To what extent was the League of Nations as a success?

Question 1

What were the aims of the League?

Answer 1

• to achieve international peace and security
• to promote international cooperation, especially in business and trade
• to encourage nations to disarm
• to improve living and working conditions for the people of all nations
• to uphold and enforce the Treaty of Versailles

Question 2

League of Nations - when, where and how?

Answer 2

How: Created through the peace treaties at the end of the First World War
Where: Based in Geneva, Switzerland
When: Started work in 1920

Question 3

What did the League of Nations consist of structurally?

Answer 3

The Assembly
The Council
The Secretariat
Agencies, committees and commissions

Question 4

What was the role of the Assembly?

Answer 4

• Met annually at the League’s headquarters
• All members of the lEague were represented
• Considered matters of general policy and recommended action to the Council
• Fixed the budget
• Every member of the League had one vote
• Decisions had to be unanimous

Question 5

What was the role of the Council?

Answer 5

• Met four times a year and for emergencies
• Had both permanent and non-permanent members
• In 1920 the permanent members were Britain, France, Italy and Japan
• The non-permanent members were elected by the Assembly for three-year periods
• In 1926 Germany became a permanent member
• The number of non-permanent members increased from 4 in 1920 to 9 in 1926 and 11 in 1936
• Each member country had one vote. Decisions had to be unanimous

Question 6

What was the role of the Secretariat?

Answer 6

• Performed all the administrative and financial work of the League
• Organised conferences and meetings
• Kept records and prepared reports

Question 7

What was the role of the agencies, committees and commissions?

Answer 7

• The Mandates Commission ensured that Britain and France acted in the interests of the people of the former colonies of Germany and her allies
• The Refugees Committee assisted in the return of refugees to their original homes following the end of war
• The Slavery Commission worked to abolish slavery around the world
• The Health Committee began to educate people about health and sanitation and started to deal with dangerous diseases

Question 8

What was the Conference of Ambassadors?

Answer 8

This was a group of senior diplomats representing the Allied powers.
It was established in 1920 to deal with matters arising from peace settlements
It duplicated some of the functions of the League and played a major role in the Corfu incident

Question 9

What were the powers of the League?

Answer 9

1) Moral condemnation - Putting pressure on a guilty country by bringing world opinion against it
2) Economic and financial sanctions - Members of the League could refuse to trade with the guilty country
3) Military force - Armed forces form member countries could be used against an aggressor

Question 10

What successes were there in settling political disputes by the League of Nation?

Answer 10

• Sweden and Finland fought over the Aaland Islands (1921); resolved by giving them to Finland
• Dispute between Germany and Poland over Upper Silesia (1921); the area was divided between the two following a plebiscite
• Dispute between Turkey and Iraq over the province of Mosul (1924)
• Greece and Bulgaria fought over their borders (1925); Greece was ordered to withdraw and pay Bulgaria 45,000 pounds compensation
• In South America differences were settled between Peru and Columbia and between Bolivia and Paraguay

Question 11

Success in dealing with humanitarian issues - Refugees

Answer 11

After the war around 400,000 prisoners and refugees were successfully returned to their homelands from Russia and Greece

Question 12

Success in dealing with humanitarian issues - Health organisation

Answer 12

–Helped Soviet Russia to prevent a typhus epidemic in Siberia; worked hard to defeat leprosy; started an international campaign to exterminate mosquitoes, reducing the spread of malaria and yellow fever

Question 13

Success in dealing with humanitarian issues - Transport

Answer 13

Made recommendations for the marking of shipping lanes; produced an international highway code for road users

Question 14

Success in dealing with humanitarian issues - Economic financial

Answer 14

–Devised a plan to deal with Austria’s economic problems by stabilising the currency; devised similar plans for Hungary, Greece and Bulgaria

Question 15

Success in dealing with humanitarian issues - Social issues

Answer 15

Freed 200,000 slaves in British-owned Sierra Leone; it challenged the use of forced labour on the Tanganyika railway in Africa, reducing the death rate from 50% to 4%; blacklisted large international companies involved in illegal drug selling

Question 16

Success in dealing with humanitarian issues - Working conditions

Answer 16

Banned poisonous white lead from paint, limited the working hours for young children

Question 17

League’s failures - Failure to deal with aggressors

Answer 17

• Poland and Lithuania fought over Vilna (1920). Poland was clearly the aggressor but not withdraw. The French would not act against Poland as they saw them as a possible future ally.
• Italy and Greece dispute over Corfu (1923). Here Mussolini went behind the back of the League to the Conference of Ambassadors, persuading it to change the League ruling.

Question 18

League’s failures - Failure to implement disarmament

Answer 18

All attempts at international disarmament failed, despite the efforts of the Disarmament Commission. The French regarded disarmament as a threat to their security. This encouraged Germany to argue that they had a right to rearm to protect themselves.

Question 19

League’s failures - Agreements made outside the League

Answer 19

• There was limited faith in the League’s ability to deal with any major challenge in the 1920s as the resolution of disputes was in relation to minor countries
• France was the country most concerned about its security, making mutual assistance pacts with other countries including Poland and Czechoslovakia
• The Locarno Treaties of 1925 provided guarantees for the frontiers of north-eastern Europe
• The Kellogg-Briand Pact had 65 signatories of countries renouncing war by 1928

Question 20

Weaknesses in the League’s organisation - Membership

Answer 20

• The United States had refused to join and this meant that the League was missing the world’s wealthiest and most powerful country, which reduced the League’s ability to take action against aggressive countries either militarily or by considering economic and trade sanctions
• Germany was only allowed to join the League in 1926, after it had demonstrated its peaceful intentions. This had the effect of creating a view that the League was a club created for victorious powers closely related with the TOV.
• Soviet Russia was not invited to join the League because it was communist. Russia was the third of three significant world powers not in the League
• Britain and France were the only major powers - Britain was trying to maintain its empire while France was primarily concerned with increasing security against Germany (self-interest)
• Japan and Italy were both original members but left after disputes with the League

