An international organization whose constitution was drafted at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, and incorporated into the peace treaties. The main aims were to preserve international peace and security by the prevention or speedy settlement of disputes and the promotion of disarmament through open diplomacy. It operated through a Council, which met several times a year, and an annual Assembly, which met at its Geneva headquarters. The USA refused to join, but there were 53 members by 1923, including the UK, France, Italy, and Japan. Germany joined in 1926, and Russia in 1934, but Germany and Japan withdrew in 1933, and Italy in 1936. It became increasingly ineffective in the later 1930s through the refusal of member nations to put international interests before national ones. The League was powerless in the face of Italian, German, and Japanese expansionism. After World War 2 it was replaced by the United Nations which, unlike the League of Nations, has a peace-keeping force and military observer groups built into its charter.
The League of Nations was an international organization founded after the Paris Peace Conference of 1919. The League's goals included disarmament, preventing war through collective security, settling disputes between countries through negotiation diplomacy and improving global welfare. The diplomatic philosophy behind the League represented a fundamental shift in thought from the preceding hundred years. The League lacked an armed force of its own and so depended on the Great Powers to enforce its resolutions, keep to economic sanctions which the League ordered, or provide an Army, when needed, for the League to use.
After a number of notable successes and some early failures in the 1920s, the League ultimately proved incapable of preventing aggression by the Axis Powers in the 1930s. The onset of the Second World War made it clear that the League had failed in its primary purpose—to avoid any future world war. The United Nations Organization replaced it after World War II and inherited a number of agencies and organizations founded by the League. The idea of the actual League of Nations appears to have originated with British Foreign Secretary Edward Grey, and it was enthusiastically adopted by the Democratic U.S. President Woodrow Wilson and his advisor Colonel Edward M. The creation of the League was a centrepiece of Wilson's Fourteen Points for Peace, specifically the final point: "A general association of nations must be formed under specific covenants for the purpose of affording mutual guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity to great and small states alike."
The Paris Peace Conference accepted the proposal to create the League of Nations (French: Société des Nations, German: Völkerbund) on January 25, 1919. The Covenant of the League of Nations was drafted by a special commission, and the League was established by Part I of the Treaty of Versailles, which was signed on June 28, 1919. Despite Wilson's efforts to establish and promote the League, for which he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1919, the United States neither ratified the Charter nor joined the League due to opposition from isolationists in the U.S. Senate, especially influential Republicans Henry Cabot Lodge of Massachusetts and William E.
The League held its first meeting in London on 10 January 1920. The headquarters of the League moved to Geneva on November 1, 1920, where the first general assembly of the League was held on November 15, 1920 with representatives from 41 nations in attendance.
Symbols
The League of Nations had neither an official flag nor logo. Proposals for adopting an official symbol were made during the League's beginning in 1920, but the member states never reached agreement. However, League of Nations organizations used varying logos and flags (or none at all) in their own operations.
Languages
The official languages of the League of Nations were French, English and Spanish (from 1920). In the early 1920s, there was a proposal for the League to accept Esperanto as their working language. Two years later the League recommended that its member states include Esperanto in their educational curricula.
Structure
The League had three principal organs: a secretariat (headed by the General Secretary and based in Geneva), a Council, and an Assembly. The League also had numerous Agencies and Commissions.
Secretariat
The staff of the League's secretariat was responsible for preparing the agenda for the Council and Assembly and publishing reports of the meetings and other routine matters, effectively acting as the civil service for the League.
Over the life of the League from 1920–1946, the three Secretaries General were:
Sir James Eric Drummond, 7th Earl of Perth (UK) (1920-1933) Joseph Avenol (France) (1933-1940) Seán Lester (Ireland) (1940-1946)The first president was Paul Hymans, a well-known Belgian politician. The General Secretary wrote annual reports on the work of the League.
Council
The League Council had the authority to deal with any matter affecting world peace. Germany also joined the League and became a fifth permanent member of the Council on the latter date, taking the Council to a total of fifteen members. When Germany and Japan later both left the League, their places were taken by new, non-permanent, members.
Assembly
Each member was represented and had one vote in the League Assembly.
Éamon de Valera was the President of the Council of the League of Nations at its 68th and Special Sessions in September and October 1932, and President of the Assembly of the League of Nations in 1938. Nicolae Titulescu served as president of the League of Nations for two terms, in 1930 and 1931.
