The League of Nations

1. The League of Nations • The L of N was set up because Wilson wanted it more than anything else. • He wanted the League to be a ‘world parliament’ where nations could sort out arguments. • He wanted to make the world a better place.

2. S.I.D.E. • Stop wars. • Improve people’s lives. • Disarmament. • Enforce the Treaty of Versailles.

3. America Pulls Out • The United States did not join the League. • The cartoon suggests that the Senate rejected the Treaty because it had been left out of negotiations. • Americans did not want to get dragged into other countries’ problems.

4. Strengths & Weaknesses • Forty-two countries joined the League at the start. • In the 1930’s about 60 countries were member. • This made the League appear strong.

5. Absent Countries • The most powerful countries in the world were not members. • The USA did not want to join. • The Russians refused to join they were Communists!! • Germany was not allowed to join. • This weakened the League.

6. Who was in? • Britain and France were the main members. • Italy and Japan were also members. • These were the most powerful countries.

7. FOUR POWERS • Covenant – all members had promised to keep the peace (Article X) • Condemnation – the League could tell a country it was doing wrong. • Arbitration – the League could offer to decide between two countries. • Sanctions – stopping trade

8. Force? • The League could use its four powers to make countries do as it wanted. • Theoretically, the league was allowed to use military force. • The League did not have an army of its own. • If a country ignored it, there was nothing the League could do.

9. Absence of the Great Powers • The absence of the US was catastrophic. • The US was the wealthiest nation in the world and had the greatest potential to intervene in the interest of maintaining peace. • The absence of the USA meant that challenges to the status quo established at Versailles, would meet limited resistance.

10. Absence – 3 Great Powers • The concept of collective security depended on collective action. • The absence of the three great powers limited the effectiveness of the League’s reaction in a crisis.

11. Russia and Germany • The Treaty of Rapallo demonstrated how the League had no recourse. • It also illustrated that the disarmament clause of the T of V was dead in the water. • Germany developed weapons which could not be seen by League inspectors, they also trained large numbers of personnel.

12. Success without the League • The disarmament conference in Washington. (organized by the US!) • The Locarno Treaty between France and Germany which promised lasting peace. (Germany was not a member of the League!)

13. League of Winners!! • The absence of the defeated countries meant that the League was a league of victors enforcing the T of V. • Another serious problem was the fact that a number of important countries dropped out between 1919 and 1939.

14. Biggest Weakness! • The different parts of the League were supposed to work together. • In a crisis no-one could agree.

15. Organization • Assembly – the main meeting of the League met once a year. • Its main problem was that decisions had to be unanimous, which was very difficult to achieve. • Council – a small group of the more important nations – Britain, France, Italy and Japan plus some other countries met 4-5 times a year.

16. Organization • Agencies (committees of the League): • Court of International Justice – for small disputes • Health (to improve world health) • International Labor Organization (to try to get fair wages) • Slavery (to end slavery) • Refugees • Secretariat – was supposed to organize the League but failed

17. Collective Security • This was the cornerstone of the L of N. • Article X – all nations would protect the other members against aggression. • No more alliance systems or to defend one’s own self-interest. • C.S. is a more abstract concept. • It does not specify where threats come from. • It assumes that all nations will see each challenge in the same light.

18. Failure – Collective Security • Not all nations see every crisis in the same way. • It failed as a concept because it ignored reality. • It required a level of altruism that humans had not yet been capable of. • It failed because it asked nations to give up their freedom of action. • It also asked nations to enforce policies they disagreed with. • Or intervene against countries they were friends with.

19. Main problem • The league could not be considered very collective if three of the largest nations were not members of the League. • The UK and France could not agree on their treatment of Germany. • It was likely they would not agree on any major issues.

20. Influence other countries • Collective Security • Moral Persuasion • Community of Power • The cartoon is from 1936 and it is entitled “Moral Persuasion” • What was it saying about the League?

