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Lesson 1 – The League of Nations

Aim of the lesson: Why was the League of Nations established?
http://www.johndclare.net/league_of_nations2.htm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0ldr18Rnho

I can predict with absolute certainty that within another generation there will be another world war if the
nations of the world do not work together to prevent it.

from a statement by the American President, Woodrow Wilson, made during the peace discussions in 1919.

What is the message of this cartoon?

The League of Nations was set up by the Treaty of Versailles.

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, but less than a quarter of a
century later Wilson's dream lay in ruins.

Its aims

 to stop wars
 to encourage disarmament
 to make the world a better place by improving people's working conditions and by
tackling disease

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Its organisation

 an assembly, which met once a year

 a council, which met more regularly to consider crises
 a small secretariat to handle the paperwork
 a Court of International Justice
 a number of committees such as the International Labour Organisation and the Health
Committee to carry out its humanitarian work.

The Covenant of the League of Nations

 The League of Nations was set up by the first 26 clauses of the Treaty of Versailles
- called 'The Covenant of the League of Nations'. The table below is a summary.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zbg4t39/revision/6

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Who were the members of the League?

Forty-two countries joined the League at the start. In the 1930s about 60 countries
were members . This made the League seem strong.

Britain and France were the main members, helped by Italy and Japan; they were
quite powerful countries.

A critical weakness was that the most powerful countries in the world were not
members. The USA did not want to join. The Russians refused to join – they were
Communists and hated Britain and France. Germany was not allowed to join. Without
these three big powers, the League was weak.

What is the message of this cartoon?

‘The Gap in the Bridge’ – a cartoon

of 1919 by Leonard Ravenhill in
the British magazine Punch.

What is the message of this cartoon?

America Pulls Out

Perhaps the greatest weakness of the League was that, when Wilson got back home to
the United States, the American Senate refused to join the League.

Americans did not want to get dragged into other countries’ problems. This damaged the
League a lot. It did not have access to the prestige, influence, wealth or military power
of the United States. It was forced to rely on Britain and France, who had both been
weakened by the First World War.

From Mr. Hinds – another perspective:

Membership
Not all nations were members of the League. In fact, less than half the world’s nations
wanted to join. The USA never joined and this deprived the League of the support of the
most powerful nation in the world. The defeated nations, like Germany, were not

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members at first. Other nations, such as Japan, left when they got into disputes with the
League. The USA had suggested the League but never joined. This deprived the League
of the most influential and powerful nation in the world. Without the USA, economic
sanctions would be ineffective because the USA could continue trading with the
offending country. The USA could bring huge resources to the League. It was one of the
few countries which had gained economically from the First World War. Britain and
France were left as the dominant powers in the League. The War and later Depression
meant that these countries were tired and lacked the resolve to see through some of the
large crises.

Without Germany and Russia in the League at the start meant that huge areas of Europe
and Asia were not covered by the authority of the League. For collective security to work
effectively all major countries were needed in the League all of the time. It was an
organisation of some nations not all nations. Indeed, some nations viewed the League
with suspicion as a 'European Club' as the League council was dominated by European
powers: the very nations that had dragged the world into the horrors of the Great War.
It was to be run by the victorious powers and therefore was likely to act in their interests
rather than fairly or according to principles and ideals.

Study the following sources to identify - Why the USA refused to join the League?

Source A It refused because it did not want to be responsible. The USA doesn’t want to
be apart of all the work that goes into the League.

Source B The USA doesn’t want to be apart of Europe’s affairs.

Source C The people were not interested, especially people from Ireland because they
did not want Ireland to still be apart of the British Empire. No one was
interested in the clauses of the treaty.

Source D They thought that America would have to apart of wars more regularly and
get involved permanently which was a turn off to America.

Source E They didn’t want to get involved in conflict. They thought the conflict used a
lot of money and didn’t want to waste their money on European affairs.

Source A
Some of the Objections to the League of Nations made by Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, 1920
2. The United States assumes no obligation to preserve the territorial integrity or political
independence of any other country . . . under the provisions of article 10, or to employ the
military or naval forces of the United States under any article of the treaty for any
purpose… Congress… has the sole power to declare war

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3. No mandate shall be accepted by the United States…

5. The United States will not submit to arbitration or to inquiry by the assembly or by the
council of the league of nations...
9. The United States shall not be obligated to contribute to any expenses of the league of
nations…
10. If the United States shall at any time adopt any plan for the limitation of armaments
proposed by the council of the league . . . it reserves the right to increase such armaments
without the consent of the council whenever the United States is threatened with invasion or
engaged in war...
14. The United States assumes no obligation to be bound by any election, decision, report, or
finding of the council or assembly…

Source B
Senator Borah’s objection
What is the result of all this? We are in the midst of all of the affairs of Europe. We have
entangled ourselves with all European concerns. We have joined in alliance with all the
European nations which have thus far joined the League and all nations which may be
admitted to the League. We are sitting there dabbling in their affairs and intermeddling in their
concerns. In other words, Mr. President -- and this comes to the question which is fundamental
with me -- we have forfeited and surrendered, once and for all, the great policy of "no
entangling alliances" upon which the strength of this republic has been founded for 150 years.
Senator Borah, 1919

Source C
Wilson returned home determined to persuade the American people to join the League. It
was here that all Wilson’s Paris disappointments faded away beside the tragedy awaiting
him. The average American voter, the average American politician, had no desire to be mixed
up in European affairs. Irish Americans, in particular, disliked a Treaty which promised that
Ireland would remain part of the British Empire. Congress refused either to accept the Treaty
or to join the League. Wilson travelled 8000 miles round the USA making speech after speech
to try to change people’s minds. He was not believed. Tired and miserable, he suffered a
stroke which left him paralysed for the rest of his life. The American people turned their backs
on Europe
HE Snellgrove, Modern World History (1968)

Source D
American public opinion hardened against any further entanglement in the affairs of
Europe. America had brought the Great War to and end. But many Americans believed that
membership of the League would turn that temporary involvement into a permanent
responsibility for the affairs of a continent from which many new Americans had only recently
fled.
Tony Howarth, Twentieth Century History (1979)

Source E
Woodrow Wilson confidently expected the USA to join the League of Nations. But many
Americans hated the idea. Many had been against US involvement in the war, and they
certainly did not want the USA to get entangled in European affairs after 1919. They did not

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want to be involved in what they saw as petty squabbles in Europe that could cost Americans a
lot of money. Also, within the USA there were millions of recent immigrants from many
European countries, including Germany and Austria Hungary.
David Ferriby, Modern World History for AQA (2001)

How the League kept peace?

The League hoped that it could influence countries to 'do the right thing' by:

1. Collective Security
2. Community of Power
3. Moral Persuasion
The 'moral power' of the League lay in the League's Covenant, especially Articles 10-17,
in which members promised to keep the peace. Many writers have pointed out that
this is hardly a very effective deterrent against a powerful country which was
determined to disobey the League.

If these moral influences failed, the League had three powers it could use to make
countries do as it wanted. Theoretically, the League was able to use military force,
but the League did not have an army of its own – so if a country ignored it, in the end,
there was nothing the League could do.