15- Diplomacy in Europe (LoN)

Question 1

Give an overview of the actions of the League of Nations in the 1920s

Answer 1

• Throughout the 1920s, the League of Nations dealt with various disputes arising mainly from the territorial changes of the Versailles settlement.
• It had both successes and failures in its handling of these disputes.

Question 2

What was Wilson’s vision for the League of Nations?

Answer 2

• US President Woodrow Wilson’s 14 points outlined the aim of establishing an international organization that would prevent another general war between states.
• Wilson believed that a League of Nations would be the mechanism for collective security whereby conflicts could be resolved through international agreement and resolutions, and aggressor states would be contained by international pressure and economic sanctions.

Question 3

What was the League intended to have the power to do?

Answer 3

• The League would also be able to oversee global disarmament and prevent the development of alliance systems and hostile blocs.
• If there was a dispute between countries it would be referred to the League’s Assembly; if this body could not find a resolution the Council could then impose moral pressure or economic sanctions to force a state to comply to its resolution.

Question 4

What was collective security?

Answer 4

• The idea that peace could be preserved by countries acting together – collectively – to prevent one country attacking another.
• Collective security was to be made possible through membership of the League of Nations.
• When there was a dispute between countries they would refer the issue to the League’s Assembly.
• If that body could not find a resolution, the Council could make decisions in order to gain compliance

Question 5

What were the three key methods that the League had to enforce its resolutions and maintain collective security?

Answer 5

• First impose moral pressure
• Second, the Council could impose economic sanctions to force the country that was considered to be in the wrong to comply with its decisions.
• If the first two methods failed, member states could allow their armed forces to jointly impose the League’s resolution

Question 6

When and where did the League meet for the first time and what was its objective?

Answer 6

• The League met for the first time in Geneva in December 1920.
• Its key objective was to keep the peace and avoid future conflict by advising on and settling international disputes.
• It also aimed to promote disarmament, supervise the mandated territories, and promote international goodwill and cooperation through its various organizations dedicated to social and economic development.

Question 7

Whta was the initial membership of the LoN and which significant countries never joined?

Answer 7

The initial membership of the League was 32 Allied states and 12 neutral states; however, by 1926, all ex-enemy states had joined. The USSR was not admitted until 1934; the USA never joined.

Question 8

How many articles were there in the League’s Covenant (including amendments made in December 1924)?

Answer 8

• 26 articles

- These prescribed when and how the League was to operate.

Question 9

What would happen if member states failed to refer their disputes to the League, or failed to follow its recommendations?

Answer 9

The League could then impose economic sanctions, the main tool for the League against aggressors.

Question 10

Give an example of the League of Nations using economic sanctions

Answer 10

In the aftermath of World War One, in which the economic blockade of Germany had been effective, this economic weapon appeared to have the potential to be effective in forcing compliance with the League’s decisions.

Question 11

Why was the League of Nations not very strong militarily?

Answer 11

• In theory, the League could call for military action as a last resort against an aggressor.
• Yet the League did not have its own armed forces, and in reality member states did not want to put their sovereign forces under international control.
• In addition, the Covenant was rather ambiguous as to when and how such armed forces should be used. France had wanted an armed force, or League Army, but Britain had resisted this option.

Question 12

What other organizations were associated with the League?

Answer 12

0Two largely independent organisations that worked with the league was the International Court of Justice and the International Labour Organisation.

-The League also set up a number of agencies, committees and commissions to deal with issues that arose from the settlement and to redress social and economic issues.

Question 13

Diagram showing the different branches of the League of Nations

Answer 13

Question 14

Diagram showing the different branches of the League of Nations

Answer 14

Question 15

Diagram whosing the different actions that the LoN could take

Answer 15

Question 16

What did the historian Hugh Brogan say about the League of Nations?

Answer 16

[the League] depended on the goodwill of the nations to work, though it was the absence of good will that made it necessary.

Question 17

What did the historian Rugh Henig say about the League of Nations?

Answer 17

ritish governments took care to limit any specific political or military commitments they might make to western Europe although under article 10 that had undertaken to act ‘against external aggression’ towards all members of the League.

Question 18

What was the significance of the absence of major powers in the LoN?

Answer 18

• Perhaps the key weakness of the League of Nations organisation was the absence of major powers. This had a decisive impact on its work and influence.
• It has also been seen as the key reason for the League ultimately failing to prevent another world war.

Question 19

What was the most important absent major power in the LoN?

Answer 19

The USA

Question 20

Why was the US absent in the LoN and why was this surprising?

Answer 20

• The League had been promoted by the Americans and had been championed by President Woodrow Wilson in his 14 points.
• The US Congress, however, was too concerned that membership would drag the Americans into more disputes and conflicts in Europe, and after the war it returned to a policy of isolationism.
• The US had played a pivotal role in bringing the First World War to an end, but it did not want to play a central role in the post-war period and in the fall out from the Versailles settlement.

Question 21

How did the US’s absence affect the League of Nations?

Answer 21

It seriously weakened the League’s ability to use ‘collective security’ against aggression.

Question 22

Why did the US’ absence weaken the League’s ability to use ‘collective security’ against aggression?

Answer 22

• World’s most powerful economy would have given the League’s economic sanctions real weight, but without it these were undermine.
• Without the USA, the permanent members (except for Japan) were European and this meant it lacked the appearance of a genuinely ‘worldwide’ organization.
• It highlighted that the new organization may not stop old-style agreements and treaties, as this was clearly how the US was going to secure its future relationships.
• The League was primarily led by European powers that were arguably in decline.

