Without the USA, USSR and Germany the League of Nations had to rely on second rate and less influential powers at the time. These powers were Britain and France; both countries were influenced by strong nationalistic feel, which often compromised the League’s internationalistic ideals. Because both Britain and France were second rate powers and still struggling to rebuild after the costs of WW1, they were heavily influenced by nationalism. The League of Nations became an opportunity for these two countries to improve their own and often did so. Often Britain and France put their own interests ahead of the League’s, compromising the purpose of the organisation. This self interest wasn’t always shown by Britain and France, but also by other members of the league. For example when sanctions were imposed on Abyssinia only three out of the six members carried out the punishment, making one of the Leagues only forms of enforcing decisions, ineffective. Both Britain and France highlighted their self interest with their reluctance to supply troops to the league.
The League of Nations had no army which gave it no effective means of enforcing decisions on countries opposed to the League. Without an army the LoN had to rely on second rate powers and its members who were often more focused on their own interests. Without an army the League had to rely on prestige and influence to enforce a decision, which they didn’t have because the three most powerful nations weren’t members. The only means of enforcing decisions was by moral persuasion, and sanctions. This often took a long time, and by the time the decision was reached it was useless or ineffective, as in the case of Abyssinia, where it took six weeks for sanctions to be organised, and while the league was trying to persuade Mussolini to stop, he used the time to send an army to Africa. The league only met once a year with a democratic approach which was another reason why the decisions were slow and often ineffective.
The main form of enforcing decisions was by sanctions as the league did not have an army of it’s own to call on. Sanctions required all member nations to be in agreement on major issues which often wasn’t the case. In Abyssinia only three out of the six member nations carried out the sanctions enforced on Italy. If sanctions were imposed on a nation they would still be free trade with other non-member nations which frequently happened. The largest power in the world at the time wasn’t a member nation and had a large amount of raw materials in which a member country, even with sanctions imposed on them, could trade freely with.
The League of Nations failed because of many design weaknesses, but was primarily ineffective because it lacked the prestige and influence of the USA. Without the USA, the league relied too heavily on Britain and France who were in the league for their own country’s interests. Without the USA member countries could trade freely with them even when sanctions were imposed. No US meant that there was no army as Britain and France were reluctant to supply troops, which ultimately led to ineffective sanctions and the failure of the league.
