Focus Points

● How successful was the League in the 1920s?

● How far did weaknesses in the League’s organisation make failure inevitable?
● How far did the Depression make the work of the League more difficult?
● How successful was the League in the 1930s?

Specified Content
● The League of Nations:
○ Strengths and weaknesses in its structure and organisation: work of the
League’s agencies/humanitarian work
○ Successes and failures in peacekeeping during the 1920s
○ The impact of the world depression on the work of the League after 1929
○ The failures of the League in the 1930s, including Manchuria and Abyssinia

BACKGROUND

An international peace-keeping organization is desired → Wilson’s lofty vision for the league
(14 points) → a plan is drawn up to be included in TOV → Wilson faces resistance in the
States and the US never joins

Why didn’t the US ultimately join the League of Nations? What stood in the way?
- Needed the approval of Congress (like a parliament)
- Growing political opposition (Democrats in power for 8 troubled years, defeated in
1920 election)

Make sure you can explain how/why other countries relied on US involvement in the league
and concerns over their failure to join.
NOTES

Aims of the League of Nations

A Discourage aggression from any nation
C Encourage cooperation between countries, especially in trade and business
D Persuade nations to disarm
C Enhance living and working conditions

Also part of this vision: open relations between nations, i.e. no secret deals, + just and
equitable relations, i.e. big, powerful countries don’t bully more vulnerable ones

By the end of this unit you should be able to judge the extent to which the League achieved
these aims. You can take notes in a table like this as you study:

Aim Evidence of Success Evidence of Failure

Discourage aggression

Encourage cooperation

Disarmament

Improve living/working
conditions
Structure of the LON

What were the weaknesses in the league’s organisation? Consider:

- The membership of the League
- What the main bodies within the League can do
- How each body makes decisions
- How decisions can be enforced
International conflicts handled by LON in the 1920s:

Conflict Description Outcome Analysis of LON success

Alland Islands
(Sweden v. Finland)

1921

Upper Silesia
(Germany v. Poland)

1921

Corfu
(Italy v. Greece)

1923

Mosul
(Turkey vs. Iraq/UK)

1924

Bulgaria
(Greece v. Bulgaria)

1925

* Note: you don’t have to be familiar with all of these conflicts, but you must be able to
describe at least one “success” and one “failure,” including explaining why the LON was or
was not successful