Explain why the league failed to deal with the Manchuria and Abyssinia Crises in the 1920/30s
The 1920s showed the League of Nations to be a weak force when dealing with the problems of bigger countries, as shown by the Japanese invasion of Manchuria and the Italian invasion of Abyssinia. The two main countries in the league were more concerned about their own interests rather than trying to uphold the morals of the League, and actions that were decided were disrupted by the fact that the League could not agree what actions to take. Most importantly, the absence of the USA meant that the League was made useless.
The fact that the USA was not in the League is the most important reason for the failure of the League in dealing with both crises. Both Italy and Japan knew that as the USA was not in the League, any sanctions that were imposed on them by the League were useless as the goods that were sanctioned could be easily obtained from the USA as the USA did not have to follow the rules of the sanctions. The fact that the countries could still get goods from the USA meant that in many cases the countries in the League themselves did not impose the sanctions decided in order to try to benefit economically as there was no disadvantage to doing so, especially the two dominating countries in the League Britain and France.
