How Successful Was the League in The 1920's and 1930's? The League of Nations was the brain child of Woodrow Wilson

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How Successful Was the League in The 1920’s and 1930’s?

The League of Nations was the brain child of Woodrow Wilson, US President. It was the last of his 14 points expressed to Britain and France during the Big Three’s Geneva Peace Conference which said that a new international organisation devoted to preserving the future peace of the world and preventing such conflicts as World War One, which was the whole reason why the were discussing peace anyway.

The League of Nations aimed to promote and carry out disarmament around the world, cease conflicts and even prevent them from happening in the first place. It was the innovation that the world needed to come together and co-operate – And so the League was formed, January 1920 in Geneva, Switzerland.

The League had many different sub-sections that made up the League; each section did their own jobs to help the League maintain peace. The three sections were:

  • The Assembly → Was made up of 45 countries met once a year in Geneva to discuss what the League thought of as ‘small issues.’ The power they wiled was relatively little in comparison to that of the Council’s authority and power.

  • The Council → Were the Heads of the League, and they wielded the most power. The 4 countries that made up the Council were Britain, France, Italy and Japan. This section of the League drew up such things as treaties and other laws in the best interest of the world.

  • Secretariat → Was the administrative side of the League who dealt with the issues such as drug smuggling, recovering P.O.Ws from previous wars or conflicts and finally, Running Mandates who looked after the colonies under the League’s care and control.

The League had a collective security policy, in which dealt with countries the same way if they had broken a treaty or law of the League/World. First, they would negotiate to settle the problem before any unnecessary violence could happen. If the negotiations fail, and the country at question is still violating said treaty or law, then a more enforced, yet reasonable option is taken up – Trade blockades and sanctions. Countries need to trade in order to function and benefit. Without a trade ban upon a country, they may soon begin to sweat it out and they accept what the League is trying to say. Trade bans seem to bear a resemblance to that of a medieval siege, no direct force or war is happening, except maybe a cold war, but soon the country under siege will crack and surrender to the League with no force used.

If that failed, the last step in their policy would need to be carried out. Force. And the country at fault would then be at war – battling them would restore peace and order, exactly what the League wanted to have in the World.

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This whole procedure was flawed heavily from the start and failed to work when put in to action.

First of all, if the League imposed a trade ban upon a country, they could immediately begin trading with countries outside of the League, unstopped by the League’s ‘Free-Trade’ policy, in which it said countries should openly trade with each other without government or any other intervention. And so if the country could still trade, the League was doing nothing to actually stop them, so they can continue violating whatever laws they see fit.

Force was the last ...

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