Question 23

Why was the USSR excluded from the League of Nations

Answer 23

• The new communist government was seen as a threat to Europe and Asia and the western powers and Japan had invaded the country after the Bolsheviks had seized power.
• There was real fear the ‘revolution of the workers’ would spread and the intention was to isolate the regime.

Question 24

How did the absence of the USSR weaken the League

Answer 24

• Because it could be claimed by the USSR that it was merely a ‘club for capitalists’ – which real aims was to protect and promote business interests and empires at the expense of the exploited masses.
• Soviet leader Lenin called the League ‘a robbers’ den which would exploit the ‘unjust spoils of Versailles’.

Question 25

Describe Germany’s exclusion from the League

Answer 25

Germany was initially not permitted to join the League

Question 26

What was the significance of excluding Germany from the LoN?

Answer 26

• Germany’s exclusion suggested that the League was a ‘victors’ club’ – the four permanent members of the Council were the victorious Allies.
• The exclusion ignored the fact that Germany remained a strong power in 1920, despite the war and the treaty.
• It had a geographically important position in Europe and retained much of its economic power.
• It would also have been more effective to include Germany in the League so that it could work towards some negotiation and revision of the Treaty of Versailles within the confines of the League’s machinery.

Question 27

Why has it been claimed that the League fo Nations was a British, not an American idea? (Interesting point)

Answer 27

• The Liberal Party in Britain had taken the country to war, however military conflict went against their ideology.
• Goldsworthy Lowes Dickinson was very upset by Britain’s involvement in the war and within 2 weeks of its outbreak he had devised the idea for a League of Nations.
• He wrote extensively about the potential for this organisation to prevent another major conflict and his work shaped public opinion.
• His ‘League for Peace’ would resolve issues between states through arbitration and conciliation.
• In 1916 he went on a lecture tour about the League in the US.

Question 28

What central European states were weak in the interwar period and why?

Answer 28

-The collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire at the end of the First World War led to the establishment of a number of smaller states based on the principle of nationality.

However, many of these states struggled politically and economically to achieve stability.

Question 29

How was the weakness of states in central Europe significant to the League fo Nations?

Answer 29

• This meant that that the League had to deal with smaller states that required more support, particularly in terms of economic development and territorial security.
• These states, when joining the organisation, could not offer the League much support in return.

Question 30

Give some examples of disputes that arose int he 1920s from the territorial changes of the ToV and the post-war situation in Europe

Answer 30

• Aaland Islands, 1920
• Vilna, 1920–1923
• Upper Silesia, 1921
• Ruhr crisis January 1923

Question 31

When was the Aaland Islands dispute?

Answer 31

1920

Question 32

Explain the Aaland Islands dispute and what this revealed about the League of Nations

Answer 32

• These islands were populated mainly by Swedes, but, following the collapse of the Russian Empire, Finland had claimed sovereignty over them.
• The conflict was taken to the League and Sweden accepted the League’s decision to give the islands to Finland.

Question 33

When was the Vilna dispute?

Answer 33

1920-23

Question 34

Explain the Vilna dispute and what this revealed about the League of Nations

Answer 34

• Both Poland and Lithuania wanted control of the town of Vilna.
• It had once been the capital of Lithuania, but its people were Polish.
• The League was unable to prevent the Poles from seizing and retaining Vilna by force.
• Finally, the Conference of Ambassadors awarded Vilna to Poland.

Question 35

When was the Upper Silesia dispute?

Answer 35

1921

Question 36

Explain the Upper Silesia dispute and what this revealed about the League of Nations

Answer 36

• Both Germany and newly formed Poland wanted control of the important industrial area of Upper Silesia.
• The League decided to split the area between the two.

Question 37

When was the Ruhr Crisis?

Answer 37

January 1923

Question 38

Explain the Ruhr crisis and what this revealed about the League of Nations

Answer 38

• When Germany defaulted on reparation payments in 1922, the French (with Belgium) took military action outside of the League and occupied the Ruhr in order to seize payments in goods.
• The response of the German government was to order workers there to strike. Economic turmoil ensued as Germany faced hyper-inflation.

Question 39

Failures of the League in the 1920s

Question 40

Successes of the League in the 1920s

Question 41

What were the two attempts made to strengthen the machinery of the League of Nations and when were these?

Answer 41

• The Draft Treaty of Mutual Assistance (1923)
• The Geneva Protocol (1924)
• They were both initiated by France

Question 42

What was the Draft Treaty of Mutual Assistance?

Answer 42

This Treaty would have required all members of the League to come to the assistance of a victim of aggression

Question 43

What was the Geneva Protocol?

Answer 43

This would have made arbitration compulsory in all disputes.

Question 44

How did the two attempts made to strengthen the machinery of the League of Nations turn out?

Answer 44

Both initiatives were rejected by Britain, its Dominions and the Scandinavian powers, who believed that members would not be willing or able to carry out the huge commitment that would result from such a role.

Question 45

Describet the division of the League of Nations after the two attempts in 1923 and 24 to strengthen its machineray

Answer 45

• The League thus remained divided between those states that wanted a strong League to enforce the existing territorial agreements, and those that wanted to be more selective in dealing with aggression.
• This division also arose because of the difference in vulnerability of the various states.
• While France felt highly vulnerable, others were not so worried and were not prepared to take on what they saw as extra commitments.
• These differences were to be highlighted further by the Ruhr Crisis, which would deeply undermine the principle of collective security.