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How successful was the League of Nations during the 1920s.pptx

The League of Nations was established after World War I to promote global peace and cooperation but faced significant challenges in the 1920s, including a lack of military force and the absence of major powers like the United States. Despite some successes in dispute resolution and humanitarian efforts, the League ultimately struggled with its effectiveness and authority, facing failures in key incidents such as the Corfu and Vilna disputes. By the end of the decade, the League's weaknesses were exposed, leading to its decline in the 1930s and raising questions about the success of international cooperation efforts that would follow.

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How successful was the League of Nations during the 1920s?
Introduction  On the 11th of November 1918, Armistice has been signed to end World War 1. o Yet, the Paris Peace Conference concluded the formal ending on the war on August 10th, 1920, 2 years later, with conflicts in between  The League of Nations was formed after the Paris Peace Conference treaties were signed, as an attempt to bring peace to a divided world, threatened by new conflicts ​ ​  Tasked with restoring the world and formulate the first try to promote peace in a global level, the League of Nations throughout its existence tried to prove its necessity​ ​  Was the League of Nations successful in the 1920s? How did it function compared to its successors, the United Nations and the European Union?​
Contents – twenty-nine slides Committees and Agencies The League and the World Successes and Failures: Case Study Foundation of LoN Strengths & Weaknesses Structure of LoN Aristide Briand, Premier of France 11 times between 1909- 1929, awarded Nobel Peace prize in 1926 for his contribution in the League Jean Monnet, the "father of Europe", first deputy Secretary- General of the League of Nations, one of the main founders and later critics of the League's weaknesses
The League of Nations, formed  Prior to the existence of the League of Nations, a few conferences existed to maintain European/Global peace (Vienna Conference, Berlin Conference), in a period known as Concert of Europe  End of World War 1: It could be seen that this concert failed, as it required more active memberships without national driven sentiments  28th June 1919: the Covenant of the League of Nations was signed by the Big Three of the Paris Peace Conference  16 January 1920: Aiming over disarmament, diplomatic negotiation, commercial cooperation and preservation of human rights, the League of Nations (LoN), came to effect
Woodrow Wilson's Dream 28th President of the US, Thomas Woodrow Wilson the visioner of the LON, couldn't persuade the Congress to join his own organisation, and died while campaigning.  Wilson's dream was to achieve peace and justice all over world  He attempted to achieve this by writing his famous 14 points some of them include;  Giving nations like Poland access to the sea to be able to trade  He wanted major powers at the time to disarm  The most important one he wanted to create an organisation called the league of nations  This did not end as Wilson wished as Wilson did not manage to take America to the league
Constitution/The Covenant • The covenant was a document that outlined the League's aims ,structures and methods of working • The covenant was included in each of the separate peace treaties • Came into effect on January 10th, 1920 • Certain states like France and United Kingdom became members of the league by signing the covenant
Guardians of Peace  Promote disarmament-Article 8  Abolish secret diplomacy-Article 18  Arbitration-Article 13 member states agreed to arbitration by the LON of any dispute between them  Develop collective security-Article 16 member states would work together against any country whose actions were seen as a threat to peace by acting aggressively or ignoring decisions made by the League
Major Weaknesses of the league One issue at the time was the absence of a military force Another big problem was the fact that the league did not meet on a regular basis and the conference was in a remote place The existence of another league called the conference of ambassadors containing all the major powers Required individual decisive actions that never came or came divided The absence of the Americans from the league 29th US President, Warren Harding, opposed the accession of US in the League of Nations and promoted the protective isolationist policy that was popular in the 1920s America
Constructing the League • The main organs of the League of nations: • the General Assembly • the Council • These were supported by other institutions, including: • The Secretariat, • the Permanent Council of International Justice • Special Agencies • Along with various commissions and committees established to investigate and deal with specific issues that arose
The General Assembly • Met annually in Geneva • Each member state could send up to three representatives • Each state was able to cast one vote • Its main role was: - to decide general policy -to deal with admission of new members of the League -handle the organisation's finance • Any decision taken by this body had to be unanimous
