Chap 1.2: What was the main

reason for the weakness of the League of

Nations?

• What is the message of this cartoon?

• Rich man and ordinary man sit despondently on a stone (People had a reason to be depressed)

• The stone = a foundation stone representing the league – is cracked (it is useless)

• Message of the cartoon = League is broken and useless to build the new world of peace it had been intended to bring about.

With the benefit of hindsight

• What was looming?

• Why was there a reason for despair?

• Nov 1918 – WW1 ended

• Jan 1919 – Paris Peace Conference

• June 1919 – Birth of the League of Nations

The League of Nations (LON)

I’m Woodrow

Wilson, and the

LON is my baby!

I’m Woodrow

Wilson, and the

LON is my baby!

BORN

IN

JUNE

1919

The League of Nations

• The idea of a League of Nations came from Woodrow Wilson

• LON: an association of nations which would work towards maintaining political independence of big and small states.

• **But the USA was never a member of the League.**

An American political cartoon drawn in 1931 in reference to the LON and the conflict between Japan and China.

Cartoon and Info on page 17

• When was this illustration drawn?• What dispute does it make reference to?• What country is the old man on the right of

the illustration meant to symbolise? • According to the illustration, what action did

the LON take?• What does the illustration tell us about the

effectiveness of the LON in achieving collective security?

Moral Suasion:The Rabbit: “my offensive equipment being practically nil, it remains for me to fascinate him with the power of my eye”

What do you think is the cartoonist trying to say about the LON?

 

1)

2) 

Keep this cartoon in mind and try to identify which nations this snake might represent.

Goals of the LON

Collective Security

• A major goal of the LON was to maintain world peace and security.

• All members of the League were bound by the League’s covenant (Contract) that they would work together towards preventing wars and conflicts.

Disarmament

• The League also aimed to implement disarmament to further reduce the ability of countries to wage war. (so that countries can sort out their differences in a peaceful manner)

• Military capabilities would be reduced through international agreements.

• The TOV imposed armament restrictions on Germany and its allies.

• The Allied Powers were also required to disarm.

5 Peacekeeping Measures of the LON

• Moral persuasion: If the League decided a nation was destroying the peace, all members of the League would publicly condemn it. It was hoped that this would persuade the offending nation to stop its proposed action.

5 Peacekeeping Measures of the LON

• Arbitration: the League could act as a referee by calling the nations involved in a dispute to discuss the problem peaceably in the Assembly.

5 Peacekeeping Measures of the LON

• Military sanctions: the League could impose arms embargo to cut off supplies of arms to the offending nation and carry out military intervention (use force to stop the aggressive country).

5 Peacekeeping Measures of the LON

• Economic sanctions: Economic or trade sanctions prevented the exchange of food, goods or supplies (e.g. raw materials such as coal/oil) between members of the League and the offending nation.

5 Peacekeeping Measures of the LON

• Disarmament: the League was assigned to organize disarmament plans for members of the League.

Territorial Disputes in the 1920s…

• Turn to TB pages 20-21 and decide for yourself!

27

Conclusion?

– The League had a mixture of successes and failures in keeping the peace in Europe throughout the 1920s.

Strengths of the L.O.N

• In some ways, the League of Nations was strong. By the 1930s about 60 countries had signed the Covenant. The League’s main strength came from the fact that it was set up by the Treaty of Versailles. 

Strengths of the L.O.N

•  Also, the League had ‘means of influence’ to force countries to obey it.

• The first was moral condemnation – the League would declare in public that a country was wrong, and public opinion would force it to stop.    (e.g. in 1925, the Greeks stopped invading Bulgaria when the League condemned them).

Strengths of the L.O.N

• The second was that the League could offer arbitration – acting a referee between quarrelling nations (as, for instance, between Sweden and Finland over the Aaland Islands in 1921).  

Strengths of the L.O.N

• Thirdly, the League could apply trading sanctions (as it was to do over Manchuria and Abyssinia in the 1930s).  

Strengths of the L.O.N

• Finally, the League could agree to military force, although it had no army of its own – a strong member state like Britain had to send its own army.  

Why was the LON weak?

BORN IN JUNE 1919

BORN IN JUNE 1919

Ended in Nov 1918!

How would the affected countries be like?

DEAD SOLDIERS

DEAD SOLDIERS

INJURED SOLDIERS

Destroyed LandDestroyed Land

TIRED/WAR-

WEARY

TIRED/WAR-

WEARY

Structural Weaknesses • Structural weaknesses of the LON played a part in

the weakness of the LON because its various parts did not work well together.

