Explain why the League of Nations failed to deal successfully with the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931.

The league finally got into disputes between countries to whether or not they should trade with Japan. Britain felt that it needed to keep up good relations with Japan. But, after the resigning if Japan, the league was powerless and was crippling economically as Japan traded with USA and brought a lot of money into the League.

3. How far was the League of Nations a Complete failure? Explain your answer.

I feel that the League of Nations was overall a failure; although I think that some good things came from the league and that it proved that it could prevent war in the short term. But in the long run it completely failed as it could not do its main aim of preventing another World War, but instead there was one. It showed that it wasn't a failure as it did very good work in getting refugees and former prisoners of war back to their homelands. This would stop countries from bickering over other countries having their men. It also helped the refugee crisis in turkey in 1922, housing hundreds of thousands of people in refugee camps and quickly stamped out cholera, smallpox and dysentery in the camps. This meant that Turkey would be thankful to the League, therefore it turned one of the Allies onto there side, which therefore meant that Turkey would not fight against the League in another World War as the League helped them tremendously.

Secondly, the League improved working conditions in many countries. Successfully banning poisonous white lead from paint and limiting the hours that small children had to work. Many families in many countries would be thankful to this as many babies were poisoned by the white lead and died. People would also be angry as families relied on the money that their children made working to keep them survive. But, because the amount of hours was shortened children would be paid less and families would have to starve etc. Although, on the other hand the League campaigned to improve working conditions generally. Many people in countries would be happy for this as it restricted the amount of deaths and improved the safety for people working. It also introduced a resolution for a maximum 48-hour week, and an eight-hour day, but only a minority of members adopted it because they thought it would raise industrial costs. It also meant that families could not raise the full amount of money they needed to keep them economically stable.

Health was also a major thing that the League tried to improve. It worked very hard to defeat leprosy, which was a life threatening disease. Also campaigning to exterminate mosquitoes, which reduced cases of malaria and yellow fever. This showed some of the Leagues power of being able to globally try and exterminate mosquitoes. Even the USSR, which was opposed to the League, took health advice on preventing plague in Siberia. This was positive for the League as it shows that even the USSR took notice to the league and that it greatly affected countries not even in the League. This showed that these countries would be thankful to the League and would not start a war.

Furthermore, the League made recommendations on marketing shipping lanes. This helped countries to trade and they would be pleased, as it would therefore economically develop them if their trading were more modern. Another good thing that the League did to help transport was produce an international highway code for road users. This meant that the roads would be safer and the amount of death and accidents would decline as only people who had a licence and were qualified in driving could actually drive.

Social Problems was also very important, it blacklisted and bad companies and brought the freeing of 200,000 slaves in British owned land. Also organising raids against slave owners and traders. It also challenged the railway in Africa were the death rate was 50%. But League pressure brought this down to 4%. This shows the power that the League had (although many a time it did not show it). In areas were it could not improve social justice, the League would keep records of what was going on, on problems such as drug trafficking, prostitution and slavery. Many countries and areas would be happy, as this would lower the crime rate and make places a better place to live in.

Alternatively, the League of Nations also had its down falls. In the 1920's it tried to encourage disarmament. Even Britain and France ONLY agreed to limit the size of their navies. This did not show any fairness in the League; so it is likely that all other countries would not disarm allow either.

Many countries also rejected disarmament treaties (Britain being first) as they felt like they would be tied to defending other countries. The League also made it hard to discuss disarmament and it took them five years to agree on a 'draft convention.'

Germany was most angry at the failing of disarmament as, they felt that it wasn't fair as they were the only country to disarm to that extent. This meant that they might have wanted to get revenge.

Even so, after the failing of disarmament two new treaties were made. These seemed to be positive and promise a more peaceful world.

The first was The Locarno Treaties, which stated that:

* Germany finally accepted borders with France and Belgium. Britain and Italy guaranteed to protect France if Germany violated the borders.

* Germany accepted the Rhineland was a demilitarised zone.

* France and Germany agreed to settle any future disputes through the League of Nations.

These agreements seemed to resolve some problems left from WW1. These treaties meant that France was more secure and Germany was gained entry into the League. The only other major power left out was the Soviet Union. This was an extremely positive step for the League and showed that there was a large chance that there would not be another WW as Germany was now in the League.

The other Treaty was The Kellogg-Briand Pact in 1928. Its terms were:

* The parties... condemn war as a means of solving international disputes and reject it as an instrument of policy.

* The settlement or solution of all disputes... shall only be sought by peaceful means.

But it partly failed, as there was nothing in the pact that said what would happen if a state broke the terms of the agreement and it did not help the League to disarm Nations. But instead agreed that Nations could keep their armies for self-defence. In a way this was good but it was also bad as if a country wanted to invade another it still could. But overall the two pacts made the world a much safer place.

One of the last failures of the League before it collapsed was the invasion of Japan on Manchuria. The invasion got more serious and eventually ended up in Japan resigning from the League. Japan was also a major country in the League that traded with the USA and had a good income for the league. So its resignation was a big blow.

After this the League had nearly collapsed and the last main blow was when Italy invaded Abyssinian. Here the League could not agree on effective sanctions against Italy, and France and Britain tried to do a secret deal and give Italy most of Abyssinian. After this the League was seen as powerless and irrelevant.

All of this evidence overall shows me that the League tried as much as it could to create peace, but it was being pulled back by so many things and eventually collapsed after failing to settle some major disputes. These disputes led to WW2 and showed that the League had failed on what it had intended for, despite helping so many countries in many different ways.