The Council • Its main function was to settle political disputes between nations • It held four ordinary sessions annually • Decisions taken by the council had to be unanimous • The council was made up of permanent and non- permanent members • The four original permanent members were Britain, France, Italy and Japan • Initially there were four non-permanent members, elected every three years
The Secretariat  Notably, the secretariat carried out day-to-day work of the league, such as preparing agenda, publishing reports and dealing with vital routine matters  It was based in Geneva  Directed by a secretary- General Sir Eric Drummond, 7th Earl of Perth, first Secretary-General of the League of Nations, failed to address the main global issues due to the Anglo-French reluctance. Joseph Avenol, Deputy Secretary-General of the League of Nations, second in leadership to the Secretary-General, which he acquired in 1933. Was instrumental in the decline of the LoN by the 1930s
Permanent Court of Justice • Based at the Hague in the Netherlands • It was designed to deal with legal disputes between states • The permanent court consisted of 15 judges of different nationalities who were elected for a period of nine years by the general assembly • The court ran from 1922 to 1946
The Commissions and Committees  The main commissions dealt with issues such as the mandates, disarmament, refugees and slavery  There were committees for matters relating to international labour, health , child welfare, drug problems and women's rights
Agencies • The league's most important achievements during the 1920s resulted from the work of its agencies o - The International Labour organisation(ILO) managed to: o - Improve work conditions around the world o - Fix maximum working hours o - Establishment of minimum wage levels • - The International Commission for Refugees: (Mentioned later on the next slide) o - Relocated over half a million former prisoners of war who had been stranded in Russia at the end of WWI o - 1922, introduced the Nansen passport o - 1923, violence broke out in Turkey, the commission helped to find homes, food and jobs for almost a half million people • - The Mandates Commission: o - Supervised the territories taken from Germany and Turkey, ensuring well governed territories, until they are ready to become independent
The League and Immigration • The commission helped resettle former prisoners of war stranded in Russia • They introduced the Nansen passport • They helped when violence broke out in Turkey finding homes, food and jobs for around 1.5 million refugees • They were later awarded the Nobel Peace Prize
The League and financial recovery In terms of financial Assistance:​ The League, via agency of Economic and Finance Organization, sought to help nations economically recover since WW1 • A Treasure was supervised by the Secretariat and organized by the treasurers like Herbert Ames. It included economists like John Maynard Keynes • The League organized loans to be given through conferences of bankers and investors, as well as financial reforms with the guidance of the EFO • Financed the bankrupted states of Austria and Hungary • Supported economically the Kingdom of Greece due to local refugee crisis • Was the first organisation of international monetary cooperation
The League and Human Rights - The League of Nations helped free 200 000 slaves in places such as Sierra Leone and British Burma (Modern Myanmar) - 1930, the league investigated rumors of forced labour in the independent Africa state of Liberia, concluding that the president, Charles D.P. King and senior government officials were guilty of exploiting the situation, as a result the president was forced to resign, and the League insisted for the new government to carry out reforms. - Had an important role on responding at women and children exploitation - These agencies continued to carry on the important work during the 1930s Charles D.P. King, President of Liberia (1920-1930), elected a year after the nation entered the League. Was involved in financial schemes that resulted in the exploitation of laborers and raids of coastal villages to claim slaves for rubber farms. Resigned with the vice president, once the scandals were announced.
1. The League of Nations aimed to actively work towards improving relations between member states and the lives of their citizens, this would be achieved through the promotion for improvement of Public Health THE LEAGUE & HEALTH  2. Agencies begun the process of finding preventions for diseases such as Malaria & Leprosy, while others such as "THE INTERNATIONAL LABOUR ORGANISATION" provided sickness benefits  5. 1923 violence erupted in Turkey, leaving at least 1.5 M refugees. The HEALTH ORGANISATION worked closely with other agencies to prevent the spread of diseases like Typhoid and Cholera  6. The HEALTH ORGANISATION was successful in combating a typhus epidemic in Russia  4. A noteworthy accomplishment of the HEALTH ORGANISATION is the successful investigation on the causes & prevention of epidemics  3. Vaccines were introduced worldwide for diseases such as tuberculosis, diphtheria & tetanus
Case Studies: Resolving Disputes  The LON developed a system referred to as collective security, established by Article 16 of the covenant  This system enabled the League to play a key role in the successful resolution of a number of political disputes during the 1920s Future disputes to be referred to the league, which would resolve all of the issues League then decides the best way to resolve the dispute- decision has to be unanimous If a country refused and began preparin g for war, league members would impose economic sanctions against it If these failed, League members would collectively threaten military action
