How far did weaknesses in the League’s organization make failure inevitable? Flashcards
What were the weaknesses of the League’s aims?
The League’s aims were unrealistic and also quite vague. The aims used language such as ‘Discourage or ‘Encourage’ without actually setting any punishment or something to act upon. Considering the historical background these aims were unrealistic but also ambitious. Right after a war having an aim about disarmament is unrealistic.
The weaknesses of the planned methods for preventing aggression - what are the difficulties of collective security?
The way the League explored preventing aggression went two ways, Collective security, and the Security council. Collective security is security because you are part of a collective, everybody would protect each other. However, the problem with this is that not everybody would want to cooperate and people are scared to go against each other. The security council created the steps to dealing with aggression, the first being moral condemnation. Moral Condemnation was practically telling off the country, the weakness with this is nobody would want to stand up to a more powerful country in fear of retaliation. The next step was Economic Sanctions which is the rest of the League members cutting the country in question off from trade. One of the main problems with this is that the aggressor could be a powerhouse country, one which everyone needs to trade with to maintain their economy. The last step would be military force where countries send their military to stop the aggressor, the weakness with this is that nobody would willingly send their soldiers to die in a war that has nothing to do with them.
The weaknesses of the League’s structure - the way decisions were made and the lack of power of the different branches of the League.
One of League’s weaknesses referred to how the League was structured and the way that they made decisions. All the members of the League were a part of the Assembly, where everyone had one vote, and to pass anything the votes would have to be unanimous. This means that nothing can get done unless they all agree and it would take a lot of time for the countries to convince each other to pass the law they want. This however only recommends action to the Council made up of Britain, France, Italy, and Japan, temporary members were voted in every three years. Each country in the Council had one Veto which meant that the whole idea was shut down. The weakness with this is that if one person said no, the whole idea would be scrapped, even if it was something that everyone wanted. One of the council members could be friends with the aggressor and could just say no. People didn’t like that because it gave too much power to the Council members, and it wasn’t spread out evenly throughout all the countries.
The weaknesses of the League’s members - why were Britain and France weak as leaders of the League, and why was the League weak because of who was NOT a member?
Britain and France were weak as leaders of the league because they were resentful of the USA making them be a part of the League when they didn’t join themselves. They thought that the USA was just dumping all of the work and responsibilities on them. After the war, Britain, and France had also been severely economically weakened and were no longer the powerhouse that they used to be. The USSR and Germany were also not invited to join the League because of the War and Germany had to meet many requirements in order to be invited. The absence of the USA made the power of the League weaker because the US was one of the most powerful and influential countries. People felt that the Trade Sanctions would only work if America agreed to do it with them and applied them.
Explain the four reasons that the USA did not join the League
In the US there were many Americans with German heritage who opposed the treaty of Versailles, and the League was the one that was enforcing it. Americans were also scared that the treaties would impose sanctions which might hurt American trade and business the most. Some feared that the League would send American soldiers to every little conflict around the world. Lastly, some people feared that the League would be dominated by Britain and France, and the US would be called to defend their empires. There were many Americans that were anti-empires at that point.
