Explain whether you agree or disagree with this statement - "The league of nations failed during the 1930's simply because it faced greater challenges then it did in the 1920's".

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History essay

Mark Cranshaw

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History Essay

Explain whether you agree or disagree with this statement – “The league of nations failed during the 1930’s simply because it faced greater challenges then it did in the 1920’s”

The League of Nations was set up at the end of the First World War in 1919. It began with Woodrow Wilson; he devised his 14 point plan. At the treaty of Versailles in the same year these points were rejected (mainly by France, who thought Germany deserved to be crippled for her actions during the war), but 3 of these points were kept; “National self determination”, “open diplomacy” and “the league of nations was to be set up”. These would ensure peace was kept and also that there were no more alliances and no more secrets.

The main aims of the League were:

  • World peace
  • Disarmament

The league tried many tactics to help to strengthen itself and work towards these aims. In 1921 there was a conference at Washington. At this Britain for the first time ever accepted parity over her navy. There was another conference at Geneva in 1924. At this countries agreed to arbitration – to talk if any problems occurred. In 1925 the Locarno pact was signed; countries promised to respect each others borders. In 1928 the Kellogg – Briand pact was signed. 65 countries agreed to abolish war, (the only exception of war was in self defence). Finally in 1932 a disarmament conference was attended to by 61 nations. These were all successful and showed that action was being taken to work towards the main aims. The league also had other aims:

  • Improvement of living and working conditions
  • To keep the independence of countries safe

The league helped to improve many people’s lives. It helped refugees and in its first few years returned over 400,000 prisoners of war to there home lands.

I think that these targets were extremely optimistic; this is because the war had just ended. However I believe that these targets were more long term targets than short term ones. In the early days of the league it had much support and backing. Everyone wanted peace after the many years of fighting. The league had one major power; trade sanctions. This frightened many countries but it was not a successful as first interpreted.

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During the 1920’s the League coped extremely well – it managed to keep the peace and avoided another war. Other than this there were many other successes of the league during the 20’s. In 1920 it settled a land dispute between Finland and Sweden over the Aaland Islands. Again in 1920 the league settled a dispute between Germany and Poland over Upper Silesia. In 1922 the league provided financial support to Austria after her economy was in the state of collapsing. The league acted swiftly in 1925 when it stopped a Greek invasion on Bulgaria as a result of ...

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