To what extent was the league of nation a success?

Option B: Unit 2
To what extent was the League of Nations a
success?

To what extent was the
League of Nations a success?
• Focus Points
• • How successful was the League in the 1920s?
• • How far did weaknesses in the League’s
organisation make failure inevitable?
• • How far did the Depression make the work of the
League more difficult?
• • How successful was the League in the 1930s?

To what extent was the
League of Nations a success?
Specified Content
•The League of Nations:
- strengths and weaknesses in its structure and organisation
- successes and failures in peacekeeping during the 1920s
- the impact of the World Depression on the work of the
League after 1929
- the failures of the League in the 1930s, including Manchuria
and Abyssinia.

The League of Nations:
Structure

Structure
Officials who worked permanently for the
League in Geneva were known as the
Secretariat.

Structure
Secretariat.
Committees and commissions: deal with
worldwide problems. E.g. International
Labour Organisation, Health Organisation.

Structure
Secretariat.
The smaller states could have their say in
the assembly and through being non-
permanent members on the council. They
met once a year.

Structure
Secretariat.
met once a year.
Real power lay with the League Council
which was dominated by rich and powerful
countries: Japan, France, Italy and Britain.

Structure
Secretariat.
met once a year.
Veto: council decisions
had to be unanimous.

Structure
Secretariat.
met once a year.
What progress can be made
from meeting once a year?

Structure
Secretariat.
met once a year.
Who were left out?

Structure
Secretariat.
met once a year.
Who were left out?
European Club?

World voice?
Collective Security Sanctions & Force

Exam Relevance:
b) Why was the structure of the League a
weakness? [7] (June 2008)

How successful was the League of
Nations in the 1920s?

1920s
VILNA, 1920
1920
Corfu, 1923
Greek-Bulgarian War, 1925
Polish-Soviet War 1920-21
Ruhr 1923

Finland (success)
• The League was successful in the Aaland Islands in
1921. These islands are nearly equally distant between
Finland and Sweden. They had traditionally belonged
to Finland but most of the islanders wanted to be
governed by Sweden.
• Neither Sweden nor Finland could come to a decision
as to who owned the islands and in 1921 they asked the
League to adjudicate.
• The League’s decision was that they should remain
with Finland but that no weapons should ever be kept
there. Both countries accepted the decision and it
remains in force to this day.

Silesia (success)
• In the same year, 1921, the League was equally successful in
Upper Silesia. The Treaty of Versailles had given the people of
Upper Silesia the right to have a referendum on whether they
wanted to be part of Weimar Germany or part of Poland.
• In this referendum, 700,000 voted for Germany and 500,000
for Poland. This close result resulted in rioting between those
who expected Silesia to be made part of Weimar Germany and
those who wanted to be part of Poland.
• The League was asked to settle this dispute. After a six-week
inquiry, the League decided to split Upper Silesia between
Germany and Poland. The League’s decision was accepted by
both countries and by the people in Upper Silesia.

Memel, port in
Lithuania(partially success)
• In 1923, the League was successful in resolving a problem in Memel.
Memel was/is a port in Lithuania. Most people who lived in Memel were
Lithuanians and, therefore, the government of Lithuania believed that the
port should be governed by it.
• However, the Treaty of Versailles had put Memel and the land
surrounding the port under the control of the League. For three years, a
French general acted as a governor of the port but in 1923 the Lithuanians
invaded the port.
• The League intervened and gave the area surrounding Memel to
Lithuania but they made the port an “international zone”. Lithuania
agreed to this decision.
• Though this can be seen as a League success – as the issue was settled – a
counter argument is that what happened was the result of the use of force
and that the League responded in a positive manner to those (the
Lithuanians) who had used force.

Humanitarian crisis in
Turkey (success)
• In the same year, 1923, the League faced further
problems in Turkey. The League failed to stop a bloody
war in Turkey (see League failures) but it did respond
to the humanitarian crisis caused by this war.
• 1,400,000 refugees had been created by this war with
80% of them being women and children. Typhoid and
cholera were rampant.
• The League sent doctors from the Health Organisation
to check the spread of disease and it spent £10 million
on building farms, homes etc for the refugees. Money
was also invested in seeds, wells and digging tools and
by 1926, work was found for 600,000 people.

Humanitarian Successes
in Africa (success)
• The League of Nations also did a lot of useful
humanitarian work in the 1920s.
Commissions dealt with many issues, including:
droughts in Africa
leprosy
child slave labour
drugs smuggling
refugees.
The League of Nations was the first to suggest that
the world community should take collective action to
tackle this sort of problem.

Dispute between
Bulgaria and Greece
• In 1925, the League helped to resolve a dispute between Greece
and Bulgaria. Both these nations have a common border.
• In 1925, sentries patrolling this border fired on one another
and a Greek soldier was killed. The Greek army invaded
Bulgaria as a result.
• The Bulgarians asked the League for help and the League
ordered both armies to stop fighting and that the Greeks
should pull out of Bulgaria.
• The League then sent experts to the area and decided that
Greece was to blame and fined her £45,000. Both nations
accepted the decision.

German Reparation
money
• The Treaty of Versailles had ordered Weimar
Germany to pay reparations for war damages.
These could either be paid in money or in kind
(goods to the value of a set amount). In 1922, the
Germans failed to pay an instalment.
• They claimed that they simply could not rather
than did not want to. The Allies refused to accept
this and the anti-German feeling at this time was
still strong. Both France and Belgium believed
that some form of strong action was needed to
‘teach Germany a lesson’.

