The League of Nations Flashcards
Which League committee aimed to improve conditions for working people?
International Labour Organisation
What did the Mandates Commission do?
Dealt with the running of former German and Ottoman (Turkish) colonies put under League of Nations control.
Describe the work of the Refugees Committee.
It aimed to return refugees (mainly from former Russian and Ottoman territories) to their homes or help them to settle and find work in new countries. 400,000 prisoners returned to their homes after the War.
Who were the permanent members of the League Council in 1920?
Britain, France, Italy, Japan
Roughly how many times a year did the League Council meet?
5
How many times a year did the League Assembly meet?
Once
What was the key problem with the decision making process in the League Assembly?
Decisions had to be unanimous, and it was often difficult to get all members to agree.
In 1921, the League ruled on a dispute over the Aaland Islands. What was the outcome?
The League ruled that the islands should belong to Finland, and Sweden accepted this.
How did the League resolve the dispute over Upper Silesia (1921)?
The League oversaw a peaceful plebiscite (referendum) and divided the region between Germany and Poland.
What was the Geneva Protocol?
This said that if two LoN members were in dispute, they had to ask the League to sort out the disagreement, and they had to accept the Council’s decision. Britain refused to sign up to this after it was drawn up in 1924.
In which year was the Vilna incident? And what happened?
- 1920
- Poland took control of the Lithuanian capital, Vilna. Lithuania appealed to the League and the League protested to Poland. The Poles did not pull out. Britain and France unprepared to act.
In which year did the Corfu incident take place, and between which countries?
1923; Greece and Italy
Who was the Italian general murdered in Corfu, which sparked Mussolini’s occupation of the island?
Tellini
How, broadly, did the Great Depression in the US affect the economies of other countries?
- US loans dried up, negatively affecting the economies of many European countries, and leading to unemployment
- Many countries started to rearm as a way of trying to get industry going, and to provide jobs
How did the Great Depression affect Japan?
- Main export was silk to the US; this dried up
- Consequent economic downturn meant Japan had less money to buy food and raw materials
- Japan’s military leaders decided that building an empire and taking over weaker countries could help recover the economy
How did the Great Depression affect Germany?
- There was unemployment and poverty
- Germany’s political leaders seemed unable to do anything about the chaos
- Adolf Hitler was elected as Germans saw his ideas as potentially able to provide some sort of solution to these problems
When was the Wall Street Crash?
October 1929
Where, and in which year, was the explosion that gave Japan the excuse to invade Manchuria?
Mukden, on the South Manchurian Railway; 1931
When China appealed to the League after the invasion on Manchuria, what did the League do?
- Sent a commission to report on the crisis
- Took a full year to report
- Their conclusions = Japan had acted unlawfully and Manchuria should be returned to China