Structure
The structure of the league was weak with the assembly only meeting once a year and major contries having a veto; the League had no way of enforcing actions with no army. This meant that votes had to be unanimous and this could waste time and every country had to in good times in its own country. The idea of collective security was never implemented.
Treaty of Versailles
This treaty was harsh on Germany and it proofed to be a strong downfaal of the league after each rule of the Treaty was broken by Hitler.
Japanese Invasion of Manchuria 1931
In 1931 Japan controlled most of the economy of Manchuria. It owned the important mines, railroads, factories and ports. It kept a large army in the port city of Kwantung to protect these assets. The world wide depression had hit Japan hard and many people within Japan saw conquering new territory as a way out of the depression. During the night of September 18, Japanese soldiers blew up a section of the Japanese railroad and blamed the explosion on the Chinese and so had an excuse to occupied the city of Shenyang. China asked for the Leagues help. The League ordered the troops to withdraw. Japan agreed to order the withdrawl of the troops, but the Japanese government did not have control over their troops. The Japanese army continued to advance into Manchuria. By the end of 1931 the Japanese troops had control of the entire province of Manchuria which they renamed Manchukuo.
The League of Nations was meant to keep the peace through 'collective security'. If persuasion did not work, the League could use economic sanctions (a ban on trade with the attacker) or military sanctions (a League army) against the attacker. Although these were options, none of the members of the League of Nations wanted to use sanctions against Japan. First, because the Depression had damaged the worlds economy no nation wanted to worsen the damage. Second, the powerful members of the League, Britain and France, did not think that they could enforce the sanctions. They believed that if they tried to enforce them that Japan would seize Hong Kong and Singapore.
The solution that was reached was to set up a commission. In October of 1932 the Lytton Commission recommended that the Japanese should leave Manchuria and it should continue as a semi-independent country instead of returning to China. The League approved the Commissions recommendation, but by 1933 Japan left the League and went on to occupy the Chinese province of Jehol. The Japanese justified the invasion of this mountainous province because it was vital to the defense of Manchuria.
The Manchuria affair damaged the reputation of the League. One of its leading members had gone to war with another member and the League had failed to stop it. By the end of the affair in 1933, even the League's strongest supporters had doubts about its ability to maintain world peace.
Italian Invasion of Abyssinia 1935
The most serious failure of the League of Nations was the Italian invasion of Abyssinia. Italy wanted to expand its overseas colonies and in October 1935 invaded Abyssinia. The League condemned Italy and introduced economic sanctions which, however did not incluse a ban on exports of coal, oil and steel to Italy. (These are vital to modern warfare.) So half-hearted were the sanctions that Italy was able to complete the conquest of Abyssina by May 1936. A few weeks later sanctions were abandoned and Mussolini had flouted the League. Britain and France had not wanted to antagonise Mussolini and had even tried to form a secret deal with him during the invasion to give him two thirds of Abyssinia. They did not want to push him into an alliance with Hitler. Mussolini was annoyed by the sanctions anyway and began to draw closer to Hitler; small states lost faith in the League; and Hitler himself was encouraged to break the Versailles Treaty. After 1935, the League was not taken seriously again.
I conlude that the league had problems before it started with the USA not joining and this meant that it would be a uphill struggle and with problems taking place in Abbysinya and Manchuria meant that the league struggled and proved to be weak. People such as Hitler saw this and proved to come out on top of the battle each time.