Question 21

Weaknesses in the League’s organisation - Collective Security

Answer 21

• Created uncertainty as an appropriate army would be difficult to assemble since member states would be reluctant to send their army to participate in a dispute in which they were not directly involved
• The absence of the US reduced its effectiveness as the League was deprived of a powerful army and strong financial backing
• League’s Covenant demanded unanimous decisions in both the Assembly and the Council. This made it difficult to take decisive action against any country acting in a war-like manner.
• Collective security was unrealistic

Question 22

What was collective security

Answer 22

This was the intended means by which the League aimed to maintain peace. It depended on the willingness of members of the League to work together to deal with aggression. There were three stages: moral disapproval, economic sanctions and military sanctions

Question 23

The Depression’s affect on the League

Answer 23

• Reluctance to impose economic sanctions, countries wanted to maintain existing trade contacts
• Extremists came to power who were often nationalist in nature. They did not believe in democracy and ignored the authority of the League
• Extreme nationalism brought with it militarism. Parties built up their armed forces and used aggression to achieve their aims, for example, the Nazi Party in Germany
• People lost their jobs and turned to extreme parties who promised solutions to the economic crisis
• League members lacked means to deal with aggressors as there was no money to spend on armaments
• Countries found themselves under pressure to find new markets and raw materials. Often this was through colonisation or annexation, for example, Japan in Manchuria

Question 24

Why did Japan invade Manchuria

Answer 24

Japan had a powerful army and navy and strong leaders who often dictated government policy
Japan faced a declining export market for its silk as demand decreased resulting in a growing economic crisis.
Invading Manchuria provided an answer to Japan’s need for food and raw materials

Question 25

Manchurian Crisis - Action of the League

Answer 25

• The League instructed Japan to withdraw, but was ignored and the invasion continued
• China was in a state of anarchy so the League was to some degree willing to allow Japan to sort it out
• A commission of enquiry was set up, which concluded that the invasion was not justified. The commission did not present its report until 1932, a full year after the invasion
• After the findings were considered by the League in 1933, they were accepted by a vote of 42 to 1
• Japan responded by leaving the League

Question 26

Manchurian Crisis - Failure to introduce sanctions

Answer 26

• No European country wanted to cut back its trade with the Far East, especially as America would have taken over
• Military sanctions were less appealing as it would have involved the sending of a naval task force to the other side of the world with little chance of success
• Britain and France feared attack on their Far East colonies if sanctions were imposed.
• The League was Eurocentric in nature and did not see Asia as vital for Europe

Question 27

Manchurian Crisis - Result

Answer 27

• Japan got away with blatant aggression as Hitler and Mussolini watched with interest
• The League looked weak
• To avoid taking action the League regarded Manchuria as a Japanese sphere of interest
• As events took place in East Asia, the League was less damaged. Some League members believed that if the action was in Europe the League would take appropriate action

Question 28

When did Italy invade Abyssinia?

Answer 28

October 1935

Question 29

Why did Italy invade Abyssinia?

Answer 29

Mussolini was looking for ways to boost his popularity in Italy following a period of economic recession and unemployment. The primitive nature of Abyssinia’s defences were no match for the modern Italian army and air force

Question 30

Abyssinian Crisis - Action of the League

Answer 30

The League immediately condemned the unprovoked aggression of Italy and imposed economic sanctions which immediately banned:

• arms sales to Italy
• monetary loans to Italy
• imports from Italy
• exports to Italy of rubber, tin and metals

Question 31

Abyssinian Crisis - Failures of the League

Answer 31

The League failed to ban oil and coal exports to Italy as it was thought America would not support this and that the economic interests of League members would be affected
It did not close the Suez canal to Mussolini’s supply ships for fear of reprisals against the British colonial possessions of Gibraltar and Malta

Question 32

Abyssinian Crisis - Britain and France self - interest

Answer 32

Britain and France showed self-interest – if coal had been included in the sanctions it was reported that 30,000 British coal miners would lose their jobs.
France had made secret agreements with Italy giving them economic concessions in North Africa, essentially giving Mussolini consent to take over Abyssinia

Question 33

What was the Hoare-Laval pact?

Answer 33

This was a secret plan made by the foreign secretary of Britain, Hoare, and the prime minister of France, Laval, to give Abyssinia to Italy.

Question 34

What happened with the Hoare-Laval pact?

Answer 34

The Hoare-Laval pact was leaked to the French press. This was disastrous for the League as its members were seen as committing an act of treachery, with the League losing all credibility.

Question 35

Abyssinian Crisis - Result of the League

Answer 35

-The League was powerless when its most important members failed to take effective action against Italy as they were desperate to keep Italy’s friendship. They feared Mussolini would ally with Hitler.

Question 36

Abyssinian Crisis - Result of the Rhineland

Answer 36

On the 7th of March 1936 Hitler remilitarised the Rhineland. The French would now not support sanctions as they were desperate to gain the support of Italy

Question 37

Abyssinian Crisis - Result of Abyssinia

Answer 37

On the 9th of May 1936 Mussolini formally annexed the whole of Abyssinia. The League watched helplessly.

Question 38

Abyssinian Crisis - Result of collective security

Answer 38

Collective security was now dead as was the existence of the League as a peacekeeping organisation

Question 39

What was Rome-Berlin axis?

Answer 39

In November 1936 Mussolini and Hitler singed the Rome-Berlin axis. This alliance contained a protocol committing Germany and Italy to follow a common foreign policy. Thereafter, Germany and her partners in military aggression would be known as the Axis powers.