21. The lack of enforcement • The weakness of collective security was demonstrated by the fact that it was necessary to reinforce the obligation of the league members to resist aggression. • Draft treaty of Mutual Assistance in 1923 – supported by France but rejected by the UK and its dominions. • It would have called on nations to support the victims of aggression as determined by the League. • The same thing happened with the Geneva Protocol for the Pacific settlement of International Disputes. • This would have enforced compulsory arbitration in all disputes.

22. Lack of support • Few members of the League were willing to take on the open-ended commitments that collective security entailed. • The main reason being self-interest. • Also after WW1 the prospect of armed intervention would not gain support from the population of any nation. • There was widespread opposition to using military force to resolve other countries disputes. • Especially if the aggressor was a large country. • This was true of the Corfu dispute in 1923. • This was led by Mussolini and members of the League took no action.

23. Corfu, 1923 – FAIL!!! • An Italian general was killed while he was doing some work for the League in Greece. • Mussolini was angry with the Greeks and invaded Corfu. • The Greeks asked the League to help. • The Council met and told Mussolini to leave Corfu. • It told Greece to give some money to the League. • Mussolini refused. • The League changed its decision told Greece to apologize and pay money to Italy. • The Greeks did as the League said and then Mussolini gave Corfu back to Greece.

24. Collective Security? • It was a concept that attracted great popular support but nothing of a concrete nature. • It was an illusion in which desperate populations wanted to believe. • However, if there was to be collective security then the collective has to agree. • The world in the 1920’s and 30’s was far from agreement on many fronts.

25. Early attempts at peacekeeping 1920-5 • In the early years of the league it was called on to intervene in a number of disputes. • Its record of success is mixed. It allows us to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the League and collective security. • Success: The Aaland Islands, Upper Silesia and the Greco-Bulgarian War of 1925. • Failures: The Seizure of Fiume, Vilna, the Russo-Polish War, the Corfu incident and the Ruhr invasion.

26. Bulgaria, 1925 • Greek soldiers were killed in a fight on the border between Greece and Bulgaria. • The Greeks were angry. • Bulgaria asked the League to help. • The Council of the League met. • It condemned the Greeks and told them to leave Bulgaria. • The Bulgarian govt sent orders for their soldiers not to fight back. • The Greeks did as the League said and left Bulgaria.

27. Greece and Bulgaria • Greece and Bulgaria are fighting like Tweedle-dum and Tweedle –dee. • The League, like the dove of peace stops the fight. • ‘Just then came down a monstrous dove whose force was purely moral, • Which tuned the heroes hearts to love and made them drop their quarrel.

28. Common factors - Success • The antagonists were small or medium powers. • These powers were usually unwilling to resort to violence. • This allowed the League to negotiate and enforce a settlement which both parties would accept.

29. Common Factors - Failure • The dispute involved a major power that refused to submit to the League. • Countries decided to resort to violence and not seek peaceful solutions. • The Corfu incident was a major indicator of the problems the league faced. • Greece complained that there seemed to be one set of rules for small countries and a different set of rules for big countries. • Italy was a major power and when she resorted to violence the league could do nothing. • This was the case when a major power pursued a policy in contravention of the League. • Peacekeeping would only prevail in the disputes of smaller countries provided that the stronger members could agree on a course of action.

30. Early problems for the League • In the absence of the US it was vital that the remaining powers were in agreement on major issues. • This was not the case. • The British govts of the 1920’s did not really support European settlements. • In the dispute between Turkey and Greece 1920-23, GB and France took opposite sides. • France supported Poland in Russia and Silesia, GB did not. • GB also had major problems in Ireland and the Empire so it did not focus on upholding the interests of the League.

31. Enforcement of treaties • The Dutch did not give up the Kaiser. • Germany did not surrender war criminals. • She did not disarm or meet reparations quotas. • Austria could not and did not pay reparations. • Poland did not accept her frontiers. • Italian troops did not evacuate Fiume. • Turkey did not accept the Treaty of Sevres. • Nothing much happened. • The will to enforce the treaties was lacking or at best divided.