"The League of Nations representedno more than

I agree with the statement that ‘The League of Nations represented no more than

the hopes of decent men.’  I think this statement is true.  I am of this opinion mainly because the league mirrored the hopes of the American, British and French leaders who were decent men.  Of course the league did endure a lot of successes.  However it did fail many times with political issues; the very issues the league had been set up to resolve, namely war.  The leaders who set up the league stated that the league had been set up to resolve political issues and under any circumstances hinder a war from occurring.  The league clearly failed because World War Two still occurred in spite of the leagues presence.  There were also many sub failures, one could say, within this big failure of not preventing war.  

The league lived through many failures.  Politicians were now doing mainly what was in their own countries interest.  For example Italy and Japan; they were invading Abyssinia and Manchuria.  But whenever some idea was about to be passed against these offending nations, it was vetoed by the offending nations themselves and as a result no action was taken against them simply because a unanimous vote was needed.  Also since these nations were in the Security Council they had slightly more power to do what they wanted.  All the leaders were simply bypassing the league, or they were using the league for their own national interests.  “There was a tendency for nations to conduct their diplomacy outside the League of Nations and to put their trust in paper treaties.  After the USA assisted Europe financially there seemed to be more goodwill which statesmen tried to capture in pacts and treaties.  Many of them, however, were of little value.  They represented no more than the hopes of decent men.”  The first major blow to the leagues ‘make believe’ authority was due to the Manchurian crisis, 1931 – 1935.  The league was powerless to do anything.  Firstly the league did not have an army so no offensive action could be taken.  Secondly who was going to pay for the league and its activities; nobody was willing to make any financial commitments to the league, therefore it had to be extremely careful with its funding.  And thirdly would the leaders be aiming to resolve national interests or global interests; like the Italians and Japanese.  Thus all the leaders saw that the Security Council, like Italy and Japan members were bypassing the League and continuing with their global interests.  Since the league could not take a stand, and did not pose any real threat to the Italians or Japanese people started not taking the league seriously.  The league did not have any political force behind it anymore, and its decline had already begun.  “The real death of the league was in 1935.  One day it was a powerful body imposing sanctions, the next day it was an empty sham, everyone scuttling from it as quickly as possible.  Hitler Watched.”  Another reason why nobody paid anymore heed to the league was because the major powers in the world were not present, like America and the U.S.S.R.  The league needed a kind of watchdog or headmaster to make sure all the nations behaved themselves, however the country to play this role was missing and consequently all the member states started looking over their own national interests and then eventually no paid any attention to the league because it was a waste of time.  

The finishing blow to the league was the Abyssinian crisis.  What spurred Mussolini onwards was the fact that the League had failed to prevent or resolve the Manchurian crisis.  The Italians were eager for revenge against the Abyssinians because of their loss at the battle of Adowa, in 1898.  Combining their will to revenge and their exploitation of the Leagues weakness, the Italians invaded Abyssinia.  The league had to resolve this crisis if it was to survive, this wave of problems.  The league already had discredited its name with its failures, however if it failed to resolve this crisis it would be completely disregarded by the world.  The league had failed to use sanctions effectively against the Italians, during October, 1935.  The league had banned all loans to Italy, all imports, all arms sales and all exports of rubber, tin and metals.  In spite of all these imposed bans on goods, many things were not done to stop Mussolini.  For example the league decided to impose an oil ban on Italy, however it was too late to make any difference at all.  Another example; the Suez Canal which was owned by the British and French (Security Council member in the League) was not shut down to the Italians, even though it was Mussolini’s prime supply route to Abyssinia.  The French and the British were desperate not to allow Germany and Italy to collaborate.  This was revealed when Hoare and Laval, the British and French Foreign Ministers proposed a secret treaty with Italy.  The foreign ministers bypassed the league, simply because the league would not allow secret treaties, which was stated as one of Wilson’s Fourteen Points.  Hoare and Laval proposed to give Mussolini half of Abyssinia, they also proposed to give Italy economic rights to Italy.  However before Mussolini could reply the treaty was exposed to the public, which caused an outrage in both Britain and France.  Consequently both the Foreign Ministers were forced to resign.  The Hoare and Laval pact fatally damaged the league as it had been bypassed, and also because of the Abyssinian crisis.  Even now the league had not banned oil, but even if it had, there would not have been much use for the ban because countries like the USA and Russia were still trading with Italy and if bans were imposed the countries would continue to trade with Italy.  As the Abyssinian crisis was underway, Hitler saw an opportunity to quietly retake and remilitarize the Rhineland, while the French and British attention was diverted to Italy and Abyssinia.  He remilitarized the Rhineland on March 7th 1936.  The French and British backed off from Italy, hoping to keep Mussolini on their side and away from Hitler.  On the whole the Abyssinian crisis completely decimated the Stresa Front and had brought the Germans and Italy closer together.  Because of these events Collective Security and sanctions had been entirely undermined.  Do not forget that since the league did not have any standing armed force, sanctions were its last, and most potent weapon against rogue nations and it had been completely walked on by the Germans and the Italians.  “The implications of the conquest of Abyssinia were not confined to East Africa.  Although victory cemented Mussolini’s personal prestige at home, Italy gained little or nothing from it in material terms.  The damage done, meanwhile, to the prestige of Britain, France and the League of Nations was irreversible.  The only winner in the whole sorry episode was Adolf Hitler.”  T.A. Morris is obviously speculating on Hitler’s benefits from the Abyssinian crisis.  Morris is correct in stating that Hitler was the only winner because he was.  

 “After seeing what happened in Manchuria and then in Abyssinia, most people drew the conclusion that it was no longer much use placing their hopes in the league.”  This was evident as the membership in the league dramatically started to fall after the Abyssinian crisis.  The fate of the league had now been sealed, with its failure in Manchuria and Abyssinia.  This was mainly because it had not been prepared; did not have an army, the world powers were not present.  The men who helped set the league up had the welfare of the world in mind; what they got was a political group which was destined for political demise.  The league just did not have what it took to be a political world entity, thus it represented no more than the hopes of decent men.

Bibliography

Own school Notes

Flagship History: Europe 1870 - 1991

Worldatwar.net

Indiana.edu

Library.northwestern.edu

Factmonster.com

Ellonacademy.com

CGP GCSE History