The Leagues main weapon was supposed to be economic sanction, but they didn’t willingly impose them because it was feared without the USA they’d not work. Some British politicians felt that the trade sanctions would only work if America applied them. The sanctions were easily broken after they had been made as they had a fear of the Americans not supporting the sanctions and its members’ economic interests would be further damaged. For example in Britain, the Cabinet was informed that because of the ban on coal exports to Italy, 30,000 British coal miners were about to lose their jobs. Therefore the League again lacked the power to enforce the decisions made by its Assembly and Council. Also, whenever a country wanted something it could go to the USA.
According to the League if economic sanctions failed then the next step was military force. Though there were no armed forces belonging to the League, it simply relied on its members to contribute them. Britain and France weren’t willing to supply troops, mainly because of their heavy losses in the First World War. So in the end they resorted back to the economic sanctions which were useless. There was never a time when troops fought on behalf of the League.
The League depended upon Britain and France to give firm support in times of crisis. When a conflict actually arrived neither the British nor the French governments were prepared to drop their own interests to support the League. Both countries had other priorities. British politicians were more interested in rebuilding British trade and holding onto the British Empire and wanted to stay clear of European conflicts. Also Britain was suffering from high unemployment and when its own economy was suffering, wasn’t willing to get involved by sorting out international disputes. Frances main concern was Germany and keeping it down. Its worry was that as the League didn’t have its own army it would be too weak to protect France from its powerful neighbour German. Nor did France think Britain would send in an army for support. Its next priority was in order to strengthen its position against Germany; France was prepared to bypass the League if it felt it was necessary. France began building a series of frontier defences on its borders with Germany as it was worried about the changing situation in Germany.
The League was supposed to act quickly and with determination when a crisis occurred. Yet in lots of cases the League didn’t meet frequently and therefore a long time was taken before a decision was reached. The strength of the League was undermined by the need for all the members to agree on a course of action. The Council of the League were only brought together 5 times a year and in emergencies. The Assembly and International Labour Organisation (ILO) both gathered only once a year. This is proof of how little the League and the bodies within it met. Often a decision would not be reached until it was pointless. For example when they were trying to stop Mussolini invading Abyssinia. They had put sanction bans on loans, rubber, tin and metal and had delayed a decision to ban oil exports to Italy for 2 months originally. Later it was further delayed when they concluded that if they did stop oil sales to Italy, within 2 months their supplies would be exhausted even if the Americans continued selling it to them. But by then it was too late, by the time it had taken to reach a decision, large parts of Abyssinia had already been taken over by Mussolini.
To conclude this essay I think that the weaknesses in the League of Nations that were the most important factors in:
The Manchurian Crisis- were the fact that powerful countries weren’t in the League, so able to enforce a decision made or the Leagues army could have done that, if they had had one. Also they took far too long deciding on what to do, giving Japan more time.
The failure of Disarmament- were the fact that the League never had its own army to put its wished and promised ideas into practice and actually seeing them completed. Also the important and powerful countries should have been there to help make sure it was gone through wit, but obviously as they either hadn’t joined or already left then they couldn’t help. Also it took them far too long to make a decision. It took 5 years to agree a ‘draft convention’ for the conference to focus on.
The Abyssinian Crisis- were the same as the Manchurian Crisis. There was somebody going against the rules of the League and they had nothing they could do in their power to stand up to them.
I agree with the statement ‘ The League failed in the 1930’s because it faced greater challenges than it faced in the 1920’s’ because the disputes were much smaller and with smaller countries so could actually make a difference to them with economic sanctions, they needed help from leading countries in helping or stopping them from whatever it maybe. Also if they were smaller, it may make France or Britain more likely to put forward troops to fight. Also I think the League did really well to begin with to say that many people wanted and were expecting different things, President Wilson wanted The League to be a world parliament, where representatives of all nations could meet regularly to sort out problems that affected them all. Whereas as many British leaders thought the best League would be one that met in emergencies and altogether, just be a simple organisation. France on the other hand planned for a strong League with its own army, which could have been in self defence against Germany, just in case they did rebuild their armies etc. and wanted war with France. After The Manchurian Crisis it was too clear to people like Mussolini and Hitler, that the League had no real way off stopping them and so altogether were powerless. If the League had had its own army I think it would have worked much more efficiently, as countries wouldn’t want to risk war with the Leagues army. Also, the economic sanctions could have been more effective if they had met more frequently, to actually sort them out and not keep delaying decisions all the time. Altogether I think the League was a good idea and way of getting the countries to sort out their problems in other ways rather than war, put when it came to getting them to do what the League said to sort out their problem, they had nothing to enforce their decision, so it became the countries choice on whether it wanted to do what the League said or not. In the cases of Hitler and Mussolini they didn’t because they knew the League wouldn’t actually put barriers in their way, just words.
