The League of Nations and its Collapse Flashcards

1
Q

What was the League of Nations?

A

An international peace-keeping organisation.

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2
Q

What were the 4 aims that countries involved would work together to achieve?

A

-To stop war from breaking out
-To encourage disarmament
-To improve working conditions
-To tackle deadly diseases

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3
Q

How many members were there when it first founded?

A

42

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4
Q

How many members did the League of Nations rise to and by when?

A

It rose to 58 members by 1934

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5
Q

Who were the 4 permanent members of the council?

A

Britain, France, Italy and Japan.

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6
Q

Why was the USA not in the League of Nations?

A

The senate refused to agree.

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7
Q

Where was the League based?

A

In Geneva, Switzerland. It had not been involved in the war so was seen as a peaceful country.

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8
Q

What other key international organisation was also based here in Switzerland?

A

The Red Cross

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9
Q

Why was Russia, despite being a very powerful country, not allowed to join the League of Nations?

A

Britain and France were suspicious of the new Communist government in Russia, so they weren’t allowed to join.

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10
Q

What other group of countries were not allowed to join the League of Nations?

A

The countries who had lost the war could not join.

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11
Q

What agreement, and when, allowed Germany to join the League?

A

The Locarno Treaty in 1926.

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12
Q

Why did Germany leave the League soon after joining?

A

Once Hitler came to power, he took Germany out of the League.

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13
Q

Why did both Japan and Italy leave the League?

A

After they both invaded other countries in the 1930s.

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14
Q

When and what did Lloyd George issue which said he completely supported the League?

A

On the 25 March 1919 he issued the Fountainebleau Memorandum.

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15
Q

It was thought that the League could work through what?

A

Collective security; the idea that if all countries worked together they could make sure that peace was kept and that the interests of every nations were looked after.

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16
Q

What was the Permanent Court of International Justice?

A

The league set up an international court that would establish international laws.

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17
Q

What were 3 ways the Covenant set out how the League would deal with aggression?

A

-Mitigation
-Moral condemnation
-Economic sanctions

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18
Q

What was mitigation?

A

Getting countries together to talk through problems

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19
Q

What was moral condemnation?

A

To tell someone that they were in the wrong.

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20
Q

What were the economic sanctions like that the League enforced?

A

Members of the League would not trade with the warring countries.

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21
Q

Did the League have its own army?

A

No, as it was a peaceful organisation.

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22
Q

What was the League’s Assembly?

A

Every member could send representatives to the Assembly, which met once a year on the first Monday of September.

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23
Q

How were votes passed in the Assembly?

A

The decisions had to be unanimous (where everyone agrees)

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24
Q

What 4 things were the League’s Assembly in charge of?

A

-Deciding when a new country could join
-The election of judges to the Permanent Court of International Justice
-Voting the non-permanent members of the council
-Deciding how the League’s money was to be spent

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25
Q

What was the League’s Council?

A

The Council met more frequently than the Assembly to react quicker to emergencies and keep the League running smoothly. There were the 4 permanent members (Britain, France, Italy and Japan) with 4 other countries that would be chosen to sit on the council, each for a 3 year term.

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26
Q

What did the Council have the power of?

A

The veto, it could stop a ruling with its vote - even if the assembly did manage to make a unanimous ruling, the Council could still stop it.

27
Q

What was the Permanent Court of International Justice?

A

A court of law that would settle international arguments.

28
Q

What was the Secretariat?

A

The civil service of the League, meaning that it was in charge of administration and organising any action that the League wanted to take. It was a body of different experts from different areas.

29
Q

What were the special commisions?

A

Special groups put together to tackle issues that the League was worried about.

30
Q

Give 4 things that the League was worried about and the special commissions were put together to tackle these issues:

A

-The International Labour Organisation (ILO)
-The Commission for Refugees
-The Health Organisation
-The Permanent Central Opium Board

31
Q

Give 3 strengths of the League of Nations:

A
  1. It was written into all of the peace treaties at the end of the First World War, so all nations involved recognised the organisation
  2. It had a vast membership
  3. As there were so many members, economic sanctions and moral condemnation were daunting punishments for countries
32
Q

Give 4 weaknesses of the League of Nations:

A

-Many important countries could or would not join, undermining the League as a ‘global’ organisation and it meant that if a country faced economic sanctions it could still trade with some of the most powerful and richest countries
-No army meant it could not force people to obey it
-Complicated structure which confused people and slowed action
-Decisions had to be unanimous which made decision-making slow

33
Q

What was the aim of the International Labour Organisation (ILO)?

