The League Of Nations

Question 0

What were the aims of the league?

Answer 0

Stop war - collective security (stop aggression)
Disarmament
Encourage co-operation
Improve living and working conditions
In force the Treaty of Versailles

Question 1

Where did the League of Nations come from?

Answer 1

Woodrow Wilson’s 14 points

Question 2

When did the League of Nations begin work?

Answer 2

January 1920

Question 3

What could the league do?

Answer 3

Warn countries in disputes, then apply economic sanctions (block international trade with the misbehaving country) lastly, send in troops

Question 4

How was the league organised?

Answer 4

✖️ the assembly, met once a year. Each country had one vote. Could only recommend to council
✖️ the council, met about three times per year, or in an emergency. Five permanent members - Britain France Italy Japan and Germany (became a member in 1926) also had temporary members
✖️ the secretariat, carried out the work of the league, like a civil service
✖️ international labour organisation, worked to improve working conditions
✖️ special commissions, eg. Mandates, refugees, slavery, health organisation
✖️ permanent court of international justice

Question 5

What was the dispute that the league solved in 1921?

Answer 5

The league solved the dispute between Germany and Poland over Upper Silesia.
The league also solved the dispute between Sweden and Finland over the Aaland Islands in 1921, and the conflict when Greece invaded Bulgaria in 1925

Question 7

Why didn’t the USA join the League of Nations?

Answer 7

the Americans didnt like the Treaty of Versailles and refused to accept it, they also thought the league was connected to it so they did not join the league of nations.

Question 7

What were the strengths of the league?

Answer 7

1) arbitration
2) sanctions
3) community power

Question 8

Why wasn’t the league powerful enough?

Answer 8

1) Britain and France were in charge but neither country was strong enough after the war to do the job properly.
2) economic and military sanctions could only work if a powerful country like the USA were applying them. most countries were too busy re-building themselves after the war to apply them.
3) Germany and communist Russia were not allowed to join the league of nations when it was first formed.
4) the league had no army of its own and no country wanted to commit their troops to war some countries like Italy were quite prepared to ignore the league all together
5) the organisation was a disaster, everyone in the council and the assembly had to agree before anything could be done, the court of justice had no powers to make a country act.

Question 9

What two conflicts caused the league problems in 1923?

Answer 9

• the Corfu incident

- the French occupation of the Ruhr

Question 10

What was the Corfu incident?

Answer 10

• Mussolini occupied the Greek Island of Corfu in 1923 after the murder of an Italian diplomat
• Mussolini demanded financial compensation and an apology from Greece
• the league demanded money should be paid to them, not Italy
• Mussolini got the decision over turned and received the money and the apology that he wanted. This made the league look weak.

Question 11

What was the French occupation of the Ruhr?

Answer 11

• Germany failed to keep up with its reparation payments.
• in retaliation, France invaded and occupied an industrial region of Germany called the Ruhr in 1923
• the League of Nations did not intervene
• the USA helped resolve the situation with the Dawes Plan
• so France withdrew from the Ruhr in 1925

Question 12

Members of the League…

Answer 12

• 42 countries had joined the League of Nations, by the 1930’s the total number of members was 60
• the USSR did not join the league
• Germany was not allowed to join the league
• the leading members were Britain and France and were helped by Japan and Italy
• the USA never joined the league

Question 13

what was the “great depression?”

Answer 13

this was when the American stock market crashed in 1929, the trade centre for the USA is the “wall street” this crisis was also known as the wall street crash. there was too much produce and not enough demand so when people saw business start to do badly they would drop their shares because they knew they would lose money, this was the start of the great depression, a global economic downturn.

Question 14

why did the depression cause America problems?

Answer 14

1) in 1929 America stopped lending money to European countries and called in its loans
2) by 1930 nearly 2000 banks had collapsed as people rushed to withdraw savings
3) by 1933 there were over 12 million unemployed Americans.

Question 15

why did the depression make the leagues work harder?

Answer 15

the depression caused poverty and people began to support right-wing leaders hoping they would provide a strong government
In 1933 the Nazis led by Hitler wanted to defy the league by disobeying the Treaty of Versailles
The depression also meant countries like Britain and France were less likely to be as involved in the league to help resolve international conflicts because they wanted to deal with their own problems like unemployment.

Question 16

why did japan invade Manchuria?

Answer 16

Manchuria was rich in raw materials like iron and coal, Manchuria was also weak so it was easy to invade. the Japanese also had an army on the boarder of Manchuria.

Question 17

how did the Japanese invade Manchuria?

Answer 17

the Japanese planted a bomb on the railway at Mukden, this railway was owned by the Japanese, the Japanese put the blame on the Chinese for the explosion in September 1931, China appealed to the league for help. the league sent Lord Lytton to assess the situation, his report said the Japanese were in the wrong however the league did nothing about it, (this was one of the first major challenges for the league and the whole world saw it fail to confront the Japanese aggression)….this weakened the league.

Question 18

what country invaded Abyssinia? and who was the leader?

Answer 18

Italy invaded and the invasion was lead by the Italian prime minister Mussolini.

Question 19

what were the reasons of the Abyssinian invasion?

Answer 19

1) Abyssinia had invaded Italy in 1896 and Italy wanted revenge
2) Abyssinia was in a perfect place for Italy to add to her land in Africa
3) Mussolini had seen Japan get away with invading Manchuria and the league had done nothing except threaten Japan
4) he dreamed of making Italy a great empire again.

Question 20

why did the league fail?

Answer 20

the league failed because it set out to prevent aggression and encourage cooperation, and to prevent the break out of another major war…it failed all these.

Question 21

which countries were permanent members of the council?

Answer 21

Britain, France, Italy, Japan and Germany who joined in 1926

Question 22

which two large nations other than the USA were not members when the league was first set up?

Answer 22

USSR and Germany