2 To what extent was the League of Nations a success?

Successes and failures in peacekeeping during the 1920s

Successes:

Aalands Islands 1920

-          Finland who had recently broken away from Russia asserted themselves over the island, many of the inhabitants were Swedes and thought they should have a right over the running of the island

-          The league dealt with the dispute and the island was handed over to Finland

Greco-Bulgarian 1925

-          Both sides came close to all-out war

-          The league took prompt action and ruled that Greece was to blame

Failures:

Ruhr Invasion 1923

-          France was entitled to reparations from Germany

-          France invaded the Ruhr, and the Germans asked the league for help but the league failed to intervene

Corfu Incident 1923

-          Italy invaded the Greek island of Corfu

-          The Greeks asked for help from the league but again they failed to take action, as it was more important for the great powers to keep Italy within the league

Strengths and weaknesses in its structure and organisation

Strengths

-          42 countries had joined the league

-          World powers such as Britain, France, Italy and Japan were on the Council

-          The main strength came from the fact that it was set up by the Treaty of Versailles

Weaknesses

-          Neither USA or Russia were in the league, without these great powers in the League it was too weak to make a big country do as it wished

-          The Assembly could only make a decision by a unanimous vote (so it never made any decisions), and on the Council, all the permanent members had a veto.

-          Economic sanctions were not as effective

-          The league had no arm which made military sanctions obligatory

How successful was the League in the 1920s?

-          With smaller disputed the league could intervene and easily settle the dispute (Aalands Islands)

-          The League took 400,000 Prisoners of War home and set up refugee camps

-          Without USA in the league resolving issues with more powerful countries was near impossible

-          The League could not defend the Treaty of Versailles, get disarmament, or stop powerful countries.

-          The League sometimes failed to enforce the Treaty of Versailles

-          Overall the League was not very successful

The impact of the World Depression on the work of the League after 1929

-          14 million Americans were unemployed

-          Millions now lived in poverty

-          Countries like Japan and Italy wanted to expand their empires so as to get hold of new economies which led to the invasion of Manchuria

-          The League of Nations was not able to impose economic sanctions over Japan, because USA who was not in the league would continue trading with them and none of the members of the League wanted to stop trading because it would worsen their economy

-          Wall street crash lead to world trade slumping resulting in German loans being recalled, leading to the rise of extremist parties

The failures of the League in the 1930s

Manchuria 1931-1933

-          Japanese blew up sections of their own railway and blamed it on the Chinese, giving them an excuse to invade.

-          By 1932 they had annexed Manchuria

-          China appealed to the league due to the obvious violation of the Covenant

-          However Japanese used its seat in the council to veto any decision

-          The Lytton commission took two years to determine that Japan was guilty

-          Japan rejected the Lytton commission and left the league in 1933

-          The Japanese walked all over the League of Nations and got away with the invasion and then continued to expand into the north of china

Abyssinia Crisis 1935 -1936

-          Mussolini aim was to avenge humiliation of 1896

-          Mussolini moved in with a large army and by 1936 he had occupied the capital

-          Britain and France “watered down” sanctions allowing Italian troopships and supply ships through to provide materials for war

-          The league was only giving Mussolini a “moral sanction”

-          Creating the Hoare-Laval pact undermined the credibility of the league showing that they gave into Italy and would do o other big powers

-          The league drove Italy into Germany’s hands

How successful was the League in the 1930s?

-          In the 1930s due to economic depression this encouraged nations to be more aggressive towards each other

-          Fascist dictatorships took power in Germany, Italy and Japan

-          The failure to intervene in Manchuria and Abyssinia were the last few straws for the league as it lost all credibility

-          These crises destroyed the authority of the League, and it was powerless to stop Germany after 1935

-          This failure to control the big powers within Europe brought about the policy of appeasement

-          Without USA in the league the league could never have been successful