The Treaty of Versailles also caused a disagreement over a port in Lithuania called Memel (1932). As the port was inhabited by mostly Lithuanians, the Lithuanian government thought the port should be under Lithuanian control, but the treaty had put the port and its surrounding land under the control of the league. For three years it stayed under the leagues control but in 1923 the Lithuanians invaded the port. The league intervened and gave to land surrounding Memel to Lithuania but made the port an “international zone”. Lithuania approved of this decision. Memel was seen as a success but there is a counter argument that what happened was a result of force and reacted encouragingly even though Lithuania acted forcefully.
The League of Nations had failed to stop a bloody war in turkey but did take action to counter the humanitarian crisis caused by this war. The war had created 1,400,000 refugees with a high percentage of them being women and children. Diseases such as typhoid and cholera out of control and the league sent doctors to prevent the rapid spread of the diseases. They also spent large amounts of money building farms and homes for the refugees.
Greece and Bulgaria border each other and in 1925 shooting broke out between the two parties and a Greek soldier was shot. The Greek military invaded Bulgaria. The Bulgarians appealed to the league and the league examined the situation and as a result the league decided that Greece was at fault and fined her £45,000. Neither country argued with the decision.
Economic collapse in Austria and Hungary (1922-3) after the war, Austria and Hungary’s economies were disintegrating, and with the trouble of reparations it seemed they would simply collapse. The League arranged loans for the two countries and in effect, took over the economic control of the two countries. With this help, both Austria and Hungary were able to begin economic recovery. The League’s action was quick and effective.
The border between Albania and Yugoslavia was dispute and Yugoslavian military were in some Albanian territory. After clashes with Albanian tribesmen, the Yugoslav forces invaded more. The League sent a commission to the region. The commission supported Albania and the Yugoslav forces drew back in 1921. War was again avoided.
The individual departments of the League were a success as they targeted some of the issues all over the world. Such as slavery they attacked slave traders in Sierra Leone and Burma. They also addressed the issue of drug trafficking and closed down drug companies. Also the Court of International Justice worked because the fifteen judges settled many disputes. Additionally the Mandates Commission supervised the territories and made sure they were well governed. Furthermore the International Labour Organisation changed the maximum working hours in a day/week.
Now onto the failures. First of all one of the reasons the league failed was that they were missing a key member of the league, the U.S.A. One of the reasons why they didn’t join was because Woodrow Wilson, who had put forward the idea of the league, was made to leave his position as President of United States. Also the American public didn’t want to get caught up in European wars as they could harm the American economy.
Vilna (1920) was under Lithuanian government but with 30% of its population being Polish and only 2% being Lithuanian. The Poles took Vilna by force, Lithuania asked for help from the league but the Polish could not be negotiated out of Vilna and stayed there until world war two. The Poles had won by using their military.
Several ideas were drawn up such as the Locarno Treaty (1925) the ideas were to remember the borders that the Treaty of Versailles had imposed, but it could not prevent the outbreak of world war two after Germany ignored the treaty and sent troops into a demilitarised Rhineland. Another agreement was the Kellogg-Briand pact (1928). This pact had 65 countries agree to never to go to war unless their country was attacked or threatened. This agreement failed several times: Japanese invasion of Manchuria and the Italian invasion of Abyssinia. An additional idea was drawn up called the Dawes Plan (1924). The Dawes Plan consisted of America loaning Germany money to pay her reparations. The Dawes Plan gave short term financial benefits to the German economy. It softened the trouble of war reparations, stabilised the currency. However, it made the German economy rely on foreign economies, and the Great Depression would damage Germany.
The Corfu Incident in 1923, the border between Italy and Albania was far from clear and the Treaty of Versailles had never really addressed this issue. It had always been a source of squabbling between both nations. A mixed nationality survey team was sent out to settle the argument. Whilst travelling to the area, the Italian members of the survey team became separated from the rest. The five Italians were shot by gunmen who had been in hiding. Italy thought Greece were behind the incident and ordered Greece to pay a fine. Greece refused to pay up. Italy’s reaction was to bombard the Greek island of Corfu. Greece asked the League for help but Italy, under the leadership of Benito Mussolini persuaded the League to fine Greece 50 million lire.
The Ruhr in 1923, this dispute was about the fact that Germany couldn’t pay her reparations instead of going to the League, France marched into the Ruhr. Even though France had clearly broken the Leagues rules. The League could not take action against France because to be able to take action against one of the major powers. It needed the backing of its two main members, Britain and France and because the inner core of the league was involved in the dispute, it could not be decisive.
In conclusion I think the League of Nations had the right idea but as Benito Mussolini quoted “The League is very well when sparrows shout, but no good at all when eagles fall out”. Meaning that the league could settle minor disputes between small countries but when it came to the major powers e.g. Italy, France, it did not have the authority to take any action.
