League Of Nations Flashcards

Question

Corfu Incident, 1923

Answer 1

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.

Answer 2

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.

Answer 3

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.

Answer 4

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.

Answer 5

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.

Answer 6

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.

Answer 7

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.

Answer 8

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

Answer 9

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.

Answer 10

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.

Answer 11

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.

Answer 12

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.

Answer 13

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.

Answer 14

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.

Answer 15

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.

Answer 16

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.

Answer 17

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.

Answer 18

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.