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 or at such other place as may be decided upon” This meant that it took a long time to get everything done, decisions had to be made unanimously and this slowed down the entire process. As a result, it could not effectively deal with certain issues that arose way before or way after the meeting.
In 1932 Japan invaded Manchuria, this was clearly an example of a strong country invading a weaker one. The League took one full year to act on such crime. This was because the league didn’t have a good military back up they had to resort to economic sanctions which weren’t as effective. The league wanted to band all countries from trading with Japan, but Japan bought most of its goods from the USA who was not part of the league so therefor Japan wasn’t effected by the Leagues punishment, In fact Britain wanted to stay friends with Japan. Japan never received the threat of attack so it got away with it.
Italy invaded Abyssinia in 1935 “it was the most clear-cut case of aggression which The League Of Nations had to face in the inter-war period” and the League of Nations didn’t do anything about it, this is because they were still feeling the effects of the depressions. For this reason the league didn’t band countries from trading with Italy, they thought that to stop trading would mean the loose of even more jobs. Instead they gave Mussolini 2/3 of Abyssinia to in order to prevent war between both nations.
Another major issue for the failure was that the current most powerful nations did not join the league. This was a big problem as they had great military and economic power and with out this the league looked weak. When president Woodrow Wilson return home back to America, the American congress refused to allow the USA to join the league. The congress wanted to stay out of the Europe’s problems. America had an isolationist policy through out the world so the refusal to join the league fitted well with that policy. According to the Treaty of Versailles Germany was not allowed to join the League of Nations because they were responsible for the First World War. This was a weakness because it meant that the league could not use what Germany had to offer, which was most importantly a strong military force. Russia was another nation, which was not allowed to join because its communist government generated fear in Western Europe in 1917 And one year later the Russian Royal family was murdered, its further wars with Poland did not help either so Nation could not join the League. This followed by the rise of dictatorships in Germany, Italy, Russia and Japan did not help the league at all, because it made it very difficult for the League to control the big powers as they ignored their decisions. These events made people question the ability of the League to stop wars. It showed Hitler that the league was not strong enough to stand in his way. Therefore it can be seen that the League of Nations success was limited.
The leagues main desire was to end war, it didn’t achieve this but it did achieve other things. The league of nations first became successful in 1920, it took half a million prisoners of war back home after world war one, it helped to arrest slave traders and drug dealers, and it made progress in helping to control and cure diseases like malaria and leprosy.
It was also successful in solving problems with smaller nations before they turned into wars. Sweden and Finland had a dispute over the Aaland Islands. The islands were very close to both Nations, in 1921 the league brought the countries together to solve the problem. The decision was that the islands should be part of Finland but no weapons could ever be kept there and both countries agreed to this. In 1925 the Greek army invaded Bulgaria. Both Nations had a common border and they fired on one another. Bulgaria asked the league for help, so the league ordered both armies to stop fighting and forced the Greeks out of Bulgaria . They stated that Greece was to blame. In that same year the was an issue between the division of land between Germany and Poland, The League resolved the dramatic situation by issuing a plebiscite whom decided the division of the land.
The league of nations was only able to enforce its authority with the smaller nations and yes it was successful at solving problems over borders or small islands in the 1920s, but when the problems arose between bigger nations the league was not able to act because they lacked power both military and economic further more the leagues organisation was not well structured this slowed down the whole process on decision making. The bigger Nations did not join the league and they saw how weak it was, so therefor they didn’t seem to think they had to obey the leagues rules. The league of nations would have had a better chance to succeed in its aims if the congress of America would have approved of it and joined the league, because the leading members of the league Britain and France were weak and still suffering from the Great War they were not able to import anything effective or productive to the league. The League of Nations never started strong and therefore remained weak until 1939 when the Second World War broke out. This shows that the League was a treaty that failed.
Bibliography
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Butler. G, A Handbook To The League Of Nations, (1919) , Pg 1, 36
- O. J, League of Nations – Official Journal (1920) Article 7, 4 , Pg 4, 5
- Hening. B, The League Of Nations, (N/A), Pg 116, 117
- Scott. G, The rise and fall of the League of Nations, (1973), pg49
- Barros. J, The League Of Nations and The Great Powers –The Greek-Bulgarian incident, 1925, Pg 23
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Schmidt . J .K, , The League of Nations, 02/12/2010
A Hand Book to The League Of Nations, Pg 1
League of Nations – Official Journal, Article 7, Pg 5
A Hand Book to The League Of Nations, Pg 36
League of Nations – Official Journal, pg 4
The League Of Nations, Pg 16
The League Of Nations, Pg 117
The rise and fall of the League of Nations, pg49
The League Of Nations and The Great Powers –The Greek-Bulgarian incident, Pg 23