The second aim of the League was to keep existing boundaries between nations. This meant that no countries could be merged together to form a new one, and no existing countries could be reduced. One problem ws that some countries kept themselves to themselves, and did not get involved in other countries problems. Even if a country was in need.
Thirdly on the League’s agender, was to maintain the independnce of member countries. No one country had more power than another, or could intefere with other countries without being approached first. After the first world war some new countries were formed. Poland is one example. Poland came from land that used to be Russia. After the war it was decided that Poland would remain an independant country.
The fourth major aim of the League was to persuade members to agree to disarmament. This was to reduce the likelyhood of more wars, because without weapons there would be no countries capable of started a fight. The biggest success of disarmament was to reduce the naval fleets of : USA, Britain, France, Italy and Japan. Their fleets were reduced to the ratio of 10:10:6:3:3. The main reason for Japan’s fleet being reduced more than America’s, was that the americans feared an invasion from the Japanese. Not all countries were happy with the idea of disarmament, and for some it did not last for very long. The biggest problem of disarmament was that if a League country was attacked, it would struggle to defend itself.
The fifth point on the League’s aims, was to improve working conditions, and matters of health. The League achieved this aim very well. They managed to return 400 000 prisoners of war (POW)
and 60 000 homes were found for refugees. On the more health related issues the League managed to ban the illegal dealings of: weapons, drugs ans also slaves. There were no things in this point that were bad, or that the League had failed to do.
The final aim of the League was to use sanctions against any country that attacked another. The main problem with this, was that the League did not have it’s own army. Therefore they could not enforce any sanctions that they made. The main sanction used, was in the form of an economic sanction. Money and materials would be taken from the country being punished. The League may try to disarm the country, but with no armed forces themselves, this was not really an easy task.
‘How successful was the League i the 1920’s?’ I think the answer to this is that the League was quite successful. Out of their aims they managed to achieve roughly half, and some others may have been partially achieved. The League did manage to stop wars, but they did not really achieve disarmament. They also managed to improve working conditions and health matters, but they did not manage to use sanctions effectively. The last two aims of the League were both equally achived as well, or as badly, as each other.Although neither of the two were achieved perfecty.
