League of Nations

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  • Founded on January 10th 1920 by Woodrow Wilson coming from the Paris Peace Conference. 

Membership of the League

France          1919-1945                                     This only shows the most powerful countries. More 
Britain          1919-1945                                     than 50 other countries were also members.
Italy              1919-1937
Japan           1919-1933
Germany     1926-1933
USSR           1934-1939
USA              never joined :/

Aims of the League

Stop War
Improve the lives the jobs of people
Demilitarisation
Enforce the Treaty of Versailles

Why wasn't the USA part of the League?

Isolationism: Americans didn't want to go into another war, and didn't want to end up solving Europe's every little conflict.
Anti-imperialism: Some people were afraid that the League would be dominated by Britain and France and would have to defend their respective empires, and they were against empires.
Treaty of Versailles: Some Americans (including German - Americans) hated the Treaty of Versailles.
Economic effect: The US was worried that the League would be a "blank cheque", and that sanctions the League would place could negatively after the American economy.

Organisation of the League

*there's an arrow missing from the Secretariat the Council*

Failures of the League

Vilna 1920: The Polish captured Vilna ( the capital of Lithuania), and the League told it to withdraw, eve though Britain and France supported Poland , which reused to withdraw. There was nothing the League could do. 
Ruhr 1923: France invaded the Ruhr when Germany didn't pay reparations. The League wasn't consulted and Britain disagreed with France.
Corfu 1923: An Italian general was murders in Greece, so Italy occupied Greece (Corfu). Greece appealed to the League, which ordered Mussolini to leave - he refused. Greece had to apologise and give Mussolini money.
Memel 1923: Lithuania seized Memel, a German post under the League's control. The League told Lithuania to leave, but backed down and let it have Memel.
Bolivia 1928: Bolivia and Paraguay went to war over an area called the Chaco. Paraguay appealed to the League, but Bolivia refused to cooperate and the whole thing was solved by a South American organisation.
Manchuria 1931-1933: Japaneses claimed Chinese Manchuria. The corrupt, weak and fighting Communists China appealed to the League, who sent Lord Lytton to investigate in December of 1931. In October 1932, Lytton's report came back, stating Japan was the aggressor and should leave Manchuria. Japan walked out of the meeting, then left the League.
Abyssinia 1934: Because the League was weak and Britain and France gave Mussolini the green light, Italian troops invaded Abyssinia in December 1934. Haile Selassie, the Abyssinian emperor, appealed to the League. The League couldn't agree on sanctions (because the US supplied necessary things to Italy, and as it was not part of the League any sanction not involving the US would essentially be fruitless), so Italy continues the invasion while they were arguing.

Successes of the League

Teschen 1920: In 1919, Poland and Czechoslovakia fought over this area; in 1920 the dispute was arbitrated although neither country was happy about getting only half.
Aaland Islands 1921: A dispute between Sweden and Finland was settled, and the League decided the islands belonged to Finland.
Silesia 1921: After having a plebiscite, Germany and Poland agreed to partition Silesia.
Bulgaria 1925: Greece invaded Bulgaria, and the League told Greece to withdraw. It did. 

However, people made fun of this supposed success as it seemed to be a petty argument.


<-- A British cartoon made in 1925 shows Greece and Bulgaria fighting. They are presented as Tweedle-dum and Tweedle-dee from Alice in Wonderland. The League, presented as a dove, stops the fight. The poem underneath the cartoon says:
          'Just then came down a monstrous dove
                 Whose force was purely moral
           Which turned the heroes' hearts to love
                 And made them drop their quarrel.'





 Iraq 1924: Turks demanded Mosul, part of Iraq, but the League supported Iraq; Turkey was like ok and left.
Refugee Organisation: Set up refugee camps in Turkey, and 400,000 ex-POWs in Russia were repatriated.
ILO: Lead additives in paint were banned and many countries were persuaded to adopt a 48-hour week.
Health Organisation: Outbreaks f malaria and typhus were reduced and contained.
Slavery Commission: Sierra Leone persuaded to release 200,000 slaves, and reduced death rate for forced labourer from 55% to 4% in Tanganyika.

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