The league never had an army of its own. The league was condemned to ask its members for an army and the only big armies at the time were Britain and France that at the time were more interested in solving their own domestic problems.
Decisions in the league were slow because of bureaucracy. Decision took a lot o time because their had to be reports, complaints, witnesses a lot of paper work for officials. An example of a slow decision is the resolution of the Manchurian crisis, it took one year to get a report from officials and after the report was made and told to the world Japan continued to invade china. No one would dare even try stooping them.
These are the main crisis in the 20s
Vilna 1920 Poland and Lithuania two nations created in the post war period by the league. Vilna the new capital in Lithuania was mainly polish speaking population, one day a private polish army invaded the defenceless city. The league was now facing its first crisis, it had the power to send British or French troops. But neither were very keen on sending troops to the other side of Europe.
Upper Silesia 1921. This on the western part of Germany, its mainly an industrialised region which Poland and Germany wanted control of this region the league to solve this dispute decided to have a plebiscite organised for Silesians to vote on which country they favour. The industry preferred Germany and the rural preferred Poland. The league divided this up the region and safeguarded the rail links and other important points like water and power. A good and peaceful solution to the problem
Aaland Islands 1921. This crisis involves Sweden and Finland, which want control of the islands; they even prepared to fight for them. The League intervened saying the islands belonged to Finland, Sweden accepted the decision and a dispute was avoided. This was avoided because the Swedish made no retaliation.
Corfu 1923. After the war this was like biggest dispute after the war. The crisis starts when a Italian General appointed by the League to view border control between Greece and Albania is assinated. Mussolini blamed Greek government for the assination. He demanded compensation by executing the murderers. Nothing was done and he bombed Corfu. Greece appealed at the League and the league condemned his actions but Greece was forced to compensate the Italians by paying them.
Bulgaria 1925. Greece retaliates after a border dispute involving soldiers from both sides. The quickly condemned these acts. Greece rapidly retreated and complained about the rules for big and small countries. In 1931 the empire of Japan invaded continental china. This was a real test for the league. The Japanese claimed that Chinese soldiers had sabotaged the railway in Manchuria and to settle a local difficulty the Japanese invaded to maintain peace. China’s version is that Japanese economy was so injured that Manchuria would be a solution because it has natural resources and “FREE” labour. At the league in Geneva there was a lot of talking but not much action that would give peace. Meanwhile in Japan the military that were really in control set up a phoney government, which was controlled by them.
After many observations and reports the league had obtained a verdict : the league believed that Japan was acting unlawfully and should give back to china what ever it has acquired, the next day the Japanese instead of a retreat they invaded even more this made the league look ineffective.
These are the main crisis in the 30s.
Abyssinia was country where nowadays would be Ethiopia and Somalia. The Italians under the orders of Mussolini invaded it. Mussolini needed a diversion to divert the public eye from the state of crisis the country was living at that time. This was a difficult situation because Britain and France let Mussolini invade with no opposition hoping for an alliance in return against Hitler.
Mussolini knew that the British and the French wouldn’t give much opposition. Mussolini was very sneaky during the peace talks in the league his own Generals were preparing an even bigger offensive.
The measures the league took were 0. They just talked. This was the biggest proof that the league was ineffective without Britain and France.
I believe that the League doomed from the start. It could never have woked out with the problems stated above. All of these crisis were medium sized comparing them with Abyssinia or Manchuria where their were real wars fought.
If a real crisis would up rise the League would definitely be ineffective and offer absolutely no protection at all.
The challenges in the 30s were of no much bigger scale than the ones in the 20s.
From the above statements I found out that the on first time it was called to intervene it was ineffective and that shows something.
Without everybody present it was impossible to be successful and if there are countries not present like the USA it’s impossible.
Their were 2 countries which believed in the League to some extent this extent was as far as no British or French troops were harmed.