Other bodies
The League oversaw the Permanent Court of International Justice and several other agencies and commissions created to deal with pressing international problems. While the League itself is generally branded a failure, several of its Agencies and Commissions had successes within their respective mandates. The Commission supervised League of Nations Mandates, and also organised plebiscites in disputed territories so that residents could decide which country they would join, most notably the plebiscite in Saarland in 1935.
Several of these institutions were transferred to the United Nations after the Second World War.
Members
See main article on League of Nations members
The League of Nations had 42 founding members with the notable exception of the United States of America, 16 of them left or withdrew from the international organization. The Kingdom of Yugoslavia was the only (founding) member to leave the league and return to it later and remained so a member until the end. France was a member for the duration of league, although Vichy France withdrew from the league. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was expelled from the league five years after it joined. Iraq was the only member of the league that at one time was a League of Nations Mandate.
Mandates
League of Nations Mandates were established under Article 22 of the Covenant of the League of Nations. These territories were former colonies of the German Empire and the Ottoman Empire that were placed under the supervision of the League following World War I. This was a territory "which, owing to the sparseness of their population, or their small size, or their remoteness from the centres of civilisation, or their geographical contiguity to the territory of the Mandatory, and other circumstances, can be best administered under the laws of the Mandatory."
(Quotations taken from The Essential Facts About the League of Nations, a handbook published in Geneva in 1939).
The territories were governed by "Mandatory Powers", such as the United Kingdom in the case of the Mandate of Palestine and the Union of South Africa in the case of South-West Africa, until the territories were deemed capable of self-government. With the exception of Iraq, which joined the League on October 3, 1932, these territories did not begin to gain their independence until after the Second World War, a process that did not end until 1990. Following the demise of the League, most of the remaining mandates became United Nations Trust Territories.
In addition to the Mandates, the League itself governed the Saarland for 15 years, before it was returned to Germany following a plebiscite, and the free city of Danzig (now Gdańsk, Poland) from 15 November 1920 to 1 September 1939.
Successes
The League is generally considered to have failed in its mission to achieve disarmament, prevent war, settle disputes through diplomacy, and improve global welfare. The Swedish government raised the issue with the League in 1921. After close consideration, the League determined that the islands should remain a part of Finland, but be governed autonomously, averting a potential war between the two countries.
Upper Silesia
The Treaty of Versailles had ordered a plebiscite in Upper Silesia to determine whether the territory should be part of Germany or Poland. The League was asked to settle the matter.
Memel
The port city of Memel (now Klaipėda) and the surrounding area was placed under League control after the end of the World War I and was governed by a French general for three years. The League chose to cede the land around Memel to Lithuania, but declared the port should remain an international zone; While the decision could be seen as a failure (in that the League reacted passively to the use of force), the settlement of the issue without significant bloodshed was a point in the League's favour.
Greece and Bulgaria
After an incident between sentries on the border between Greece and Bulgaria in 1925, Greek troops invaded their neighbour. Bulgaria ordered its troops to provide only token resistance, trusting the League to settle the dispute. The League did indeed condemn the Greek invasion, and called for both Greek withdrawal and compensation to Bulgaria.
Saar
Saar was a province formed from parts of Prussia and the Rhenish Palatinate that was established and placed under League control after the Treaty of Versailles. A plebiscite was to be held after fifteen years of League rule, to determine whether the region should belong to Germany or France.
Mosul
The League resolved a dispute between Iraq and Turkey over the control of the former Ottoman province of Mosul in 1926. According to the UK, which was awarded a League of Nations A-mandate over Iraq in 1920 and therefore represented Iraq in its foreign affairs, Mosul belonged to Iraq; A three person League of Nations committee was sent to the region in 1924 to study the case and in 1925 recommended the region to be connected to Iraq, under the condition that the UK would hold the mandate over Iraq for another 25 years, to assure the autonomous rights of the Kurdish population. The League Council adopted the recommendation and it decided on 16 December 1925 to award Mosul to Iraq. Although Turkey had accepted the League of Nations arbitration in the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923, it rejected the League's decision. Nonetheless, Britain, Iraq and Turkey made a treaty on 5 June 1926, that mostly followed the decision of the League Council and also assigned Mosul to Iraq.
