One of the main tasks of the League was to sort out any disputes that arose among its members, the members brought the problem to the League and the problem was sorted out through discussion before matters got out of hand. However, if this did not work the League could use a moral, economic or military sanction. Economic sanctions were supposed to be the Leagues main weapon but members of the League did not impose them willingly because they were worried that without America they wouldn’t work. When they did impose them they were easily broken. The league lacked the power to enforce the decisions of its council and assembly.
I am now going to look at how the two major crises in Manchuria and Abyssinia and the issue of disarmament contributed to the leagues failure in the 1930’s.
In 1929 economic disaster struck. In the USA the Wall Street Crash started a long depression which quickly caused economic problems all around the world. It damaged the trade and industry of all countries. It also led to important political changes within countries. Much of the goodwill and the optimism of the late 1920’s had gone.
Since 1900 Japans economy and population had been growing rapidly. By the 1920’s Japan was a major power and the Depression hit Japan badly. The collapse in the American market put the Japanese economy in crisis. Without this trade Japan could not feed its people. In 1931 an incident in Manchuria gave them the opportunity that they had been waiting for. Japan controlled a railway that ran through China and when part of it was destroyed by a bomb the Japanese army moved in to protect the line- the Chinese troops opened fire and the Japanese fought back. By the end of 1931 the Japanese had captured most of Manchuria. China appealed to the league for help and it took the league another full year to come to a conclusion on how to handle the situation. The judgement was that Japan was in the wrong and had acted unlawfully and Manchuria should be returned to the Chinese. The League morally sanctioned Japan. Japan ignored the League and instead of withdrawing from Manchuria the Japanese announced that they intended to invade more of China. The League was powerless. They discussed economic sanctions but decided without America, Japans main trading partner, that this would be pointless. Eventually Japan withdrew from the league in March 1933. The League did nothing as Britain and France could not afford to stop trading with Japan and The League had no military power. This showed that the League was powerless if a strong nation/powerful dictator decided to invade neighbouring countries and ignore the League as they could. Japan had got away with invading Manchuria and back in Europe both Hitler and Mussolini were watching very closely. The Leagues prestige had been badly damaged and it weaknesses had been shown to other countries. The Manchurian crisis was the first in a series of major event in the 1930’s that eventually led to the failure of the league.
The next big failure of the League of Nations was over disarmament. The league had not had any success in this area in the 1920’s either, but at that stage when the international climate was much better it had seemed not to matter as much. In the 1930’s there was increased pressure to do something about disarmament. The Germans especially had long been angry that they had been forced to disarm after the First World War while other nations had not done the same. Many countries were actually spending more on their armaments than before the First World War.
It was the Manchurian crisis that made the League members realise the urgency of the disarmament problem. In February 1932 the Disarmament conference finally got under way. By July 1932 it had produced resolutions to prohibit bombing in civilian areas, limit the size of artillery, limit the tonnage of tanks, and prohibit chemical warfare. There was very little in the resolutions to show how these limits would be achieved so it was not a very good start. However, the biggest problem of the conference was what to do about Germany. At this time the Germans had been the League for six years and most people thought that they should be treated more fairly than under the treaty of Versailles. The question was should everyone disarm to the level that Germany had been forced to, or should Germany be allowed to rearm to a level closer to the others. Experience showed that the first option was no good but the league was very reluctant to allow the second option. The Germans made proposals for the rest of the countries to disarm to their level and when the conference failed to agree the Germans walked out. In the December that year an agreement was finally reached to treat Germany equally and in January 1933 the Germans announced that they were coming back. In February 1933 Adolf Hitler became the Chancellor of Germany. He secretly started to rearm Germany. But he promised to the other conference members that he would not rearm if ‘in five years time all of the other nations destroyed their arms’. In October 1933 Hitler withdrew Germany from the disarmament conference altogether, and soon after took Germany out of the League altogether. By this stage everyone knew that Hitler was ‘secretly’ rearming Germany already. They also began to rebuild their own armaments. The disarmament struggled on for another year but it finally ended in 1934.
The disarmament conference failed for a number of reasons one was because no one was really serious about disarming to begin with. But it didn’t help that in 1935 the British sealed an agreement with the Germans called the ‘Anglo-German navel agreement’ which allowed Germany to build up its navy as long as it stayed under 35 per cent the size of the British navy. Britain did not consult the League of Nations about this or even its allies it was also in violation of the treaty of Versailles. This shows that even members going on with the League were starting to ignore it.
The final blow came to the League of Nations in 1935 when Italian dictator Benito Mussolini invaded Abyssinia. Abyssinia was a poor and undeveloped country next to Italian colonies of Eritrea and Somaliland. The Italians had previously tried to invade Abyssinia (1896- Battle of Adowa) and were defeated so they wanted revenge. They also wanted raw materials and new resources as they were suffering from the depression. Abyssinia was the only uncolonised country left in Africa and invading it would detract attention away from all the problems back in Italy. So in December 1934 there was a dispute between Italian and Ethiopian soldiers at the Wal-Wal oasis, 50metres inside Abyssinia. Mussolini prepared the Italian soldiers for an invasion and the Abyssinian emperor who was called Haile Selassie appealed to the League for help.
