THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS

Whose Idea?

The League of Nations was the idea of Woodrow

Wilson, the US President in 1919.

It was suggested at the Paris Peace Conference

 The Idea

Wilson’s Idea was to try to make sure that

countries could never start a World War again

He wanted to make sure countries talked about

their problems instead of fighting
It was decided that an organisation called The
League of Nations Should be set up

It would be an organisation which would try to

promote peace in the world

It was hoped that it would stop countries from

making secret treaties or agreements
 How the league worked

If any nations had problems they would try to

talk it out

If this didn’t work and a country was attacked,

the other members would go to its help

The League also wanted to help to solve some

of the World’s problems: e.g. Poverty, Drugs etc.
 Problem 1

The League did not include the USA or Russia,

Two of the World’s major powers
 Problem 2

Germany was not included

 Problem 3

The League did not have it’s own army to back

up any decisions.
 Success of L.o.N
The Aaland Islands (1921) – Dispute between Sweden and
Finland.
Upper Silesia (1921) – Dispute over being part of Germany or
Poland.
Memel (1923) – Dispute over area called Memel that was mostly
made up of Lithuanians.
Turkey (1923) - The League failed to stop a bloody war in Turkey
(see League failures) but it did respond to the humanitarian crisis
caused by this war.
Greece and Bulgaria (1925) – dispute over the death of a Greek
Soldier and Greece invaded Bulgaria.
The League was too closely linked with the
Treaty of Versailles and many who had been
treated badly by it were suspicious of the
League.
 Failures of the L.o.N
Italy 1919
The first crisis the League had to face was in north Italy In 1919,
Italian nationalists, angered that the "Big Three" had, in their
opinion, broken promises to Italy at the Treaty of Versailles,
captured the small port of Fiume. The Treaty of Versailles had
given this port to Yugoslavia. For 15 months, an Italian nationalist
called d’Annunzio governed Fiume. The newly created League
did nothing. The situation was solved by the Italian government
who could not accept that d’Annunzio was seemingly more
popular than they were – so they bombarded the port of Fiume
and enforced a surrender
The league of Nations did nothing.
In 1923 France occupied the Ruhr (German land), but
the League failed to condemn this act.
In 1931 Japan invaded Manchuria (part of China). The
League failed to persuade Japan to withdraw its troops
and Japan then left the League in 1933.
In 1935 Italy invaded Abyssinia (now Ethiopia) in
defiance of the League's economic sanctions but the
League failed to act
These failures were often the result of the
League being a large institution of competing
interests. It often took far too long to come to
decisions, and many countries, especially during
the Depression, focused on their own problems
and were unwilling to become involved in the
problems of other countries. In addition, the
more powerful countries were indifferent to the
institution and did not feel threatened by it.