2. The establishment of the International Organisation for the world peace and co-operation was a positive feature of the age of conflict.
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5. The League of Nations was an International Organisation aimed at maintaining peace in the world by collective action of Nations. It was set up on 10th January, 1920 and continued to work till the outbreak of the Second World War.
6. Inspite of these efforts World War I broke out in '1914' causing tremendeous destruction. President of the U.S.A. Woodrow Wilson, Considered it in operative to establish a world organisation on a permanent footing for maintaining world peace. Even before the end of the war, he included this pint in his 14 point programme and during the Paris Peace Conference, he urged upon the Ailled nations to set up such an organisation. Ultimately, a committee of experts was set up under the chairmanship of President Wilson to draft the covenant. After weeks of deliberations, the final draft of the covenant was accepted by Allied Nations on 28th April, 1919, and the League held its first session on 10th January, 1920. The league was thus a brain child of President Wilson's idealism.
7. The League of Nations came into being after the end of World War One. The League of Nation's task was simple - to ensure that War never broke out again. After the turmoil caused by the Versailles Treaty, many looked to the League to bring stability to the World.
8. America entered World War One in 1917. The country as a whole and the president - Woodrow Wilson in particular - was horrified by the slaughter that had taken place in what was meant to be a civilised part of the world. The only way to avoid a repetition of such a disaster, was to create an International body whose sole purpose was to maintain world peace and which would sort out International Disputes as and when they occurred. This would be the task of the League of Nations.
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10. If a dispute did occur, the League, under its Covenant, could do three things - these were known as its sanctions:
11. It could call on the states in dispute to sit down and discuss the problem in an orderly and peaceful manner.
12. If this failed the League could introduce economic sanctions, finally if this failed, the League could introduce physical sanctions.
13. This meant that military force would be used to put into place the League’s decision. (However, the League did not have a military force at its disposal and no member of the League had to provide one under the terms of joining - unlike the current United Nations.)
14. The US did not want to join, German was not allowed to join (punishment under Versailles Treaty) Russia was not seen as fit to join (communist state). That left Britain & France as leaders (both had suffered financially and militarily during the war - and neither was enthusiastic to get involved in disputes that did not affect western Europe).
16. . The objectives of the league of nations were explained in the preface of its covenant.
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18. The league was to function through three organs, namely the Assembly, the Council and the Secretariat. The headquater of the league was located at Geneva in Switzerland. The Assembly was a body representing all its members. It was to elect on its own president
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20. The league of nation, created as an instrument of world peace, proved successful in settling certain disputes. It settled the disputes between Sweden and Finland over Aaland islands; protected Albania against Yugoslavia;s invasion; supported Greece against the threat of Italy's invasion and averted war between Greece and Bulgaria. It succeeded in settling boundary dispute between Germany and Poland, and also between Iraq and Turkey. It also performed valuable humanitarian work in suppression of traffic in women, children and opium; worked against slavery and forced labour, promoted educational and intellectual co-operation and co-ordinated activities of various scientific and health Organisations throughout the world.
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22. Failures: Unfortunately, however, it failed in its main purpose of maintaining world piece. It failed to take firm decisions against aggression, when major powers were involved. It just looked at the failure of collective security hopelessly as in the case of Japan's attack on Manchuria. Germany's attack on Czechoslovakia or that of Italy on Ethiopia. It did little to rectify the injustice done to defeated nations by the peace treaties. Nothing much was achieved in the field of disarmament as well. As it failed to provide protection and security to its member nations, they started seeking it outside the League of Nations. The nations lost faith in the principle of collective security which formed its foundation.
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