Liberia
Following rumours of forced labor in the independent African country of Liberia, the League launched an investigation into the matter, particularly the alleged use of forced labor on the massive Firestone rubber plantation in that country. In 1930, a report by the League implicated many government officials in the selling of contract labor, leading to the resignation of President Charles D.B. The League followed with a threat to establish a trusteeship over Liberia unless reforms were carried out, which became the central focus of President Edwin Barclay.
Other successes
The League also worked to combat the international trade in opium and sexual slavery and helped alleviate the plight of refugees, particularly in Turkey in the period to 1926. Many of the League's successes were accomplished by its various Agencies and Commissions.
General weaknesses
The League did not, in the long term, succeed. The outbreak of World War II was the immediate cause of the League's demise, but there was also a variety of other, more fundamental, flaws.
The League, like the modern United Nations, lacked an armed force of its own and depended on the Great Powers to enforce its resolutions, which they were very reluctant to do. Economic sanctions, which were the most severe measure the League could implement short of military action, were difficult to enforce and had no great impact on the target country, because they could simply trade with those outside the League. The problem is exemplified in the following passage, taken from The Essential Facts About the League of Nations, a handbook published in Geneva in 1939:
The League's two most important members, Britain and France, were reluctant to use sanctions and even more reluctant to resort to military action on behalf of the League. The British Conservatives were especially tepid on the League and preferred, when in government, to negotiate treaties without the involvement of the organization.
Representation at the League was often a problem. Though it was intended to encompass all nations, many never joined, or their time as part of the League was short. One key weakness of the League was that the United States never joined, which took away much of the League's potential power. Even though US President Woodrow Wilson had been a driving force behind the League's formation, the United States Senate voted on November 19, 1919 not to join the League.
The League also further weakened when some of the main powers left in the 1930s. Japan began as a permanent member of the Council, but withdrew in 1933 after the League voiced opposition to its invasion of the Chinese territory of Manchuria. The League had accepted Germany as a member in 1926, deeming it a "peace-loving country", but Adolf Hitler pulled Germany out when he came to power in 1933.
The League's neutrality tended to manifest itself as indecision. The League required a unanimous vote of its nine (later fifteen) member Council to enact a resolution, so conclusive and effective action was difficult, if not impossible. that is, agreement by every member of the League.
Another important weakness of the League was that it tried to represent all nations, but most members protected their own national interests and were not committed to the League or its goals. The reluctance of all League members to use the option of military action showed this to the full. If the League had shown more resolve initially, countries, governments and dictators may have been more wary of risking its wrath in later years.
Moreover, the League's advocacy of disarmament for Britain and France (and other members) whilst at the same time advocating collective security meant that the League was unwittingly depriving itself of the only forceful means by which its authority would be upheld. This was because if the League was to force countries to abide by international law it would primarily be the Royal Navy and the French Army which would do the fighting. For its members League obligations meant there was a danger that states would get drawn into international disputes which did not directly affect their respective national interests.
On 23 June 1936, in the wake of the collapse of League efforts to restrain Italy's war of conquest against Abyssinia, British Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin told the House of Commons that collective security "failed ultimately because of the reluctance of nearly all the nations in Europe to proceed to what I might call military sanctions.... It was an accurate assessment and a lesson which clearly was applied in the formation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, which stood as the League's successor insofar as its role as guarantor of the security of Western Europe was concerned.
Specific failures
The general weaknesses of the League are illustrated by its specific failures. The League intervened, deciding that Poland should take control of most of the town, but that Czechoslovakia should take one of the town's suburbs, which contained the most valuable coal mines and the only railroad connecting Czech lands and Slovakia.
Vilna
After World War I, Poland and Lithuania both regained the independence that they had lost during the partitions of Poland in 1795.
During the Polish-Soviet War in 1920, a Polish army took control of the city. Despite the Poles' claim to the city, the League chose to ask Poland to withdraw: the Poles did not. Theoretically, British and French troops could have been asked to enforce the League's decision; Eventually, the League accepted Wilno as a Polish town on March 15, 1923. The next year, France and Belgium chose to act upon this, and invaded the industrial heartland of Germany, the Ruhr, despite this being in direct contravention of the League's rules. With France being a major League member, and Britain hesitant to oppose its close ally, nothing was done in the League. This set a significant precedent – the League rarely acted against major powers, and occasionally broke its own rules.
