Failure of the League of Nations

Failure of the League of Nations

The League of Nations was an international organisation set up in 1919 to help keep world peace. It was intended that all countries would be members of the League and that if there were disputes between countries they could be settled by negotiation rather than by force. If this failed then countries would stop trading with the aggressive country and if that failed then countries would use their armies to fight.

In theory the League of Nations was a good idea and did have some early successes. But ultimately it was a failure.

The whole world was hit by a depression in the late 1920s. A depression is when a country's economy falls. Trade is reduced, businesses lose income, prices fall and unemployment rises.

In 1931, Japan was hit badly by the depression. People lost faith in the government and turned to the army to find a solution. The army invaded Manchuria in China, an area rich in minerals and resources. China appealed to the League for help. The Japanese government were told to order the army to leave Manchuria immediately. However, the army took no notice of the government and continued its conquest of Manchuria.

The League then called for countries to stop trading with Japan but because of the depression many countries did not want to risk losing trade and did not agree to the request. The League then made a further call for Japan to withdraw from Manchuria but Japan's response was to leave the League of Nations.

In October 1935, Italy invaded Abyssinia. The Abyssinians did not have the strength to withstand an attack by Italy and appealed to the League of Nations for help.

The League condemned the attack and called on member states to impose trade restrictions with Italy. However, the trade restrictions were not carried out because they would have little effect. Italy would be able to trade with non-member states, particularly America. Furthermore, Britain and France did not want to risk Italy making an attack on them.

In order to stop Italy's aggression, the leaders of Britain and France held a meeting and decided that Italy could have two areas of land in Abyssinia provided that there were no further attacks on the African country. Although Mussolini accepted the plan, there was a public outcry in Britain and the plan was dropped.

The main reasons for the failure of the League of Nations can be summarised into the following points:
1.Not all countries joined the League. 
Although the idea for the League of Nations had come from Woodrow Wilson, there was a change of government in the United States before the signing of the treaty and the new Republican government refused to join. As a punishment for having started World War One, Germany was not allowed to join and Russia was also excluded due to a growing fear of Communism. Other countries decided not to join and some joined but later left.
2.The League had no power. 
The main weapon of the League was to ask member countries to stop trading with an aggressive country. However, this did not work because countries could still trade with non-member countries. When the world was hit by depression in the late 1920s countries were reluctant to lose trading partners to other non-member countries.

3.The League had no army. 

     Soldiers were to be supplied by member countries. However, countries were reluctant to get                 

     involved and risk provoking an aggressive country into taking direct action against them and          

     failed to provide troops . 

     4.Unable to act quickly. 

     The Council of the League of Nations only met four times a year and decisions had to be         

     agreed by all nations. When countries called for the League to intervene, the League had to

     set up an emergency meeting, hold discussions and gain the agreement of all members. 

     This process meant that the League could not act quickly to stop an act of aggression.      

     5.Self-Interest of the members. 

     The greatest failure of League was that it was not able to prevent the out-break of another   

     International war. The Main cause of this is the colossal failure was the selfishness of the 

     members of the League.

     The League of weak, because its members lacked the will to make it success. In fact, there     
     never existed any real Internationalism based on friendly co-operation. Various nations 
     used the League to the extent it served their self- Interest. Their motto was "Each for Self"
     The rivalry among the three victorious Great Powers - France , Great Britain and Italy- after 
     the first world war weakened the foundation of the League.
     6.Failure of Disarmament 
     Disarmament was one of the aims of the league. But little was achieved in the way of 
     disarmament in-spite of number of disarmament conferences. Even the Allies were not in   
     the mood of disarmament.