Japan ought to leave
- whereupon Japan left the
League.
• The League couldn't send an
army, and it needed America's
support to impose sanctions
successfully.
• In the end, it did nothing.
THE LEAGUE IN THE 1930S
• In 1935, Italy invaded Abyssinia.
• Although the Abyssinian emperor
Haile Selassie went to the League
himself to ask for help, all the
League did was to ban arms sales,
which did Abyssinia more harm than
Italy.
• A League commission offered Italy
part of Abyssinia, but Italy invaded
anyway.
• Far from stopping Italy, Britain and
France tried to make a secret pact to
give Abyssinia to Italy.
THE LEAGUE IN THE 1930S
• It became clear that if a strong nation was prepared to ignore the League, the League
could do nothing about it.
• The League's delays and slowness made it look scared.
• Sanctions were shown to be useless.
• Everybody realised that Britain and France were not prepared to use force.
• The four major powers - Japan, Italy, Britain and France - all betrayed the League.
• Smaller nations realised that the League could not and would not protect them.
• Britain and France decided that the League was useless to stop war, and followed instead
the policy of appeasement.
• Hitler was encouraged to move ahead with his plans
OTHER FAILURES IN THE 1930S
Japan attacks and conquers Manchuria. The League objects, but can do
1932-1933
nothing.
1933 Hitler announces that Germany is leaving the League.
1935-1936 Italy attacks and conquers Abyssinia. The League objects, but can do nothing.
Hitler renounces the Treaty of Versailles and starts re-arming in defiance of the
1935
League.
1936 The League's Disarmament Conference fails.
1936 German army re-occupies the Rhineland in defiance of the League.
1937 Italy leaves the League.
Germany informs the League that Germany and Austria are uniting, in defiance
1938
of the Treaty of Versailles.
Munich Agreement - Britain and France, ignoring the League, follow the policy of
1938
appeasement and give Hitler the Sudetenland.
1939 The fascists win the Spanish Civil War and Spain leaves the League
1939 Second World War
REASONS FOR THE
FAILURE
• Weak – the League’s ‘powers’ were little more
than going ‘tut-tut’. Sanctions did not work. It
had no army
• America – the strongest nation in the world never
joined. Britain and France were not strong
enough to impose pace on their own.
• Structure – the League was muddled, so it took
ages to do anything. Members couldn’t agree –
but decisions had to be unanimous. This
paralysed the League.
REASONS FOR THE FAILURE
• Depression – the world-wide Depression made
countries try to get more land and power. They
were worried about themselves, not about world
peace.
• Unsuccessful – the
more the League failed,
the less people trusted it.
In the end, everybody
just ignored it.
REASONS FOR THE
FAILURE
• Members – the League’s main members let it
down. Italy and Japan betrayed the League.
France and Britain did nothing to help it.
• Big bullies – in the 1920s, the League had dealt
with weak countries. In the 1930s, powerful
countries like Germany, Italy and Japan
attacked weaker countries. They were too
strong for the League to stop them.
REASONS FOR THE
FAILURE
• No mechanism for enforcement of
decisión
• Failure resulted in WWII
• No military power of its own
ANALYSIS OF FAILURE
• Global Level:
• Multipolar World Order
• Global Economic Collapse
State Level
Collective action not in favor of state interest
Individual Level:
Hitler’s aggression
Chamberlain’s (UK PM) policy of appeasement
Q/A AND DISCUSSION
• Conclusion