Corfu
One major boundary settlement that remained to be made after World War I was that between Greece and Albania. The Conference of Ambassadors, a de facto body of the League, was asked to settle the issue. Initially, the League condemned Mussolini's invasion, but also recommended Greece pay compensation, to be held by the League until Tellini's killers were found. Mussolini, though he initially agreed to the League's terms, set about trying to change them. By working on the Conference of Ambassadors, he managed to make the League change its decision. By bowing to the pressure of a large country, the League again set a dangerous and damaging example. This was one of the League's major failures.
Mukden Incident
The Mukden Incident was one of the League's major setbacks and acted as the catalyst for Japan's withdrawal from the organisation.
The Chinese government asked the League of Nations for help, but the long voyage around the world by sailing ship for League officials to investigate the matter themselves delayed matters. Despite Japan's high standing in the League, the Lytton Report declared Japan to be in the wrong and demanded Manchuria be returned to the Chinese. When the report passed 42-1 in the Assembly in 1933 (only Japan voted against), Japan withdrew from the League.
According to the Covenant of the League of Nations, the League should have now placed economic sanctions against Japan, or gathered an army together and declared war against it. Economic sanctions had been rendered almost useless due to the United States Congress voting against being part of the League, despite Woodrow Wilson's keen involvement in the drawing up of the Treaty of Versailles, and his wish for America to join the League. Any economic sanctions the League now placed on its member states would be fairly pointless, as the state barred from trading with other member states could simply turn and trade with America. An army was not assembled by the League due to the self-interest of many of its member states. This meant that countries like Britain and France did not want to gather together an army for the League to use, as they were too interested and busy with their own affairs - such as keeping control of their extensive colonial lands, especially after the turmoil of World War I.
Chaco War
The League failed to prevent the Chaco War between Bolivia and Paraguay in 1932 over the arid Chaco Boreal region of South America. Paraguay appealed to the League of Nations, but the League did not take action when the Pan-American conference offered to mediate instead.
The war was a disaster for both sides, causing 100,000 casualties and bringing both countries to the brink of economic disaster.
Spanish Civil War
On 17 July 1936, armed conflict broke out between Spanish Republicans (the left-wing government of Spain) and Nationalists (the right-wing rebels, including most officers of the Spanish Army). Alvarez del Vayo, the Spanish minister of foreign affairs, appealed to the League in September 1936 for arms to defend its territorial integrity and political independence. However, the League could not itself intervene in the Spanish Civil War nor prevent foreign intervention in the conflict. The League did attempt to ban the intervention of foreign national volunteers.
The League of Nations condemned Italy's aggression and imposed economic sanctions in November 1935, but the sanctions were largely ineffective. On 9 October 1935, the United States (a non-League member) refused to cooperate with any League action. The League sanctions were lifted on 4 July 1936, but by that point they were a dead letter in any event.
Axis re-armament
The League was powerless and mostly silent in the face of major events leading to World War II such as Hitler's remilitarisation of the Rhineland, occupation of the Sudetenland and Anschluss with Austria, which had been forbidden by the Treaty of Versailles. As with Japan, both Germany in 1933 – using the failure of the World Disarmament Conference to agree to arms parity between France and Germany as a pretext – and Italy in 1937 simply withdrew from the League rather than submit to its judgment. The League commissioner in Danzig was unable to deal with German claims on the city, a significant contributing factor in the outbreak of World War II in 1939. The final significant act of the League was to expel the Soviet Union in December 1939 after it invaded Finland.
Demise and legacy
With the onset of World War II, it was clear that the League had failed in its purpose – to avoid any future world war. During the war, neither the League's Assembly nor Council was able or willing to meet, and its secretariat in Geneva was reduced to a skeleton staff, with many offices moving to North America.
After its failure to prevent one war, it was decided in 1945 at the Yalta Conference, to create a new body to supplant the League's role. Many League bodies, for instance the International Labour Organization, continued to function and eventually became affiliated with the UN. At a meeting of the Assembly in 1946, the League dissolved itself and its services, mandates, and property were transferred to the UN.
The structure of the United Nations was intended to make it more effective than the League. The principal Allies in World War II (UK, USSR, France, U.S., and China) became permanent members of the UN Security Council, giving the new "Great Powers" significant international influence, mirroring the League Council. however, unanimous decisions are not required, unlike the League Council. Similarly, the UN does not have its own standing armed forces, but the UN has been more successful than the League in calling for its members to contribute to armed interventions, such as the Korean War, and peacekeeping in the former Yugoslavia. The UN has also been more successful than the League in attracting members from the nations of the world, making it more representative.
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