The League of Nations was an organization that was created in order to solve international problems without resorting to war.
But... Did The Leauge worked as everyone thought it?
The aims of the League:
.To discourage aggression form any nation.
.To encourage countries to co-operate
.To encourage nations to disarm
.To improve the living and working conditions of people.
Why did the League of Nations fail in the 1930s?
·The self interest of the Leading Members.
The British and the French government were not prepared to abandon their own self interest to support the League.
·The treaties it had to uphold were seen us unfair
Disarmament was a huge problem for the League. The Germans were really angry owing to the fact that they had been forced to disarm after the First World War, while other nations had not done the same. Most accepted that they should be treated equally.
In 1935, the British signed and agreement with Germany that allowed her to build up its navy as long as it stayed under 35 per cent of the size of the British navy. They did not consult either their allies or the League about this, this although it was a violation of the Treaty of Versailles.
.Economic sanctions did not work
They were easily broken, without the presence of the USA, they didn’t work.
The USA was the main trading partner of Japan, and economic sanctions porved to be meaningless without the USA.
.Lack Of Troops and the absence of important Countries
Without the USA, the League was powerless when the Japanese invaded Manchuria. Only the USA and the USSR would have had the resources to remove the Japanese from Manchuria by force.
The League was established at the 1919 Versailles Peace Conference to promote international co-operation and to achieve international peace and security. Member states pledged to resolve disputes peacefully, maintain open diplomacy, and mutually guarantee each others' territorial and political independence where: "Any war or threat of war is declared a matter of concern to the whole League" (The Versailles Treaty 1919). The League was a partial fulfillment of then-US President Woodrow Wilson's famous appeal for collective security through "a general association of nations" (Wilson 1918/1966). Its effectiveness in this regard, however, was compromised by the abstention of the Soviet Union and the United States itself. Moreover, given its weak enforcement capacities, the requirement of unanimity for most substantive decisions, and the lack of political will among its most powerful members (e.g. England and France) to confront Nazi, Japanese, and Italian aggression in the 1930s, the League failed to prevent World War II and its own demise. Nonetheless, it advanced several international humanitarian objectives in the inter-war years — refugee assistance, combating drug and prostitution smuggling, and coordinating health initiatives — which eventually led to the establishment of formal governance organizations, such as the World Health Organization and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).
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