- Alsace-Lorraine to France
- Moresnet, Eupen and Malmédy to Belgium
- North Schleswig to Denmark
- Parts of West Prussia, Posen and Upper Silesia to Poland
- Parts of East Prussia to Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia
- Danzig and the Saarland to be administered by the League of Nations
- Rhineland to become a demilitarised zone
- German colonies became mandates. They were to be administered by various nations, but monitored by the League of Nations.
- The Germans had to accept responsibility for the outbreak of the Great War under the War Guilt clause.
- Germans were forced to pay reparations.
- Germans were forced to disarm.
- The army was reduced to 100,000 soldiers.
- The navy was reduced to six battle ships.
- No air force was allowed.
- No submarines or tanks were allowed.
The main purpose of the league, was to create and maintain international peace and solve international disputes. Colective security, was the term given to a set of methods by which this could be achieved. They were the following:
Wilson felt that if ordinary people were allowed to speak out politicians would ever go to war.
In democracies like USA, people felt free to speak out. Other countries did not have a “voice of public opinion”. The public may have wanted war and injustice opposed to peace and injustice
Sanctions would put a ban on a country to stop all the countries in the league trading with them.
Because USA was not in the league, members of the league knew that if they stopped trading, USA could simply fill the gap.
Disarmament: Wilson saw the arms race as a cause for world war 1 and was committed to disarmament.
Countries were allowed to keep just enough weapons to defend themselves. How would you decide whether a country had enough weapons to defend itself? The league had no way of forcing countries to disarm or checking that they had disarmed.
Force: An attack on a member state would be seen as an attack on all member states. The league had no army, so al countries would help if a country would attack. First they would impose a sanction, if this failed, they would supply soldiers for a joint war.
This assumed that governments would risk the money and lives of their own people to sort out a quarrel between two other countries.
A huge weakness of the league
Many Americans felt the Treaty of Versailles was too harsh and did not want to support the League of Nations as it was linked to the Treaty. There was a strong tradiotion in “isolationism” in the USA. Many had thguth that Usa should not get involved in European affairs. They did nt want to waste their money and military resources on people that were half way across the wolrd, and already had a large debt to pay the ameriican’s. The source below shows America leaving the league.
Another artist also comments on the America refusal to participate in the league, and has accurately forecasts the fate that awaits the league.
Another source below, shows what the league would be without America.
America had left, so the two nations that had a main say, didn’t want peace. The British just wanted to reward themselves for participating in the war, by getting compensation and gaining new colonies.
The French however, had previously been embrasssed by Germany. Ever since Germany won the Franco-Prussian war in 1870, there has beeen great rivalry between the two. They both keep attacking each other. France feared another invasion from Germany, so they wanted to make Germany weak through the treaty of Versailles, so that Germany could not attack them again. The British disagreed on this view, because they did not want to make too weak because Germany may attack them in the future. He did nt also want the balance of power to be unbalanced. Crippling Germany would mean that France would be the dominant nation, which the British did not want.
An artist shows the rivalry between France and Germany, and sees France as a victor in this gruesome battle.
Successes
Border disputes
- The League of Nations was generally successful at settling border disputes in the 1920s.
- But they all involved small nations rather than great powers.
The fight against poverty, disease and injustice
The League had some success doing the following:
- Fighting slavery and drug trafficking
- Fighting disease
- Helping to repatriate prisoners of war and settling refugees
- Protecting the rights of minorities
Disarmament
- In the 1920s the League of Nations largely failed to bring about disarmament.
Activity outside the League of Nations
- During the 1920s a number of international agreements were reached, mostly outside the League of Nations.
- The two most important of these were the Locarno Treaties and the Kellogg-Brand Pact. The Locarno Treaties were signed in 1925. In these, Germany agreed to accept the borders as set out in the Treaty of Versailles. In 1928 the Kellogg-Brand Pact consisted of 65 nations agreeing not to use force to settle disputes.
The League solved many disputes such as:
- The Aaland Islands (1921)
- Upper Silesia (1921)
- Memel (1923)
- Turkey (1923)
- Greece and Bulgaria (1925)
Failures
The French occupation of the Ruhr
The league was supposed to STOP aggression and invasions. The French was also one of the permanent members of the league, but the league still didn’t have any influence on it. Basically, France supplied the main military resources, without France, the League couldn’t do even less. The league was powerless to stop France. Many people thought that the League had no backbone, and that France was hypocritical.
The league was unable to solve many disputes such as:
- Teschen (1919)
- Vilna (1920)
- War between Russia and Poland (1920 to 1921)
- The invasion of the Ruhr (1923)
- Italy and Albania (1923)
Generally, the League on the whole was a failure, but it did have one huge success that I have not listed. This success was not one of it’s aims. The failures of the league, told the world what the flaws were in thi peace-keeping organisation, and another organisation was formed rectifying these mistakes. It’s still around today, and is what has kept me from ever seeing war. The United Nations.
