League Of Nations

Question 1

Aims of the League of Nations

Answer 1

To preserve world peace
Wilson’s Fourteen Points
To promote international cooperation over a wide range of economic and social problems including disarmament

Question 2

Permanent Court of International Justice

Answer 2

A large and independent organisation which was closely associated with the League.
What they did:
Offered an arbitration (independent person appointed to settle a dispute) service to countries
Provide legal advice to the council

Question 3

International Labour Organisation

Answer 3

Large and independent organisation which was closely associated with the League

Under the derivation of the French socialist Albert Thomas achieved some success in the main goal which was to bring an improvement to working conditions.

They collected data on employment practices and published the results and tried to persuade governments to take action by issuing recommendations. This included annual holidays with pat with right to join trade union etc.

They also published information on health and safety in the workplace.

However, some rules were not implanted till later. For example, in USA some bosses were denying their employers the right to join trade unions until 1930s. Even though they did good deeds, their work didn’t help till later and they didn’t it after war because that was the time where most people were vulnerable.

Question 4

The work of the special commissions groups such as Mandates, Danzig, Minorities, Intellectual cooperation, drug traffic

Answer 4

Mandates Commission - supervised the administration of Germany and Turkey’s former colonies

Danzig Commission - exercised direct League control over the former German city, Danzig

Minorities Commission - attempted to bring about a general improvement in the way that some racial minorities were ill treated

Intellectual Cooperation Organisation - promoted cultural exchanges and intellectual contact between academies, artists and writers

Special committee for drug traffic - campaigned to reduce drug misuse and drug smuggling.

Question 5

Members of the League of Nations and who wasn’t invited and why

Answer 5

United States:
US didn’t join because a majority in the American Senate thought that the League would drag their country into future wars and disputes.

Germany:
They were not allowed to join until they had demonstrated its peaceful intentions. This had to effect of making the League look like a club for the victorious powers from the war. They were allowed to join in 1926 and became an permanent member. They left when Adolf Hitler’s first polity action was to take Germany out of the League in 1933.

Soviet Russia:
They weren’t allowed to join because they were communist and committed to the overthrow of capitalism. They didn’t want to join following the Russia Civil War after Britain, France and Japan didn’t assist them. They joined in 1934 but were expelled in 1939 following the invasion of Finland

Japan:
They were one of the original members but left in 1933 when it received criticism for invading Manchuria

Britain and France:
They were the only major countries who stayed a member. They were shouldered with the responsibility to try make the League work. However their minds were elsewhere. Britain was trying to maintain their empire and France was focused on their security. The League often took second place in their minds.

Question 6

Secretariat

Answer 6

Civil service of the League

Performed all the administrative and financial work such as organising conferences, distributing agendas, monitoring budgets, publishing reports etc.

Question 7

Assembly

Answer 7

Considered matters of general policy

Take votes and each member of the League had one vote

Controlled the League’s budget

Admitted new members

Elected non- permanent members of the Council.

Question 8

Council

Answer 8

Executive body of the League

Had permanent and non-permanent members

In 1920, permanent members included Britain, France, Italy and Japan

In 1926, Germany became a permanent member

Number of non permanent members increased from 4 in 1920 to 11 in 1936.

Question 9

Strength of the League in terms of organisation and structure

Answer 9

Major powers of the world were part of the League. This meant they didn’t have to think twice if they should attack a country as they had the power.

Their structure was successful. We can tell because they use a similar structure in the UN right now. First time thinking of a structure like this and was a success.

Question 10

Weaknesses of the League of Nations in terms of organisation and structure

Answer 10

Major countries weren’t invited. For example, US not being invited was a big blow for the League as they were deprived of the world’s most powerful, influential and wealthy country. This meant that the ability of the League to attack big countries were affected. Soviet Russia not being part of the League was another big blow as they could have helped with the Manchuria crisis as they were close to them where as Lytton had to come from America.

Unanimous decisions

Lack of an army

Sanctions not being used

Question 11

Collective Security

Answer 11

Intentions were to maintain peace. There were three stages that could be followed to stop an aggressive power.

