Which of the following was more important for the failure of the League of Nations?

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Which of the following was more important for the failure of the League of Nations?

The Manchurian Crisis, 1931

The Abyssinian Crisis, 1935

 

There were two main events in the 1930’s that were causes of the failure of the League of Nations, The Manchurian Crisis and the Abyssinian Crisis. Both of them damaged the League’s reputation and both included a major power causing the problem. The League was slow to react on both occasions and so both times the major powers got what they wanted.        

The Manchurian Crisis was devastating for the League. Japan was suffering economically due to the Wall Street Crash and Depression. As a result Japan began looking for ways to expand and in 1931 Japan invaded Manchuria, the South West of China. The area also provided new market for Japanese goods. The Japanese successfully conquered Manchuria and renamed it Manchukuo. China, in the midst of a civil war, was not able to defend Manchuria. It appealed to the League of Nations for support against Japan. This made the League look bad because one of major members started the war.

Another reason that the League was made to look bad was that it took a long time to respond. The League started to draw up a report called the Lytton Report, headed by the second Earl of Lytton V.A.G.R. Bulwer-Lytton. Since the Assembly met only once a year, the decision for the Lytton Report to be passed took over a year to be made. However it should have not taken more than a few months at most. The Report just condemned Japan’s actions and told them to leave Manchuria but since it had taken so long to be written up, Japan had already successfully invaded Manchuria and started to take over other parts of China. Other leading members would have seen how slow the League was to react to situations. In the meeting where Japan was condemned as the aggressor, the Japan ambassador, Yosuke Matsuoka, just walked out and later on 27th March 1933 Japan gave out a formal notice of its withdrawal from the League of Nations. The League was slow and was not able to deal with it successfully.

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In this event the reason that the League of Nations failed was that they did not really enforce any proper action to prevent the invasion. The League could have placed sanctions on Japan but the problem with that was America was Japan’s largest trading partner and America was not part of the League of Nations so economic sanctions would have been useless. Also Russia was geographically close to Manchuria and would have been able to interfere but they too were not in the League of Nations. This was another reason that the League failed because America and Russia were not ...

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