The league of nations - How successful was The League in the 1920's?

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How Successful Was The League In The 1920’s?

To determine whether the League of Nations was a success we need to know what it aimed to achieve and to what extent were they achieved. Their main aims were:

-To discourage aggression between nations

-To improve living and working conditions

-To encourage nations to disarm

-To encourage countries to cooperate, especially in business and trade

The first main aim of the L.O.N was to discourage aggression between countries or to preserve peace. In 1920, both Sweden and Finland wanted control of the Aaland Islands, which were midway between the two countries. Both countries were threatening to fight for them. They appealed to the League. After studying the matter closely the League decided that the islands should go to Finland. Sweden accepted the L.O.N ruling and war was avoided. The L.O.N was successful in sorting out small border disputes like Finland and Sweden because they had powerful leaders in with large armies leading the League so a small and less powerful country would not consider retaliating. They also could enforce economic sanctions, which for a small country could have devastating effects on their economy. However not all disputes were ended peacefully. The League Of Nations was much better at sorting out small border disputes than compared with larger, more powerful countries.

 In 1923, the L.O.N failed to avert war between Greece and Italy. One of the boundaries, which had to be sorted out after the war, was the border between Greece and Albania. The job was given to an Italian official to organise it. On August 27th while surveying the Greek side, the party was ambushed and murdered. Mussolini was furious and blamed the Greek government for the murder. On august 29th he demanded that they pay compensation for the murder and have the murderers executed. The Greeks, however claimed not to know whom the criminal were so on august 31st Mussolini bombarded and occupied the Greek island of Corfu. This was a serious situation for the L.O.N because it was very similar to the events, which triggered WW1 so the League had to act quickly. By September 7th it had come to a decisions. It condemned Mussolini’s actions and suggested that Greece pay compensation but that the League would hold the money. If the killers were found then it would be paid to Italy.

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Officially Mussolini accepted the Leagues decision but behind the scenes he got to work on the Conference Of Ambassadors and persuaded them to change the ruling. The Greeks had to apologise and pay the compensation directly to Italy. On September the 27th Mussolini left Corfu boasting of his triumph.

The League Of Nations failed to sort out this dispute successfully because of the some of the consequences it could face. Italy could have easily occupied the whole of Greece so military action would have been useless because of the size and powerfulness of the army. It would have ...

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