1. Moral disapproval:
   Following an act of agression, the Council would meet and vote to condemn the action. The agressive country knowing that it had the weight of the world opinion, they might drop their agressive action
2. Economic Sanctions:
   If the previous stage failed, the Council would impose economic sanctions. This meant arranging a trade boycott and refusing credit. This means to stop trading goods with that country.
3. Military Sanctions:
   If the previous stage failed then the Council would impose military sanctions. This might involve sending an army to assist the victim of the agression.

In theory, this system seemed promising to preserve peace. But the absence of the US would reduce the effectiveness of all the stages.

Question 12

Unanimous decisions

Answer 12

All decisions made by the Assembly and the Council had to be unanimous which means two or more people have to agree with the decision. If someone disagreed with the motion then it would fail. A majority even wasn’t enough.

This made it difficult to take action against a country.

Question 13

Lack of an army

Answer 13

The League didn’t have a army of its own. This meant that the League didn’t have standing forces to call upon to impose military sanctions. This meant that the members were asked to contribute towards a military force, the army would take time and there was no guarantee that an army could be assembled. This meant that the military sanctions weren’t taken seriously and people would just carry on threatening world peace.

Question 14

Successes at peacekeeping in the 1920s - Aaland Islands

Answer 14

First dispute to be resolved by the League concerned the rival claims of Sweden and Finland to the Aaland Islands. Most of the islanders wanted to be ruled by Sweden. - 1921

The League investigated the matter and gave the islands to Finland but with protection for the islanders including demilitarisation which meant Sweden and Finland couldn’t fight about it. Sweden accepted their judgement.

Question 15

Successes at peacekeeping in the 1920s - Upper Silesia

Answer 15

Upper Silesia was a valuable industrial area and they were located on the border between Germany and Poland. It was originally given to Poland due to ToV but the Germans protested and it was agreed to hold a vote in the area. - 1921

The results of the vote suggested it should be given to Germany but in some rural parts of the territory, there was a clear majority of votes for Poland

Following protests, the League suggested a partition which they accepted. Eastern Upper Silesia was given to Poland and Western Upper Silesia was given to Germany.

Question 16

Successes at peacekeeping in the 1920s - Mosul

Answer 16

1924 - Turkey claimed the Kurdish populated province of Mosul which was part of the British territory of Iraq.

The League investigated the problem and made an award in favour of Iraq. Turkey accepted the judgement.

Question 17

Successes at peacekeeping in the 1920s - Bulgaria

Answer 17

1925 - Greece was ordered to pay £45000 compensation to Bulgaria after its invasion of Bulgarian territory.

Greece judged this as a disproportionate response because of a shooting incident on the shared border in which a Greek sentry was killed in exchange for fire.

Greece accepted the ruling and had to pay the money but felt it was unfair that Italy had been treated differently and more generously in the Corfu Incident.

Question 18

Refugee Organisation - agency

Answer 18

They faced the problem of former WW1 prisoners stranded in countries such as Soviet Russia, Poland, France, Germany and Turkey.

There was an estimated 250,000 Russians stranded in German or French camps

300,000 Germans and former Austro- Hungarians in Soviet Russia.

More than a million Greeks were made homeless during the Turkish War of Independence.

The Norwegian explorer and scientist, Fridtjof Nansen worked with Red Cross and helped 425,000 displaced people to either return home or find new homes.

He had to find suitable transport, set up camps, create new settlements, teach new trades and skills, issue identity documents etc.

It brought praise for the League

Question 19

Health Organisation

Answer 19

Under the leadership of Director Ludwig Rajchmar, this agency was regarded as one of the most successful.

It established links with non-member countries such as Germany, Soviet Russia and USA to provide assistance and advice on public health matters.

They helped Russia for example to prevent an typhus epidemic in Siberia by organising a public education campaign on health and sanitation.

It also helped to reduce leprosy and began an campaign to exterminate mosquitoes so reducing the risk of malaria and yellow fever.

