The League of Nations The L of N was set up
because Wilson wanted it more than anything else.
He wanted the League to be a ‘world parliament’ where nations could sort out arguments.
He wanted to make the world a better place.
S.I.D.E. Stop wars.
Improve people’s lives.
Disarmament.
Enforce the Treaty of Versailles.
America Pulls Out The United States did
not join the League. The cartoon suggests
that the Senate rejected the Treaty because it had been left out of negotiations.
Americans did not want to get dragged into other countries’ problems.
Strengths & Weaknesses Forty-two countries
joined the League at the start.
In the 1930’s about 60 countries were member.
This made the League appear strong.
Absent Countries 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!!
Germany was not allowed to join.
This weakened the League.
Who was in? Britain and
France were the main members.
Italy and Japan were also members.
These were the most powerful countries.
FOUR POWERS Covenant – all members
had promised to keep the peace (Article X)
Condemnation – the League could tell a country it was doing wrong.
Arbitration – the League could offer to decide between two countries.
Sanctions – stopping trade
Force? The League could use
its four powers to make countries do as it wanted.
Theoretically, the league was allowed to use military force.
The League did not have an army of its own.
If a country ignored it, there was nothing the League could do.
Absence of the Great Powers
The absence of the US was catastrophic.
The US was the wealthiest nation in the world and had the greatest potential to intervene in the interest of maintaining peace.
The absence of the USA meant that challenges to the status quo established at Versailles, would meet limited resistance.
Absence – 3 Great Powers The concept of
collective security depended on collective action.
The absence of the three great powers limited the effectiveness of the League’s reaction in a crisis.
Russia and Germany The Treaty of Rapallo
demonstrated how the League had no recourse.
It also illustrated that the disarmament clause of the T of V was dead in the water.
Germany developed weapons which could not be seen by League inspectors, they also trained large numbers of personnel.
Success without the League
The disarmament conference in Washington. (organized by the US!)
The Locarno Treaty between France and Germany which promised lasting peace. (Germany was not a member of the League!)
League of Winners!! The absence of the
defeated countries meant that the League was a league of victors enforcing the T of V.
Another serious problem was the fact that a number of important countries dropped out between 1919 and 1939.
Biggest Weakness! The different parts
of the League were supposed to work together.
In a crisis no-one could agree.
Organization Assembly – the main
meeting of the League met once a year.
Its main problem was that decisions had to be unanimous, which was very difficult to achieve.
Council – a small group of the more important nations – Britain, France, Italy and Japan plus some other countries met 4-5 times a year.
Organization Agencies (committees of
the League): Court of International
Justice – for small disputes Health (to improve world
health) International Labor
Organization (to try to get fair wages)
Slavery (to end slavery) Refugees Secretariat – was
supposed to organize the League but failed
Collective Security This was the
cornerstone of the L of N.
Article X – all nations would protect the other members against aggression.
No more alliance systems or to defend one’s own self-interest.
C.S. is a more abstract concept.
It does not specify where threats come from.
It assumes that all nations will see each challenge in the same light.
Failure – Collective Security
Not all nations see every crisis in the same way.
It failed as a concept because it ignored reality.
It required a level of altruism that humans had not yet been capable of.
It failed because it asked nations to give up their freedom of action.
It also asked nations to enforce policies they disagreed with.
Or intervene against countries they were friends with.
Main problem The league could not
be considered very collective if three of the largest nations were not members of the League.
The UK and France could not agree on their treatment of Germany.
It was likely they would not agree on any major issues.
Influence other countries Collective Security Moral Persuasion Community of
Power The cartoon is from
1936 and it is entitled “Moral Persuasion”
What was it saying about the League?
The lack of enforcement The weakness of
collective security was demonstrated by the fact that it was necessary to reinforce the obligation of the league members to resist aggression.
Draft treaty of Mutual Assistance in 1923 – supported by France but rejected by the UK and its dominions.
It would have called on nations to support the victims of aggression as determined by the League.
The same thing happened with the Geneva Protocol for the Pacific settlement of International Disputes.
This would have enforced compulsory arbitration in all disputes.
Lack of support Few members of the
League were willing to take on the open-ended commitments that collective security entailed.
The main reason being self-interest.
Also after WW1 the prospect of armed intervention would not gain support from the population of any nation.
There was widespread opposition to using military force to resolve other countries disputes.
Especially if the aggressor was a large country.
This was true of the Corfu dispute in 1923.
This was led by Mussolini and members of the League took no action.
Corfu, 1923 – FAIL!!! An Italian general was
killed while he was doing some work for the League in Greece.
Mussolini was angry with the Greeks and invaded Corfu.
The Greeks asked the League to help.
The Council met and told Mussolini to leave Corfu.
It told Greece to give some money to the League.
Mussolini refused. The League changed
its decision told Greece to apologize and pay money to Italy.
The Greeks did as the League said and then Mussolini gave Corfu back to Greece.
Collective Security? It was a concept
that attracted great popular support but nothing of a concrete nature.
It was an illusion in which desperate populations wanted to believe.
However, if there was to be collective security then the collective has to agree.
The world in the 1920’s and 30’s was far from agreement on many fronts.
Early attempts at peacekeeping 1920-5
In the early years of the league it was called on to intervene in a number of disputes.
Its record of success is mixed. It allows us to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the League and collective security.
Success: The Aaland Islands, Upper Silesia and the Greco-Bulgarian War of 1925.
Failures: The Seizure of Fiume, Vilna, the Russo-Polish War, the Corfu incident and the Ruhr invasion.
Bulgaria, 1925 Greek soldiers were
killed in a fight on the border between Greece and Bulgaria.
The Greeks were angry.
Bulgaria asked the League to help.
The Council of the League met.
It condemned the Greeks and told them to leave Bulgaria.
The Bulgarian govt sent orders for their soldiers not to fight back.
The Greeks did as the League said and left Bulgaria.
Greece and Bulgaria Greece and Bulgaria are
fighting like Tweedle-dum and Tweedle –dee.
The League, like the dove of peace stops the fight.
‘Just then came down a monstrous dove whose force was purely moral,
Which tuned the heroes hearts to love and made them drop their quarrel.
Common factors - Success The antagonists were
small or medium powers.
These powers were usually unwilling to resort to violence.
This allowed the League to negotiate and enforce a settlement which both parties would accept.
Common Factors - Failure The dispute involved a
major power that refused to submit to the League.
Countries decided to resort to violence and not seek peaceful solutions.
The Corfu incident was a major indicator of the problems the league faced.
Greece complained that there seemed to be one set of rules for small countries and a different set of rules for big countries.
Italy was a major power and when she resorted to violence the league could do nothing.
This was the case when a major power pursued a policy in contravention of the League.
Peacekeeping would only prevail in the disputes of smaller countries provided that the stronger members could agree on a course of action.
Early problems for the League In the absence of the
US it was vital that the remaining powers were in agreement on major issues.
This was not the case. The British govts of
the 1920’s did not really support European settlements.
In the dispute between Turkey and Greece 1920-23, GB and France took opposite sides.
France supported Poland in Russia and Silesia, GB did not.
GB also had major problems in Ireland and the Empire so it did not focus on upholding the interests of the League.
Enforcement of treaties The Dutch did not
give up the Kaiser. Germany did not
surrender war criminals.
She did not disarm or meet reparations quotas.
Austria could not and did not pay reparations.
Poland did not accept her frontiers.
Italian troops did not evacuate Fiume.
Turkey did not accept the Treaty of Sevres.
Nothing much happened.
The will to enforce the treaties was lacking or at best divided.