Britain and France did not take the situation seriously and did not want to upset Mussolini, as he seemed to their strongest ally against Hitler. Eventually Italy was given a moral sanction as everyone thought that they had done wrong. Mussolini launched a full-scale invasion on Abyssinia and despite their resistance the Abyssinians were no match for the Italian army. This was a clear case of a powerful state attacking a smaller one. The league was designed for disputes such as this and, unlike in the Manchurian crisis, it was in the ideal place to act. The covenant gave it no doubt as what to do- sanction must be introduced against Italy.
The League imposed economic sanctions on Italy, but these were useless because they did not stop the sale of coal and oil to Italy, without oil in particular the Italians would not be able to fight a modern war. If the Suez Canal, which was owned by the British and French, had been closed to the Italians their main supply ship route through to Abyssinia would have been blocked and the Abyssinian campaign would have ended very quickly. However both of the British and the French were afraid that closing the canal could have resulted in a war with Italy and they wanted to avoid breaking their alliance with Italy at all costs.
The British foreign minister Hoare and the French Prime minister Laval made up a secret deal with Mussolini called ‘the Hoare-Laval pact’. They agreed to divide up Abyssinia giving two thirds to Mussolini leaving the remaining third for Haile Selassie. Details of the plan were found out and Hoare and Laval were both sacked. By this time it was two late anyway as Mussolini had already taken over large parts of Italy.
On the 7th march 1936 the fatal blow to the league was delivered when Hitler, timing his move to perfection, marched German troops in to the Rhineland, an act prohibited by the treaty of Versailles. If the French and British thought that their handling of the Abyssinian crisis would strengthen them against Hitler they were soon proved very wrong. In November 1936 Mussolini, annoyed by the economic sanction, signed an agreement called the ‘Rome-Berlin Axis’ with Hitler. Mussolini continued to ignore the League and all the league could do was watch helplessly. Britain and France could not afford another war and they were very afraid of the alliance between Italy and Germany.
The League of Nations had some success in the 1920’s but by 1937 it had become irrelevant and ignored even by its main members Britain and France. The League of Nations was an official failure!
From looking at the evidence above I have decided that I do not agree that that the League failed in the 1930’s simply because it had greater challenges than in the 1920’s. The League may have faced greater challenges in warfare in the 1930’s but in the 1920’s it faced greater challenges in social welfare. E.g. abolishing slavery and helping refugees.
Although events like the crises in Abyssinia and Manchuria and the failure of the disarmament conference contributed in a great deal to the failure of the League it was probably the ‘design weakness’ of the league that led to its overall failure.
Probably the most important and noticeable weakness was the absence of the USA. It was a great shock and disappointment for the rest of the world when the American people decided against joining the League. This can be considered a great weakness because the USA was becoming the most powerful and influential country in the world, and therefore the League would probably be unwilling to make a decision which would go against the USA, and it would also mean that a country that was a league member, who had economic sanctions placed upon them would still be free to trade with the USA. Therefore mostly defeating the object of economic sanctions as the US was the biggest trading country.
The league was to closely related to the Treaty of Versailles and other treaties which were unfair and which many people hated. This was also an important factor in the decision of the US to stay out of the League.
Another reason why the league failed was because one their aims, 'To keep collective security…' failed. Britain and France along with other members were more concerned about their own interests. The French and British mainly controlled the league so if they didn’t want something it wouldn’t happen. As a result they were reluctant to get involved in collective security (one of the reasons why Britain and France were reluctant to commit troops to fight for the League of Nations) and their League could not make powerful countries obey their rulings or enforce sanctions.
Another weakness of the League was that it did not have an army of its own, if it wanted an army to stand up to a country not following its orders, it must raise an army from member countries. This became ineffective, as many member countries were very unwilling to raise an army, as they were afraid that it would affect their own self-interests. Without an army the league could also not give out military sanctions when the other sanctions failed, which they often did.
The League also failed because there was a lack of unity between Britain and France. They often disagreed and they did not trust each other. With this and the fact decisions had to be unanimous made it almost impossible for the League to make a decision. The time in which it took the league to come to decisions was far too long. For example at the time of the Manchurian crisis it took the league a whole year to decide what coarse of action to take.
The Great Depression that hit the world in the years following the Wall Street Crash in 1929 also weakened the League. At this time of crisis the League had trouble imposing sanctions. The Depression also caused great dictators such as Hitler to come to power.
Overall I believe that the league failed though its design weakness and through the attitudes of its members. It was the weakness in the leagues design and the attitudes of the members, which led to its failures in disputes such as the Manchurian and Abyssinian crisis.
Just because the league failed that is not to say that it was not a success in some respect. Throughout the 1920’s the league achieved many great social achievements. It worked to abolish slavery, it improved working conditions, it worked hard to defeat the dreaded disease leprosy and it did tremendous work in helping refugees.