Failures of the League of Nations Flashcards
Corfu
Corfu was a Greek island occupied by Italy in 1923 in response to an Italian diplomat being shot dead in Greece. At first, the League told Italy to leave and fined the Greeks. However, Italy ignored this and demanded compensation from the Greeks. They did not pay and couldn’t find the murderers. This made the League look weak.
Vilna
Vilna was chosen as the capital of Lithuania after WWI. Most of the people who lived there were Polish. After lots of back and forth border disputes between the nations, Poland seized Vilna and the mutinying Polish units refused to retreat when told to by the League. The League proposed a plebiscite be held but the Pols rejected this idea. On this occasion, the League was powerless to stop military aggression.
The Ruhr
The Ruhr was an industrial region of Germany. It was invaded and occupied by France in 1923 after Germany had failed to keep up it’s reparation payments. The French then began shipping products back to France and the League didn’t intervene. The USA then helped resolve the situation with the Dawes Plan which made the League look weak.