They set up a number of research institutions based in London, Copenhagen and Singapore which developed vaccines for diseases.

The success was demonstrated later when after the League stopped it became the World Health Organisation to the UN.

Question 20

Economic and Financial Organisation

Answer 20

After WW1, a number of countries faced economic crises and so in 1922, the League devised a plan to help. Action was taken to stabilise the currency by controlling the level of internet rates, the circulation of banknotes and the issuing of credit.
As a result, unemployment rates fell and the budget was balanced.

Question 21

Slavery Commission

Answer 21

Their objective was to get rid of slaves and slave dealing

They published reports, persuaded governments to take action etc. They freed 200,000 slaves in Sierra Leone and the death rate for African workers were reduced. A number of countries abolished slavery such as in Iraq, Jordan and Nepal. However, the existence of slavery is continued and is still a problem nowadays.

Question 22

Disarmament Commission

Answer 22

There was a minor success for this commission in organising the Washington Naval Conference of 1921 which led to the agreement on naval limitation by the USA, Britain, France and Japan.

They couldn’t agree on a series of things such as definitions, methods of armament etc.

It was easy for Germany to think there was no real desire among the Allies to bring a general disarmament.

Question 23

Vilna, 1920 - failure

Answer 23

Vilna had a largely Polish population and was made the capital of the newly state, Lithuania.

A Polish army from Poland seized the city in 1920 and so Lithuania asked the League for help. The League asked the troops to withdraw and a plebiscite was arranged but Poland refused.

The matter was then passed on to the Conference of Ambassadors who awarded Vilna to Poland.

The League didn’t do anything about it - failure.

Question 24

Occupation of the Ruhr, 1923

Answer 24

When Germany didn’t pay their reparations in 1922, the matter should have been handed to the League. However, France and Belgium decided to take action by ordering their troops to occupy the Ruhr in Jan 1923. This action only served to confirm the impression of many that the League was little more than a victors club. It seemed the
League only enforced rules against certain countries.

Question 25

Corfu Incident, 1923

Answer 25

In August 1923, Mussolini, the Italian Prime Minister ordered the naval bombardment and occupation of the Greek island of Corfu.

The reason they wanted to do this is because an Italian general and some of its staff were murdered in Greece. He also asked for 50m lira in compensation as well as the execution of the murderers. Greece couldn’t do either and so Italy started to take action

Greece asked the League for help, and they told them to condemn the invasion but they didn’t like this solution and so asked the Conference of Ambassadors for help. They to.d them to pay the compensation and told Italy to withdraw their troops from Corfu.

This gave the impression that big countries could bully smaller ones with threatening violence.

Question 26

Agreements made outside the League

Answer 26

France was the most concerned about their security and they didn’t want to rely on collective security and so they set pacts with European states such as Poland and Czechoslovakia. These pacts were designed to give France added protection.

Question 27

Locarno Treaty

Answer 27

This treaty was signed in 1925 and is known that Germany was treated at the same level as other European powers. It provided guarantees for the frontiers of France, Belgium and Germany (backed up by Britain and Italy) and confirmed the demilitarised status of Rhineland.

Question 28

Kellogg Briand Pact

Answer 28

Briand, the French Foreign Minister suggested to the American Secretary of State Kellogg that the two countries should sign a pact renouncing war meaning it shouldn’t happen. Kellogg suggested that the pact should be extended to include more countries including Germany, Italy and Japan. The pact showed good intentions.

Question 29

Why did the World Disarmament Conference of 1932-4 fail?

Answer 29

The Disarmament Commission arranged a Disarmament Conference to meet in Geneva so that the disarmament issue could be debated and resolutions to happen.

Because of the depression, it was thought that disarmament was a good idea and all the states that were attending the conference should but because each state was scared and they didn’t trust each other they failed to agree:
1. France, Poland and Czechoslovakia were all worried about their future security in the event of an attack from Germany and had to place their faith in the system of collective security which was already weak.

