Why the League Of Nations Failed in the 1930’s

The League Of Nations was an idea put forward by Woodrow Wilson, President of the U.S.A, in his fourteen-point plan with its priority of ensuring slaughter and destruction never happened again. It was set up in 1920 with its main aims being to settle disputes between nations fairly, discouraging aggression from any nation and encouraging disarmament and cooperation from countries. The forty-two countries that joined at the start would have to follow twenty-six rules, which included promising to accept decisions made by the League which some countries later found hard to follow. At first, The League was quite successful, which was during the twenty’s where they settle disputes between Sweden and Finland, Greece and Bulgaria, Yugoslavia and Albania and solved the Upper Silesia problem. The idea of the League falling apart was never even considered by most people at that point but was soon widely thought of later when certain events showed the weaknesses of the League.

Weaknesses already evident in the League were the U.S.A’s unwillingness to join and it having no real power with any permanent army, relying on goodwill and persuasion instead. In addition disarmament was still only a hope, not a reality, with The Disarmament Commission finding it impossible to achieve success. This being because of France fearing for its security, and with many other countries not disarming, Germany felt it had the right to rearm to protect itself, which would blatantly go against the Treaty of Versailles which the League was based around.

The Wall Street Crash occurred in 1929, followed by worldwide economic depression creating tension in countries and causing them to resort to extreme measures for their economic needs. Tariffs were put up, adding to the tension. The Manchurian crisis being one extreme measure being taken, where Japan invaded Manchuria, a part of China.

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Manchuria was rich in resources and was already under some Japanese influence. China was weak at the time and so Japan invaded Manchuria, hoping to recover itself from its economic problems. When the League was informed of this attack, it told Japan to withdraw its troops from Manchuria, but The Japanese just ignored this demand and gained firmer control over Manchuria showing how the League was powerless to do anything over such a large distance. The League was given arguments by China and Japan and there was truth in both of them, so it decided to set up a Commission of inquiry under Lord Lytton and was sent to the area to gather information and produce a report. The journey took months by sea and the report was published a full year after the incident began in September 1932, thus showing the leagues to be incapable of acting quickly in some incidents. The report was clearly in favor of China and said that Manchuria should be returned to it. Japan was the only country to disagree and left the league in March 1933, acting as if it feared the league in no way what so ever and that its needs were far more important than that of the League and World peace. This was what most members of the League, in a way, felt as well, with The League not taking any action against Japan for fear of British trade with Asia being further harmed. If the League did take action, some of the measures used would be useless like economic sanctions because of Japans main trading partner being the U.S.A which was not a member if The League and was unwilling to support this action when its own trade was in such a mess. Excuses were made for the League but it was clear that when an aggressive dictator wanted to invade neighboring countries, the League was powerless to prevent it.

During this crisis, Germany, under the control of the Nazi leader Adolf Hitler whose aims were clearly to overturn the Treaty of Versailles, began to rearm since it complained that it was the only country to disarm. The League was unable to respond to this because it couldn’t get any other countries to disarm, so Germany left the League (which it joined in 1926) and began to rearm openly. There was no response in stopping this and League members also began to rearm themselves, which opposed the aims of the League and the Treaty Of Versailles, which they themselves created.

The Leagues weaknesses were again revealed when another crises, much like that of the Manchurian one occurred. Italy had invaded Abyssinia under the dictatorship of Mussolini in revenge for the previous defeat by this country at the Battle of Adowa. Abyssinia was a poor and undeveloped country next to Italian colonies of Eritrea and Somaliland and had a poor army mainly consisting of infantry and cavalry, which was no match for Italy with its modern weaponry including tanks, planes and poison gas. During Mussolini’s preparations for war, the League was fully aware of his planes to attack Abyssinia a few months before but didn’t act for it was anxious to avoid a clash with Mussolini. Britain and France believed that he was their best ally against the growing threat of Hitler. They had signed the Stressa pact with Hitler while he was gaining growing support from Germany, hoping that it would prevent any attacks in revenge for Germany. Mussolini was hoping that Britain and France would allow him to do as he pleased in Abyssinia and all the League did was speak of collective security but had little intention of taking decisive action against Mussolini, again showing its weakness, being too fearful of action being taken against those who oppose the League’s rules.

The attack on Abyssinia took place on October 1935 when there was a clash between Italian and Abyssinian troops at the oasis of Wal-Wal. The Abyssinian army was no match for the Italians and the only hope for their Emperor, Haile Selassie, was the size of the country, the state of the roads and an appeal to the League. The League agreed that sanctions should be imposed and so, banned the sale of arms and some other goods to Italy, all loans to Italy and imports from Italy. Oil was not banned for fear of the U.S.A not cooperating, again being one of the Leagues great weaknesses. The U.S.A not being part of the League and being to fearful of the consequences that will rise from their actions which would be according to the Leagues rules and so, should be done. The other weakness revealed is the individual countries of the League putting their interests before the Leagues and so resulting in no action being taken. This was shown when coal wasn’t banned from being imported to Italy because of fear that the British mining industry would be badly affected and the Suez canal, owned by Britain and France, not being closed for fear of a full scale war with Italy. This canal was Mussolini’s main supply route to Abyssinia and if closed, would have severely crippled him, probably reducing his attacks.

Britain and France tried to work their way around the problem by planning to divide Abyssinia, giving Italy the best area of agriculture and leaving Abyssinia to barren mountains. This information was leaked to the press and there was proof of the British and French politicians putting the interests of their country before the Leagues. It showed how the League wanted to avoid any conflicts and this only encouraged dictators like Mussolini and Hitler to go against the Treaty of Versailles and the League. The Emperor of Abyssinia fled to Geneva and spoke out against the League and its lack of action. This lack of action did encourage dictators like Hitler to go against the League. He did so my marching troops into the Rhineland, going against a rule clearly stated in the treaty but he was not opposed. His army was under orders to retreat the area if opposed my any forces, but again France and Britain was too fearful to do anything about it.

This crisis’s greatly revealed the weaknesses of the League, that it was ineffective, powerless and irrelevant. Italy signed a treaty with Germany and left the League in 1937, showing what other, more powerful countries thought of it, that it was going nowhere and would just get in the way of their aims. This was really the end of the League of Nations. It wasn’t taken seriously anymore but existed formally till 1946.