Successes in the European continent 1920 Teschen 1920- Czehoslovakia and Poland 1921 The Aland islands 1921- Finland and Sweden 1921 Upper Silesia 1921- Poland and Germany 1921 The Yugoslavia- Albania border dispute 1921 1924 Mosul 1924- Turkey and Iraq 1925 Greco-Bulgarian War of 1925
The Greece-Bulgaria border dispute 1925: Success 19th October Some Greek soldiers were killed on the border with Bulgaria Greece offers Ultimatum to Bulgaria 22nd October Greece invaded Bulgaria-Incident At Petrich Bulgaria ordered its troops to offer only token resistance 23rd-27th of October Bulgaria Appealed to the League The league condemned the invasion 28th of October Ordered Greece to withdraw and pay compensation to Bulgaria 29th of October Greece complied with the League's decision Theodore Pangalos, Soldier, stateman who was dictator of Greece during the border dispute with Bulgaria. He also served in World War I Aleksandar Tsankov, Prime minister of Bulgaria between 1923-26. He mercilessly fought members of the Peasants' and Communist parties, and his administration's relations with Greece and Yugoslavia were strained
Corfu Incidence: Failure In 1923, Italy blamed Greece for the death of three Italian officials Mussolini demanded compensation and occupied Corfu Greece appealed to the LON Mussolini refused to accept, threatened to withdraw Italy from the League and referred the matter instead to the Council of Ambassadors The Council decided that Greece should pay considerable compensation to Italy
Consequences of the incident The Corfu incident exposed two fundamental weaknesses of the LON  As a member of the League of Nations Council, Italy was able to prevent the League from taking any action  The League's decision was effectively overruled by another body- the Council of Ambassadors Greek Prime Minister Stylianos Gonatas and de facto ruler Nikolaos Plastiras respectively, military commanders, were forced to accept the ultimatum of Mussolini while protesting to the LoN, while the Italian committee refused to conversate the matter in the LoN assembly
Vilna: Failure  The first successful challenge to the League of Nation's authority  Dispute between Poland and Lithuania  In 1920 polish troops occupied the city  Lithuania requested that the league would act and so the league ordered Poland to remove its forces and tried to arrange a plebiscite  The polish government initially agreed, but reinforced its troops and in 1922 annexed the city  France and Britain supported Poland's claim to Vilna Josef Pilsudski, Chief of State of Poland during the 1918-1922 period and war hero of the Polish-Soviet war of 1921. Responsible for the occupation of Vilnius and controversial figure in the history of eastern Europe
The role of Britain and France France in particular was keen to keep Poland as an ally in the event of any future conflict with Germany Britain was not prepared to Act alone Without the support of these two major powers, the LON was powerless to enforce its decision
League of Nations and Germany Gustav Stresemann, Chancellor of Germany and Foreign minister between 1923-1929, awarded Nobel Peace prize in 1926, instrumental in Weimar Republic accession in LoN.  Defeated in WW1, Germany wasn't permitted in the League of Nations. Germany was forced by the League to o Disarm, while the other nations had not o Border two mandate states (Saarland & Danzig) o Follow the Treaty of Versailles which they didn't sign  Germany was involved in the Upper Silesian plebiscite, acquiring 2/3rd of the region from Polish insurgent forces  The League of Nations was alarmed by the French invasion of the Ruhr, which saw the Germans economy to hyperinflate and separatism in Rhineland  Through the Dawes Plan and the international Treaties of Locarno, Germany was able to lighten the burden of Versailles and regain international diplomatic recognition.  In 1926, Germany, as mentioned before, became member of the League of Nations  Germany had been active in the League for 7 years, until the Nazi Regime took over the nation in 1933.
By the end of 1920s • Increasing Japanese militarism and Tensions with China • With the World Street Crash, on the 24th of October,, Great Depression demolish global economy, resentment against democratic governance • Rise of authoritarian regimes in Poland, Greece, Yugoslavia and rise of Nazism in Germany • Red Terror becomes relevant again in US and Europe • Death of Key politicians, like Gustav Stresemann and Aristide Briand that kept balance in international relations
Conclusion • Between 1920 and 1930, the league was forced to deal with a plethora of incidences and heal post-war wounds o Some cases were successful at resolving disputes (Aland Island) and in some not (Vilnius annexation) • Its heritage is vital to the international cooperation, with own organisations (ILO and Health committee) either remaining or getting modified, becoming better following footsteps of their predecessors • By 1930, it had managed to keep a respectable face o Soon to change, as the 1930s prepared new dangers for the League that made it mere puppet of its creators, leading to its cataclysmic decline by 1936 • Its founding fathers pioneered in the creation of the United Nations and the European Union • Alas, have these communities of nations proven successful to their initial aims?