2. France was willing to disarm but only if additional guarantees were provided by Britain and US.
3. Hitler, who had no intentions of disarming, was able to exploit the fears of France and used this as an excuse to say that France was not going to disarm and so withdrew from the conference and shortly after, left the League.
4. With the exit of Japan from the League following the Manchuria crisis, it became clear that they would no disarm.

If disarm was going to work, all the major countries had to participate and it was clear that it wouldn’t happen by 1934. The following year Hitler announced his violations of the disarmament clauses of the Treaty of Versailles and this was the point when Germany’s military began to build up. Italian and Japanese rearmament soon followed.

Question 30

What is the Wall Street Crash?

Answer 30

In October 1929, a major financial crash occurred in the USA which spread across the world. This led to the Great Depression when the US went into depression where they lost a lot of money.

Over the three years, there was a rise of unemployment. The trade between countries were affected. It affected businesses, banks, governments who thought their investments would go up.

Because America was losing a lot of money, they had to ask other counties to pay back what they owed them from previous years especially Germany. Because of this,Germany’s banks became bankrupt and they started to lose money rapidly.

Question 31

How did the Wall Street Crash affect the world and the League?

Answer 31

1. Less money was spent on buying supplies from other countries which meant businesses went bust, people lost money and governments lost tax. Less tax meant less money which meant decreased desire to fight foreign wars.
2. The League was less likely to apply military and economic sanctions to countries as there was a loss of money which might countries would carry on threatening world peace.
3. Economic problems in Germany brought Hitler to power. Britain and France couldn’t stand up to Germany as they didn’t have the power and money.
4. It stopped America joining WW2 from the start and they joined two years after only because Japan bombed their navy bases in Hawaii.
5. Britain and France would stop spending money to help with the League because they would rather spend that money on their population.

Overall, the Depression led to all the countries getting scared.

Question 32

How successful was the League during the 1930’s? During the Depression

Answer 32

Positive things:
1. The agencies and the commissions were still working well. For example, the Saar Commission organised a vote which led to the return of Saar Basin to Germany in 1935.

2. The contribution made towards the resolution of border disputes in South America.

1930’s was a bad year for the League because Japan, Germany and Italy left and Soviet Russia was expelled following the invasion of Finland.

Following the German invasion of Poland in 1939, there was no further meetings of the League until 1946 when they broke and turned into the UN.

There were three main events which demonstrated the fail of the League during this period:

1. The Japanese invasion of Manchuria
2. The failure of the Disarmament Conference
3. The Italian invasion of Abyssinia

Question 33

Why did Japan invade Manchuria?

Answer 33

Manchuria was in the North East of China with part of its frontier bordering Korea.

It had little population but was rich in mineral wealth and had agricultural land and forestry.

Since 1905, the Japanese had been in control of Korea with additional trading rights extending into Manchuria interior. Because of this, Japanese guards were allowed to go along the route of the South Manchuria Railway.

Why they wanted to invade:
Japan was affected badly by the Depression, they weren’t self sufficient and depended on imports to feed their population. Manchuria seemed to offer the answer to Japan’s problems. They could provide a source of food, raw materials, a market for Japanese items and land for Japan’s population.

Question 34

The Mukden Railway Incident

Answer 34

Japanese soldiers staged an incident along the Manchuria Railway in 1931 using the excuse of Chinese banditry to launch an invasion.

China appealed to the League and the Japanese government promised to withdraw.

it became clear that the civilian government of Manchuria was no longer in control and the Japanese army proceeded to occupy the whole place.

In 1932, Manchuria was renamed Manchukuo.

Question 35

What was the response of the League to the invasion of Manchuria?

Answer 35

1. They could have called for sanctions but failed to do so.
2. They couldn’t do anything because none of the European powers wanted to reduce their trade with the Far East especially since American firms had taken over the loss businesses.
3. They knew that military sanctions would not work because they would have to send a naval task halfway across the world.
4. Both Britain and France possessed colonies in the Far East and feared sanctions might provoke a Japanese attack on those areas.

