How successful was the League of Nations?
The League of Nations was successful in its peacekeeping efforts to a very small extent as it had more cases of failures than successes.
An example of a failure of the League of Nations was when Britain and France invaded the Ruhr in 1923. After Germany had failed to make a reperation instalment in 1922, Britain and France believed that some sort of strong action was needed to teach Germany a lesson. Contrary to League rules, Britain and France invaded the Ruhr, which was Germany’s most important industrial zone. Both these countries were senior League members, yet there were clearly breaking the League rules. However, nothing was done about it as the League needed the support of its major backers in Europe, who were the invaders in the first place. As a result, the message conveyed to the other nations was that if you wanted to break League rules, you could. Few countries criticised what Britain and France did, but the example they set for other countries in future years was obvious. Hence, the League clearly failed on this occasion primarily because it was seen to be breaking its own rules.