The League of Nations (1919 1946)

Origins
The idea of President Woodrow Wilson of the USA
The Covenant of the League formed part of the Treaty of Versailles, 1919
Organisation
The Council: a small group of permanent and temporary member countries, this could meet at any
time to deal with emergencies
The Assembly: this met once a year in Geneva in Switzerland; all member countries were
represented here and each had one vote
The Secretariat: the civil service of the League; it kept records of meetings, prepared reports,
translated documents
Agencies and Commissions
o Permanent Court of International Justice at The Hague
Judges from member states settled disputes between nations.
Gave advice on international law e.g. what was meant by a treaty
o Commission for refugees: helped displaced people
o International Labour Organization: tried to improve working conditions throughout the
world
o Slavery Commission: worked for the abolition of slavery throughout the world
o Health Organization: provided advice on health to member countries
Membership
This varied over the years.
The 42 founder members included Britain and France
The USA never joined
Germany joined in 1926, but left in 1933.
The Soviet Union was a member from 1934 until 1940.
Brazil, Japan and Italy all joined in 1920 but later left.
Aims
To prevent future wars
To settle disputes between countries through negotiation
To provide collective security for its members
To work towards disarmament
To improve the quality of life of people
Collective Security/

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Collective Security
An attack on a member nation was seen as an attack on the League. If a member nation was attacked
by another nation it could appeal to the League which would look into the matter. The League could
ask the two nations in dispute to discuss the matter and try to resolve it. If this didnt work, the League
could impose sanctions.
Sanctions
Moral Sanctions (a verbal warning) ie tell the nation which had attacked to stop the attack
Economic Sanctions (hit the offending nation financially). Member countries would stop trading
with the offending nation.
Military Sanctions (using force) Member countries would take armed action against the offending
nation.
Organizational Weaknesses
Not all countries were members
The USA, the most powerful country in the world, never joined
Germany and Russia, two potentially powerful nations, were not allowed to join at first
The Assembly met only once a year
The League did not have its own army. If it wanted to use military sanctions it would need to ask
member states to provide soldiers and member countries were not have to do so.

Successes of the League in the 1920s

The success of the League in solving disputes between nations and preventing wars is limited. Among
them is,
9 The Aaland Islands (1921). These islands had traditionally belonged to Finland
but most of the islanders wanted to be governed by Sweden. Neither Sweden
nor Finland could come to a decision as to who owned the islands and in
1921 they asked the League to adjudicate. The Leagues decision was that
they should remain with Finland but that no weapons should ever be kept
there. Both countries accepted the decision and it remains in force to this day.

The League is regarded as being more successful in dealing with social and humanitarian issues
where its committees and commissions undertook some very important tasks eg
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9 The League helped more than 400,000 prisoners of war to return to their home lands after the First
World War
9 The Refugees Committee helped over 1.5 million refugees: food and shelter as well as identity
papers were issued. The committee was successful in helping many refugees find somewhere to
settle permanently.
9 The International Health Organization helped to deal with epidemics such as cholera and it worked
to improve knowledge of other killer diseases such as malaria.

Failures of the League in the 1920s some examples

8 Vilnius
The Poles took over the town of Vilnius in Lithuania and refused to withdraw when the League
protested. Since neither France nor Britain were prepared to get involved to force the Poles to hand the
town back, the Poles kept the town.
8 The Corfu Incident
In 1923, a survey team was sent out to settle the issue of the border between Italy and
Albania. While travelling to the disputed area, the Italian section of the survey team,
became separated from the main party and were shot by hidden gunmen. Italy accused
Greece of planning the whole incident and demanded payment of a large fine. Greece
refused to pay up. In response, the Italians bombarded the coastline of the Greek island of Corfu.
Greece appealed to the League for help but Italy, led by Benito Mussolini, persuaded the League
through the Conference of Ambassadors, to fine Greece 50 million lire.

Hopeful Signs in the 1920s

2 1925: The Locarno Treaties
As part of these treaties, Germany and France agreed to settle any future disputes through the
League of Nations.
2 1926: Germany was allowed to join the League of Nations.
2 1928: The Kellogg-Briand Pact (Pact of Paris)
Named after the US Secretary of State and the French Foreign Minister who drew up the
agreement, all the countries which signed it agreed to seek peaceful means of settling disputes.

Failures of the League in the 1930s/

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Failures of the League in the 1930s

8 Disarmament
France was always reluctant to reduce her armed forces, claiming she needed a large, well-equipped
army to guarantee her national security against possible German attacks. Therefore progress towards
disarmament was always going to be slow. Some work was done in the 1920s to prepare for the
Disarmament Conference which began in 1932 but no agreement could be reached. During the 1930s
all countries increased their spending on armaments.
8 Aggression by Major Powers
The League was unable to halt the aggression of Japan in Manchuria and Italy in Abyssinia in the
1930s.

Conclusion
Towards the end of the 1920s it seemed as if international cooperation was set to replace international
conflict. However events in the 1930s showed only too well that international conflict was very much
alive.

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