Question 36

The Lytton Commission

Answer 36

The League felt at least they could do something and appointed Lord Lytton to lead a commission to do with this invasion.

With a four man team including a representative from the US, Lytton spent 6 weeks in Manchuria and came to the conclusion that even though Japan was provoked by China, the invasion was not justified.

The Lytton Report was considered by the Assembly in 1933 where the findings were accepted. Japan wasn’t happy that the League did not side with them and therefore left the League.

Question 37

What were the lessons of the Manchuria crisis?

Answer 37

The League can be criticised from not acting quickly enough. By the time Lytton went to Manchuria the invasion had already happened and the Japanese were already busy trying to get a hold of the place.The League didn’t vote till 18mnths after the Japanese took action.

However, they weren’t able to do anything. Without US or Soviet Russia, they did not have the strength to call upon military sanctions.

Because of this factor, the politicians gave the League another chance.

Question 38

Italy’s invasion on Abyssinia

Answer 38

Abyssinia was the last remaining independent state in Africa. Abyssinia was of minor economic value. Most of the country was a rocky wasteland. Abyssinia was located between Italy’s territories in East Africa.

Why they wanted to invade:
In 1896, an Italian army had been defeated at Adowa in Northern Abyssinia in a failed attempt to conquer the country. Since then,Italy wanted revenge.
Mussolini, Italy’s leader was looking ways to boost their popularity following the Depression. Invading Abyssinia looked like a low risk way of doing this.

The invasion:
Following a border incident at Wal Wal (place in Abyssinia) in Dec 1934, Mussolini began a build up of Italian forces in Eritrea and Somaliand (Italy’s territories). The Italian attack was launched with a quarter million men and was launched in October 1935 without any formal declaration of war. The world was shocked at the ruthlessness of the Italians as small towns were destroyed.

Question 39

Response of the League to the invasion of Abyssinia

Answer 39

The League thought that the attack wasn’t fair and imposed economic sanctions. It appeared that the League was determined not to commit the same mistake like in Manchuria. But it was
shown that the economic sanctions were having little impact
because of the following:

1. Essential war materials such as oil
   and coal had been excluded from the
   list of banned items.
2. The Suez Canal the main artery for the Italian
   army was kept open for fear of possible Italian
   naval attacks on the British colonial possessions
   of Gibraltar and Malta.

To avoid embarrassment, in Dec 1935, the French and British
government made an secret deal called the Hoare Laval Pact. Italy
would receive two thirds of Abyssinia in return for stopping the war.

Mussolini said he would accept the deal but the pact
was leaked the French press. The protests in France and
Britain meant that the plan had to be abandoned with
blame on the two ministers. The war continued with
Abyssinia capital being captured in May 1936. Sanctions
were lifted in July.

Question 40

What did the League fail to give effective help to Abyssinia

Answer 40

Britain and France were trying to achieve two objectives.
They were trying to support the League of Nations and their
collective security but also were fearful of offending Italy to
the extent of becoming the ally of Germany. The second
objective was regarded as the most important for Britain and
France.

By trying to maintain both objectives, they ended
up with nothing. The League was dealt with a death
blow from which it never recovered, while Italy was
so offended they joined with Germany and left the
League in 1937.

Question 41

How did the Abyssinian crisis affect the work of the League after 1936?

Answer 41

While the committees and the commissions continued
to perform useful work, the work during the 1930’s was
bad and the League was ignored on most of the major
issues of foreign policy.

The League played a little role leading up the Union
between Germany and Austria in 1938. Britain and France
realised to calm Germany was to rearm and seek military
allies. There were no meetings of the Council or the
Assembly during WW2 and when the League met again in
1946 it was for the last time.

However, the Permanent Court of International Justice and
the International Labour Organisation was implanted in the
United Nations which used a similar structure in the form of
an assembly and Council.

Question 42

The reasons for Britain and France ignoring Abyssinia because of the rise of Hitler

Answer 42

They did not want Mussolini to go to the other side (meaning the axis) because they needed the power and wanted to keep them on the allies side.