What were the successes of the League? Flashcards
What were the Aaland islands?
One of the first disputes that the League managed to be satisfyingly resolved was the rivaled claims between Sweden and Finland when it came to the Aaland Islands. The Aaland Islands were situated in the baltic sea. Generally, most Aaland islanders wanted to be ruled by Sweden. The League went in and investigated the matter but ended up awarding the island to Finland. The Island had safeguards that included demilitarization and Sweden had to accept the judgment.
What was Upper Silesia?
Upper Silesia was located on the border between Germany and Poland, which contained a valuable industrial area. After the Treaty of Versailles, Upper Silesia was originally granted to Poland, but the Germans protested. In the end, there was a plebiscite that was to be held in that region. The majority favored Germany and suggested that the territory should be awarded to Germany but there were some parts of Silesian territory that there was a clear majority towards Poland. There were riots and protests and then the League suggested a partition. This was accepted by both sides and Eastern Upper Silesia went to Poland while Western Upper Silesia went to Germany.
What was Mosul?
The Kurdish populated province of Mosul was claimed by Turkey in 1924. This was part of the Iraq territory mandated by the British. The league investigated the problem and made an award in favor of Iraq. The territory went to Iraq and Turkey accepted it.
What was Bulgaria?
Greece was ordered to pay 45,000 pounds compensation to Bulgaria after its invasion of Bulgarian territory, in southeastern Europe. They came about in different responses to a shooting incident on the shared border. A Greek sentry was killed in an exchange of fire. The Greeks accepted the ruling but judged it unfair because Italy had been treated differently in very similar circumstances.
What was the Refugee Organization?
One of the biggest problems that the Refugee Organization faced was the problem of World War One prisoners of war who were stranded in strings of different countries. Some examples are Soviet Russia, Poland, France, Germany, and Turkey. An estimated 25,000 Russians were trapped in French and German camps, and around 300,000 Germans and former Austro-Hungarian in Soviet Russia. Fridtjof Nansen, a Norwegian explorer, and scientist was recruited to fix this problem. He worked with a small budget alongside the red cross and ended up helping 425,000 people either return or find homes. This was between the years of 1920-1922. He used a series of improvisations, finding suitable transport, setting up camps, creating new settlements, teaching new trades and skills, as well as issuing identity documents.
What was the Health Organization?
Ludwig Rajchman was the director of the Health organization and is regarded as one of the most successful of the Leagues agencies. It established links with non-member countries such as Germany, Soviet Russia, and the USA, used to provide information service, technical support, and advice on health matters. An example of somewhere it helped was Soviet Russia as it helped prevent a typhus epidemic in Serbia by organizing a campaign on health and sanitation. The incidence of leprosy was also reduced and began an international incentive to exterminate mosquitoes. It was extremely important when it came to setting up research facilities based in London, Copenhagen, and Singapore, which developed internationally accepted vaccines for diphtheria, tetanus, and tuberculosis. The real success of the Health Organization was after the League had collapsed and it became the World Health Organization.
What was the Economic and Financial Organization?
After the First World War, a number of countries faced the threat of economic crisis. Austria was in danger of a financial breakdown, as it was still adjusting to being a small land-locked country dependent on agriculture for its wealth. Expenditure had to be brought in line with the inevitably reduced revenues and then in 1922, the League had created a plan to achieve this. Their significant actions are taken to stabilize the currency by controlling interest rates, the circulation of banknotes, and issuing credit. Austria was given a loan to revive trade and unemployment fell, the budget was balanced. Similar things happened in other ailing countries including Hungary, Greece, and Bulgaria.
What was the International Labour Organization?
The international labor organization achieved some great things when pursuing one of its main goals which were to bring about the general improvement in working conditions. This was under the leadership of French socialist Albert Thomas. The ILO collected data on employment practices around the world and published their results, and then persuaded different governments to take action. Some of these recommendations included 8-hour working days and a 48-hour working week, annual holidays with pay, the right to join trade unions, and a minimum employment age. Other information that the ILO published included information on health and safety in the workplace and showed how the use of white lead in print manufacturing was dangerous to health. This did not mean however that countries were going to implement the recommendations set, or at least not right away. The recommended employment age was 15 but it wasn’t until after the Second World War, that Britain raised the school leaving age. The ILO worked wharf and established and popularised different benchmarks when it came to working and employment, this ended up making it hard for countries to ignore the existence of these work practic
What was the Slavery Commission?
The main goal of the Slavery Commission was to rid the world of slavery and slave dealing together with other exploitative practices like prostitution of women and children- or the white slave traffic. It used methods of persistent inquiry, publication of reports, and the constant coaxing of governments, who were viewed as slow or evading action. Some successes included the freeing of 200,000 slaves in Sierra Leone and the reduction of the death rate for African workers engaged on the Tanganyika railway from 50 percent to 4 percent. A few countries also abolished slavery all together like Iraq, Jordan, and Nepal. This success was not universal and there is still an existence of slave trading in a later Commission report in 1937 while the ‘white slave’ continues to remain a serious social problem.
What was the disarmament commission?
Article 8 of the League covenant had stated that all nations should disarm “to the lowest point consistent with national safety”. However, by the 1920s only the defeated powers had been disarmed and only because they had been forced to by the terms of the treaties imposed on them. There was however a minor success for the Commission in organizing the Washington Naval Conference of 1921, which led to an agreement on naval limitations by the USA, Britain, France, and Japan. This represented the high watermark of voluntary disarmament during the 1920s.
