The League of Nations was set up in 1919 directly after the First World War, which acted as a deterrent for future conflicts of that nature happening again. The powers, which had been in war against Germany met at Paris to discuss the terms, which they would impose upon the beaten enemy 

“The seat of the League was established at Geneva” , Switzerland was a neutral country, which hadn’t been involved in world war one. It was the idea of Americas President Woodrow Wilson.

The league had 4 main aims firstly to encourage co-operation, Secondly disarmament, the idea was to disarm the world’s country of weapons, thirdly to improve social conditions; control diseases and improve people’s living standards and finally the leagues main aim, which was to have world peace. The League fundamentally failed in its aims because of a lack of military strength, failure of two strongest powers America and Russia to join, the internal disorganisation and the rise of dictatorships in Europe.  The League was successful however in solving the problems in smaller nations like Bulgaria, Greece and Finland.  This essay will look at the successes of the league, the failures and will conclude with a general argument of both.

The most important factor that can be seen to limit the success of the League of Nations was the lack of military enforcement .The League of Nations did not have its own army to enforce its authority so it had to depend on the two leading members of the League which were Britain and France. Britain had suffered a lot from The First World War. Britain was in an economic crisis. It had spent 15-25% of its accumulated wealth fighting the War so it borrowed very heavily from the United States of America. The end of The First World War lumbered Britain with massive debts. France had also suffered a lot from the war, apart from the number of young soldiers who died, France lost most of its fertile farming land in the north. It had to borrow money very heavily from Germany. This ultimately led to The Second World War because Germany grew resentful of France.

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The internal disorganization the League made it difficult to carry out its aims successfully and lead it to being a failure. The leagues had four permanent members Britain, France, Italy and Japan. It had a variety of different agencies that dealt with the slave trade, drug dealing etc. and a assembly in which countries met once a year  This was a major issue because countries would have to come to an agreement in that one meeting, “The assembly shall meet at stated intervals, and from time to time as occasion may require at the seat of the League ...

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