PCS History Department The League of Nations 1919 - 1939
PCS History Department
The League of Nations
1919 - 1939
PCS History Department
The Birth of the LeagueIn 1918 nobody wanted
to repeat the mass slaugther of the war.
The First World War should be “the war that ended all wars”
Countries needed to find a place to meet and collaborate to find peaceful solutions
PCS History Department
But leaders disagreed about the type of organisation that was needed
The LoN should be like a world parliament in which representatives of all nations would met regularly to reach agreements
The LoN should only meet when an emergency arose
The LoN should be a strong organisation with its own army
PCS History Department
Mainly followed president Wilson’s ideas
All major nations would be members.
Nations would disarmDisputes among nations
would be solved on the LoNThey would protect each
other whenever an invasion may occur
Any nation breaking the Convenant would suffer an economic blockade
The LoN Covenant
PCS History Department
Although the LoN was president Wilson’s idea the USA’s Senate rejected it:
Some Americans did not like the terms of the Treaty of Versailles in which the
LoN Covenant
was included
Some Americans
did not want to be
involved again in
European’s disputes or
wars
American businessmen
were worried
about the costs of
mantaining the League
and its decissions
PCS History Department
Some thought that the USA would be controlled by other nations throught the LoN
PCS History Department
The LoN’s Weaknesses
USA’s rejection discouraged many other nations about the power of the LoN to take action
Great Britain’s priority was to strengthen its Empire and trade
France was still concerned about Germany and thought that the L0N was useless without an army which could apply its decissions
PCS History Department
Membership of the League
42 countries joined the League at the start and in 1930 it had 59 members.
Great Britain and France were the major powers that guided the LoN policy.
Italy and Japan were also members of the Council.
PCS History Department
To discourage agressionTo encourage disarmamentTo increase cooperation among nations, specially
in trade an businessTo improve the living conditions of people
The Aims of the League
PCS History Department
How did the League of Nations work?
THE ASSEMBLY
THE PERMANETCOURT OF
INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE
THE INTERNATIONAL
LABOUR ORGANISATION
(ILO) THE HEALTH COMMITTEE
THE SLAVERYCOMMISSION
THE REFUGEESCOMMITTEE
THE MANDATES COMMISION
THE COUNCIL
THE SECRETARIAT
PCS History Department
The LoN’s main bodies
The Council
•Small group with permanent members that had a veto plus temporary members •Discuss problems in case of emergency and establish moral condemnation, economic sanctions and/or military actions if needed
The Assembly
•Parliament with all the members.•Recomended actions to the Council•Met once a year •Its decissions had to be unanimous
The Secretariat
•Record the League’s meetings •Prepare reports for the agencies
PCS History Department
Border Disputes in the 1920’s
• Poland occupied Vilna, capital of Lithuania
• The LoN could not solve it
Vilna, 1920
• Germany and Poland disputed the region• It was divided in two by the LoN
Upper Silesia, 1921
• Sweeden and Finland disputed the islands
• The LoN decided that the islands would belong to Finland. Sweeden accepted the decision.
Aaland Islands, 1921
PCS History Department
Border Disputes in the 1920’s• Greece and Albania disputed the island.
Italians supervised it. • The Italian general was killed and
Mussolini, Italy prime minister, bombarded Corfu.
• Greece had to apologise and pay compensation to Italy.
Corfu, 1923
• Great Britain and France designed the Protocol to avoid the League to be undermined by one of its members as in Corfu.
• It stated that the members of the League would have to acept the League’s decission.
• The British Parliament rejected it.
The Geneval Protocol
• Greece invaded Bulgaria.• The LoN forced Greece to apologize and
pay compensations to Bulgaria.• It showed the members that there seemed
to be a different rule for the large states (Italy) and for the smaller ones (Greece)
Bulgaria, 1925
PCS History Department
Failure of disarmament
No major agreements were made apart from the Washington Conference (1923) in which USA, Japan, Great Britain and France accepted to reduce the size of their navies.
This damaged the reputation of the League (particularly in Germany)
PCS History Department
The Locarno Treaties, 1925
The Kellogg-Briand Pact, 1928
Germany accepted the terms of the Treaty of Versailles related to its Western borders: Borders with France and Belgium Demilitarisation of Rhineland Disputes with other nations
would be solved at the LoN
In exchange, Germany was accepted as a member of the LoN in 1926
Renounced war as a way to solve disputes but it made no provisions for sanctions if any member broke the pact.
International Agreements
PCS History Department
The mood by the end of the 1920’s
The LoN has not been succesful in some territorial disputes or in disarmament but international relations were at its high point with all nations willing to collaborate and avoid war.
At the same time the economies of European nations were recovering.
PCS History Department
Economy Recovers- The Dawes Plan established a way to collect war reparations from Germany, thus getting British and French economies moving again.
- Trading relationships among nations reduced tensions.
- But USA’s loans would be a burden to Europe’s economy in the 1930’s
PCS History Department
During the 1920’s the League of Nations tried to increase international cooperation to avoid war. Nevertheless, in the 1930’s the LoN failed.