The League then called for countries to stop trading with Japan but because of the depression many countries did not want to risk losing trade and did not agree to the request. The League then made a further call for Japan to withdraw from Manchuria but Japan's response was to leave the League of Nations.
By 1935, most countries did not think that the League could keep the peace.
When Hitler began to break the Treaty of Versailles in the 1930s, the League was powerless to stop him (this is the next topic you will study).
The league failed, and the only way to stop Hitler was to have a Second World War.
In October 1935, Italy invaded Abyssinia. The Abyssinians did not have the strength to withstand an attack by Italy and appealed to the League of Nations for help.
The League condemned the attack and called on member states to impose trade restrictions with Italy. However, the trade restrictions were not carried out because they would have little effect. Italy would be able to trade with non-member states, particularly America. Furthermore, Britain and France did not want to risk Italy making an attack on them.
In order to stop Italy's aggression, the leaders of Britain and France held a meeting and decided that Italy could have two areas of land in Abyssinia provided that there were no further attacks on the African country. Although Mussolini accepted the plan, there was a public outcry in Britain and the plan was dropped.
Here are the main reasons why the league failed:
- The League’s ‘powers’ were weak.
- America - the strongest nation in the world - never joined.
- The League was muddled, so it took a long time to do anything. Members couldn’t agree but decisions had to be unanimous. This paralysed the League.
- The world-wide Depression made countries try to get more land and power. They were worried about themselves, not about world peace.
- The more the League failed, the less people trusted it. In the end, everybody just ignored it.
- the League’s main members let it down. Italy and Japan betrayed the League. France and Britain did nothing to help it.
- In the 1920s, the League had dealt with weak countries. In the 1930s, powerful countries like Germany, Italy and Japan attacked weaker countries. They were too strong for the League to stop them.
The second point was a main part of the failure, however we will never know if it was the main reason why they failed. The disorganisation of the League also played a big part in the failure. World-Wide depression also was a key factor.
The US, at the time, were the most powerful country and it is almost certain that the League would have been run and organised much better, therefore probably would have succeeded in their goal.
However, to say that that was the “main reason” why the league failed, is a different matter. It was definitely a main reason but probably not the main.
We will never be able to know the main reason why the failed as we can’t go back and see the alternatives. But what we do know is what some of the reasons were (I’ve listed the three most important above).+