Setting up the League of Nations

The organization of the The setting up of the league was written into the Treaty of
Versailles. The rules of the League,known as the League

League Covenant,formed a part of each peace treaty. The League

officially began its work in January 1920. Geneva was
chosen for the League headquarters. Some officials worked
permanently for the League in Geneva. They were known
as Secretaries.

The League set up a number of commissions and

committees to deal with particular issues and problems.

The most important commissions were those which dealt

with disarmament and the running of the “mandates”
The real power in the The peace treaties not only set up the League but also
established a group called the conference of ambassadors.

organization The conference was supposed to have oversight the way the
peace treaties were put into effect.

All member states sent representatives to the League

Assembly. The Assembly had no real power. Power in the
League lay with League Council.This was dominated by a
few rich countries who were permanent members of
Council:Britain,France,Italy and Japan. In theory,decisions
by the Council would be carried out by all member states.
Council decisions had to be unanimous.
A European Club? Many non-Europeans were very unhappy with the way the
Covenant gave power to the European countries.At the first
meeting of the Assembly , non-European countries
criticised the rules of the League.

Some of non-Europeans countries were worried that the

League would be dominated by white people. The Japanese
asked that the League should promise to oppose racial
discrimination. The Americans and British rejected this
proposal.

It considered that more civilised states should have the job

of looking after the people in colonies.
Absent friends? Forty-five states were founder-members of the League of
Nations. These were all either victorious or neutral in the
First World War. The defeated nations were not allowed to
join immediately. As a result Germany,Austria and Hungary
saw the League as a club of their enemies.

The founders were frightened of the spread of

communism,and the Soviet Union was also not invited to
join.

Lacking USA,Germany and Russian membership,could not

really claim to be the voice of the world opinion.
Tension between France These two countries had different views of how the League
should work.

and Britain The French wanted to make the LEague into military
alliance,with strict obligations on members to support each
other. This was a result of the French obsession with the
dangers of an attack on France by Germany.

British saw the League as much looser,less formal

organisation.The British were finding it difficult to defend
their own empire and had no wish to get involved in
military conflicts anywhere else in the world.
The French turn to By 1923 French were unhappy at the League’s inability to
esure Germany kept to the terms of Treaty of Versailles.By

direct action and the the end 1922 Germans made only small payment and then
stop paying.

occupation of Ruhr The French were angry and took matters into their own
hands.
The French turn to On January 11 1923 French and Belgain soldiers invaded
German industrial area of the Ruhr.The area was the

direct action and the heartland of the German Economy.The occupation did not
work well for France.USA and Britain disproved of the use

occupation of Ruhr of force and the people of the Ruhr refused to cooperate.
Within the few months the French had to admit that direct
action had not worked.