League of Nations and International peace Flashcards
What was the League of Nations?
- vision for bringing the world together in peace
- world parliament
Which countries were initially banned from joining the League and why?
- Russia -> communist
- Countries who had lost the war -> included Germany
What was collective security?
-if all countries worked together they could make sure peace was kept
What was the Permanent Court of International Justice?
- an international court
- establish international laws
- just advice, not compulsory ruling
What was the Fountainebleau Memorandum and when was it issued?
- Lloyd George said he completely supported the league
- 25th March 1919
Where was the League based?
-Geneva, Switzerland
How did the League settle disputes?
1) Mitigation - getting countries to talk through their problems
2) Moral condemnation - telling off
3) Economic sanctions - would not trade with warring countries
4) Ask members to lend their armed forces
Four aims of the League
- stop war from breaking out again
- encourage disarmament
- improve working conditions
- tackle deadly diseases
What was the Assembly?
- every member could send a representative
- met once a year
- decision had to be unanimous to pass a vote
What was the Council and who was in it?
- four permanent members -> GB, France, Japan and Italy
- four other countries also chosen to sit a three year term
- had the power of a veto (could stop a ruling with its vote)
What was the Secretariat?
- civil service of the League
- in charge of administration
What happened in Vilna and when was it?
- 1920
- capital of Lithuania - majority of people living there wanted to be Polish
- asked League for help
- League did nothing + Poland took Vilna
What happened in Upper Silesia and when was it?
- 1921-25
- 1921 -> plebiscite took place to decide who would own it
- 60% votes won by Germany
- Poles said this was unfair + LoN decided to split the area into regions
- outcome accepted by both
- final settlement was considered unfair by both parties
- Poles -> received roughly half the population, but only a third of the land
- Germans -> lost three quarters of the coal mines they had owned prior
- 1922: Germans complained to the League -> able to import coal at a heavily discounted rate
- 1925: agreement ended and relations worsened
What happened in the Aaland Islands and when was it?
- 1921
- both Sweden and Finland claimed the land and threatened to go to war
- LoN decided the land should go to Finland -> land was not to be used a base to attack Sweden
- Sweden accepted the terms
What happened in Corfu and when was it?
- 1923
- Italian team murdered in Greece
- 31st August -> Italy gained control of Corfu and killed 15 people
- Greece appealed to the League
- LoN condemned the act and would look after the money until the killers were found
- Mussolini persuaded the Conference of Ambassadors to undermine the League
- Greece forced to apologise and pay compensation to Italy
- LoN proved that they could be ignored and overturned by other international groups
What happened in Bulgaria and when was it?
- 1925
- Greek soldiers killed in Bulgaria
- Greece invaded + Bulgaria appealed to LoN for help
- condemned Greece, ordered them to withdraw troops and pay compensation
- hypocritical (Corfu)
- accepted because they were a small country
When was the Manchurian crisis?
-1931-32
What happened in Manchuria?
- 18th September 1931 -> the Mukden incident: explosion happened on the railway
- Japan used this as an excuse to invade Manchuria
- 1932 -> Japan put Pu Yi in charge as a puppet ruler, which meant Japan could control him
- LoN sent Lord Lytton and concluded Japan was in the wrong
- Japan ignored the findings and left LoN
When was the Abyssinian crisis?
-1934-35
What happened in Abyssinia?
- December 1934 -> Italian soldiers clashed at Wal Wal
- January 1935 -> Laval met with Mussolini: promised to let him deal with the crisis how he saw fit
- 30th June 1935 -> Haile Selassie addressed LoN in Geneva
- 3rd October 1935 -> entered Abyssinia
- 5th May 1936 -> took the capital
- May 1936 -> Italy left LoN
Why did the League fail in Abyssinia?
- failure to close the Suez canal
- trade sanctions against Italy
- Hoare-Laval pact
- trade sanctions against Abyssinia
