An explosion on a section of the South Manchuria Railway, gave the army the excuse it needed to blame the local population of sabotage and to occupy the nearest Manchurian town of Shenyang. The at China’s request immediately ordered the Japanese army to withdraw. Japan’s delegates at the headquarters in Geneva, agreed to this demand and blamed the event on army "hot-heads".
The Japanese government in Tokyo also agreed to this demand. However, the army did not listen and it launched a full-scale invasion of Manchuria and by the end of 1931, it had occupied the whole of the province. The civilian government had clearly lost control of the army, and the position was that it would deal with the government of the aggressor nation.
The impact of the Depression meant that those nations that traded with Japan did not want to risk losing this trade. If a nation did give up trading with Japan, as Britain pointed out, their place would quickly be taken by another country willing to get trade started with the Far East’s most powerful nation.
Britain was also worried that Japan might attack her overseas colonies, in the Far East, particularly Hong Kong and Singapore.
The failure of disarmament was one of the Leagues’ failures. One of the aims of the League was to disarm all countries to prevent starting another arms race. Britain and France tried to bypass this by saying that they use their army solely for defensive purposes. Many countries refused to disarm because Britain and France didn’t disarm.
The Germans thought this was especially unfair because their army was limited to such an extent that it would not have been able to keep law and order in the country let alone fight a war. When Hitler came to power he promised to rebuild the German army, this is one of the reasons why he was so popular in Germany.
Many countries such as Italy and Japan were in powerful positions and knew that the League would do nothing to stop them.
The crisis in Abyssinia from 1935 to 1936 brought international tension nearer to Europe - the crisis in Abyssinia also drove Nazi Germany and together for the first time. The affair once again highlighted the weakness of the .
Like Britain and France, Italy had joined in the so-called "Scramble for Africa colonies”. However, the prize territories had been conquered by others and Italy was left with unimportant areas such as Eritrea and Somaliland. The Italians had attempted to expand in eastern Africa by joining Abyssinia to her conquests, but in 1896, the Italians were heavily defeated by the Abyssinians at the Battle of Adowa.
This defeat had an enormous impact on Italian pride. The loss of 6000 men against a poorly equipped army from Abyssinia was difficult for the Italian people to comprehend. However, this defeat did not stop politicians in Italy planning for a new attempt to take over Abyssinia.
The desire to show the world how powerful Italy was became the prime motivation of . He saw himself as a modern day Julius Caesar who would one day be in charge of a vast Italian empire as had existed in the days of Caesar. In 1928, Italy signed a treaty of friendship with Haile Selassie, the leader of Abyssinia but an invasion of the country was already being planned.
In October 1935, the Italian army invaded Abyssinia. The Abyssinians could not hope to stand up to a modern army - they were equipped with pre-World War One rifles and little else. The Italians used armoured vehicles and even mustard gas in their attack.
Abyssinia appealed to the League for help. The League was powerless and could not do anything apart from give 2/3 of Abyssinia to Italy to stop the conflict.
Mussolini accepted the plan but in Britain there was a huge national outcry. It was believed that a British government minister had betrayed the people of Abyssinia. The protests caused Hoare to resign and the plan was dropped. Mussolini continued with the invasion. However, what this plan had indicated was that the two major European members were prepared to negotiate with a nation that had used aggression to enforce its will on a weaker nation. Many people saw the League as weak, trying to do anything to keep good relationships with powerful countries and not bothering about the people in poor countries such as Abyssinia.
Hitler saw that the League was powerless so he made his move guessing that the League wouldn’t do anything. The Abyssinia crisis was the cue he’d been waiting for and started his plan.
The League had many problems.
Many of the public believed that if Britain argued, with Italy over Abyssinia or with Japan over Manchuria, then war will break out. No-one wanted to repeat the horrors of World War One. Britain and France wanted to avoid war at any cost.
A lot of people believed that the treaty of Versailles was too harsh upon Germany. No-one bothered to stop him when he remilitarised the Rhineland because many people believed the Rhineland belonged to Germany. When Hitler began to build up his army publicly no-one bother to do anything, they just said that an army of 100’000 was too small for a country the size of Germany.
Economy was in a very bad state in Britain and France. They were suffering the effects of the Depression. They had large debts and huge unemployment.
The League wanted to be on good terms with Italy especially after Italy signed a deal with Germany. Britain and France were in no position to threaten Italy the only country that was in a position to fight was USA, and the USA was not in the League.
I think that the League made Hitler’s work easy. If the League stopped Hitler from the beginning there would have been no World War 2. I think that the League should have risked a war with Germany; there would have been a lot less deaths and destruction than World War 2.