• For example, the Secretariat was understaffed and disorganised. The working relationship between the General Assembly and the Council was not clearly defined. The Conference of Ambassadors often made decisions that should have been made by the League itself. This led to much confusion and inefficiency resulted.

• In addition, it was difficult for the League to obtain unanimous consent for any decision.

• This again affected the efficiency of the LON as they were unable to make decisions quickly and this made the organisation weak.

Absence of Big Powers

• The LON was also weak because it lacked the support and membership of the three powers: USA, Soviet Union and Germany.

• The USA, despite being the world’s largest national economy at the time and having her status as a military power confirmed in World War I, was never a member of the LON.

• They preferred to engage in foreign affairs on their own terms at their own pace, rather than commit themselves to the LON.

• Because of their non-interventionist policy, the LON did not have the necessary economic and military backup of the USA to enforce its will.

• In addition, other major world powers such as Germany and Soviet Union were not allowed to join the League as they were seen as threats. This further dealt a blow to the LON’s strength because it needed strong countries as members in order to enforce sanctions effectively.

Post-war Attitudes of member countries

• Post-war attitudes of the major powers also contributed towards the weakness of the LON.

• The French and the British, in particular, were war-weary and in a pacifist frame of mind. They were not willing to get involved in armed conflicts and other forms of tensions with other powers.

• Instead, countries like Britain and France chose to pursue a policy of appeasement. This was seen in the case of Hitler’s Germany, where Britain and France decided to give in to Germany’s aggressive demands over Austria and Czechoslovakia.

• In addition, the major powers in the League were unwilling to disarm as they did not want their ability to protect their interests and territories to be affected.

• This was despite disarmament being one of the key goals of the League and it revealed that there was an atmosphere of distrust among the member countries.

• Hence, it is evident that member countries viewed their own concerns and interests as more important than the League’s goal of world peace and security. This affected their willingness to help maintain world peace and security and further weakened the effectiveness of the League of Nations resulting it to fail.

Weaknesses of L.O.N

• However, the League also had three great weaknesses.   The USA, Russia and Germany were not members; without these powers, the League was too weak to make a big country do as it wished (for instance, Italy over Corfu in 1923).   

Weaknesses of L.O.N

• Also, the League’s organisation was a muddle, so when there was a crisis, no-one could agree.

•  Finally, the League’s greatest weakness was that it was set up by the Treaty of Versailles.   The Treaty was hated, especially by the Germans and Americans, so the League was hated too.

Key Failures of the League in the 1930s

MANCHURIAhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4HKaTmDip8

Manchuria: province of China

• 1931: Japanese army occupied large areas of Manchuria.

• Set up a puppet government in Manchuria and renamed it Manchuko.

• (China asked the LON for help)

• League refused to recognise Manchuko and asked that it be returned to China.(issued a verbal condemnation ie: moral persuasion)

• Japan resigned from the League. The League failed to come to an agreement on sanctions. (due to the need for unanimous consensus)

• Not only did Japan remain in Manchuria, they pushed further into China in 1937.

Japan withdrew from LON.

Abyssinia, 1935-1936

• Italy invaded Abyssinia in 1935.• League attempted to ban the sale of arms,

rubber and some metals to Italy.• But the sanctions were not very harsh and

did not have much effect on Italy.• May 1936: Emperor of Abyssinia was forced

to flee and appealed to LON.• However, Britain and France were unwilling

to get involved militarily.

• The result: Abyssinia was conquered by Italy and Italy left the League.

The League failed in Manchuria and Abyssinia because it WAS

DUMB!•  Weak

– the League’s ‘powers’ were little more than going ‘tut-tut’. Sanctions did not work. It had no army.

•  America

– the strongest nation in the world never joined; Britain and France were not strong enough to impose pace on their own

•  Structure

– the League's organisation was muddled, so it took ages to do anything; members couldn’t agree, but decisions had to be unanimous - this paralysed the League

• Depression– the world-wide Depression made countries try to get more land and

power; they were worried about themselves, not about world peace•  Unsuccessful

– the more the League failed, the less people trusted it; in the end, everybody just ignored it

•  Members– the League’s main members let it down - Italy and Japan defied and

left the League, France and Britain betrayed it•  Big bullies

– in the 1920s, the League had been quite successful with small, weak countries; in the 1930s, powerful countries like Germany, Italy and Japan defied the League - they were too strong for the League to stop them

• “If the nations want peace, the League gives them the way by which peace can be kept. League or no League, a country which is determined to have a war can always have it.”

• The 1930s historian H.A.L. Fisher

• Looking back through this unit, write your own ‘last word’ on the League, taking 35 words.

• Read your comment to others.