A

To bring workers, employers and governments together to improve the conditions that people worked in.

34
Q

What did the ILO successfully do in 1922?

A

Recommended banning the use of white lead in paint as it was poisonous

35
Q

What did the ILO successfully do in 1930?

A

Helped Greece set up social insurance (to help people if they were unemployed because of an illness)

36
Q

What did the ILO successfully do in 1928-77?

A

Countries agreed to set a minimum wage.

37
Q

What did the ILO successfully do in Tanganyika, Africa?

A

Reduced the death rate of slaves being used to build a new railway from 50% to 4%.

38
Q

What did the ILO fail to do in 1919?

A

They tried to stop children under the age of 14 from working, but it was not adopted by most members as they thought it would cost too much money.

39
Q

What did the ILO fail to do in 1935?

A

They suggested the working day should be limited to 8 hours, but only 4 members voted in favour of it, saying it would cost industries too much. Also the opinion that workers should be paid for their holidays was unpopular. One member even said that this was ‘industrial suicide’.

40
Q

What was the aim of the Commission for Refugees?

A

To return prisoners of war home and support refugees by improving camp conditions, finding new homes, or returning them to their own countries once the threat of conflict had passed.

41
Q

What did the Commission for Refugees successfully do in 1921?

A

The league helped free about 427,000 out of 500,000 war prisoners of war still imprisoned from the First World War and returned them to their homelands.

42
Q

What did the Commission for Refugees successfully do in 1917?

A

Revolution had led to civil war in Russia , by 1921 1.5 million people had fled Russia for refugee camps and the League helped them find new homes.

43
Q

What did the Commission for Refugees successfully do in 1922?

A

Turkey and Greece clashed which forced people to flee to find refugee camps. The League set up camps and sent doctors to help treat diseases such as cholera and smallpox in these camps.

44
Q

How many homes did the League of Nations find for Greeks fleeing from Turkey between 1919 and 1923?

A

Homes for around 600,000 Greeks.

45
Q

What passport did the League of Nations create?

A

The nansen passport, a document that could be used as identification by refugees.

46
Q

Give a success of the League’s Slavery Commission:

A

Organised raids on the camps of slave traders in Sierra Leone, setting 200,000 people free. In 1927 Sierra Leone announced that slavery was abolished altogether.

47
Q

Give 3 successes of the League’s Health Committee:

A

-Started an international campaign to kill mosquitoes, which spread diseases such as malaria and yellow fever
-Worked with the government in Russia to educate people about how the disease typhus was spread
-It was later renamed the World Health Organisation (WHO) which still exists today.

48
Q

What were the aims of the Permanent Central Opium Board?

A

To stop the cultivation and distribution of opium - was legally used as a painkiller but some drug companies sold it illegally.

49
Q

What were 2 successes of the Permanent Central Opium Board?

A

-Introduced a system where companies had to have a certificate to say that they were allowed to import opium for medicinal purposes
-Blacklisted 4 large companies that were involved in trading illegal drugs.

50
Q

What was a failure of the Permanent Central Opium Board?

A

-Some historians claim that key members of the League were not dedicated to stopping the sale of opium as they made large amounts of money from it.

51
Q

When was the Vilna issue?

A

1920

52
Q

When was the Upper Silesia issue?

A

1921-25

53
Q

When was the Aland Islands issue?

A

1921

54
Q

When was the Corfu issue?

A

1923

55
Q

When was the Bulgaria issue?

A

1925

56
Q

When was the Wall Street Crash?

A

1929

57
Q

When was the Locarno Treaty?

A

1925

58
Q

When was the Kellogg-Briand Pact?

A

1928

59
Q

When was the Rapallo Treaty?

A

1922

60
Q

When was the Washington Arms Conference?

A

1921-22

61
Q

How many countries met in Paris to sign the Kellgg-Briand Pact?

A

65

62
Q

When did Italy leave the League of Nations

A

May 1936

63
Q

When did the USSR join the League?

A

1934.