Annexation of Ruhr by
France
• In 1923, contrary to League rules, French and Belgian troops invaded the
Ruhr – Germany’s most important industrial zone.
• Within Europe, France was seen as a senior League member – like Britain
– and the anti-German feeling that was felt throughout Europe allowed
both France and Belgium to break their own rules as were introduced by
the League. Here were two League members clearly breaking League rules
and nothing was done about it.
• For the League to enforce its will, it needed the support of its major
backers in Europe, Britain and France. Yet France was one of the invaders
and Britain was a major supporter of her. To other nations, it seemed that
if you wanted to break League rules, you could.

Corfu Incident
- how did it happen?
• The border between Italy and Albania was far from clear and the Treaty of
Versailles had never really addressed this issue. It was a constant source
of irritation between both nations.
• In 1923, a mixed nationality survey team was sent out to settle the issue.
Whilst travelling to the disputed area, the Italian section of the survey
team became separated from the main party. The five Italians were shot
by gunmen who had been in hiding.
• Italy accused Greece of planning the whole incident and demanded
payment of a large fine. Greece refused to pay up. In response, the Italians
sent its navy to the Greek island of Corfu and bombarded the coastline.
Greece appealed to the League for help but Italy, led by Benito Mussolini,
persuaded the League via the Conference of Ambassadors, to fine Greece
50 million lire.

Corfu incident
-Solutions
• To follow up this success, Mussolini invited the Yugoslavian
government to discuss ownership of Fiume. The Treaty of
Versailles had given Fiume to Yugoslavia but with the evidence
of a bombarded Corfu, the Yugoslavs handed over the port to
Italy with little problem.
• All of these failures were secondary to the two major ones in
the 1930’s. What they did show the world was that the League
could not enforce a settlement if it did not have the ability to do
so and dictators were keen to exploit this where they could.
Prior to the troubles experienced in Western Europe in the
1930’s, the League had to deal with two major problems and it
fell down on both – Manchuria and Abyssinia.

How League of Nations’ failures in the
1920s?

Port of Fiume, Italy
• The first crisis the League had to face was in north Italy In
1919, Italian nationalists, angered that the “Big Three” had, in
their opinion, broken promises to Italy at the Treaty of
Versailles, captured the small port of Fiume.
• The Treaty of Versailles had given this port to Yugoslavia. For
15 months, an Italian nationalist called d’Annunzio governed
Fiume. The newly created League did nothing.
• The situation was solved by the Italian government who could
not accept that d’Annunzio was seemingly more popular than
they were – so they bombarded the port of Fiume and enforced
a surrender.
• In all this the League played no part despite the fact that it had
just been set up with the specific task of maintaining peace.

Teschen
• The next crisis the League faced was at Teschen, which was a small town between Poland
and Czechoslovakia. Its main importance was that it had valuable coalmines there,
which both the Poles and the Czechs wanted.
• As both were newly created nations, both wanted to make their respective economies as
strong as possible and the acquisition of rich coal mines would certainly help in this
respect.
• In January 1919, Polish and Czech troops fought in the streets of Teschen. Many died.
The League was called on to help and decided that the bulk of the town should go to
Poland while Czechoslovakia should have one of Teschen’s suburbs. This suburb
contained the most valuable coalmines and the Poles refused to accept this decision.
Though no more wholesale violence took place, the two countries continued to argue
over the issue for the next twenty years.

Vilna
• Many years before 1920, Vilna had been taken over by Russia.
Historically, Vilna had been the capital of Lithuania when the
state had existed in the Middle Ages. After World War One,
Lithuania had been re-established and Vilna seemed the
natural choice for its capital.
• However, by 1920, 30% of the population was from Poland
with Lithuanians only making up 2% of the city’s population. In
1920, the Poles seized Vilna. Lithuania asked for League help
but the Poles could not be persuaded to leave the city. Vilna
stayed in Polish hands until the outbreak of World War Two.
The use of force by the Poles had won.

Poland invasive plan
• In 1920, Poland invaded land held by the Russians. The Poles quickly overwhelmed the
Russian army and made a swift advance into Russia. By 1921, the Russians had no choice
but to sign the Treaty of Riga, which handed over to Poland nearly 80,000 square
kilometres of Russian land. This one treaty all but doubled the size of Poland.
• What did the League do about this violation of another country by Poland? The answer is
simple – nothing. Russia by 1919 was communist and this “plague from the East” was
greatly feared by the West. In fact, Britain, France and America sent troops to attack
Russia after the League had been set up.
• Winston Churchill, the British War Minister, stated openly that the plan was to strangle
Communist Russia at birth. Once again, to outsiders, it seemed as if League members
were selecting which countries were acceptable and ones that were not. The Allied
invasion of Russia was a failure and it only served to make Communist Russia even more
antagonistic to the West.

1920s
International Labour
Organisation
Produced numerous conventions on wage
rates, health and safety, employment of
women and children etc. Failed to persuade
countries to adopt a 48-hr week.
Disarmament Commission
(1921)
Naval powers agreed to reduce number of
warships, 1921.
It failed to get an agreement on disarmament
because Britain objected.
Refugee Committee
1922: helped 425,000 prisoners to return home.
1919-1923:Found homes for 600,000 Greeks
fleeing Turkey.
Drugs Committee
Persuaded states to tighten up customs and postal
controls, and educate people about dangers of
drugs.
Some success with improving controls but could
not defeat determined drugs producers.

Use of trade sanctions
The volume of international
trade fell by 70% as
countries brought in import
tariffs – by taxing imports,
countries sought to prevent
cheaper foreign goods
undercutting their domestic
industries.

An Overview
How the depression
affected the League
There was less international
cooperation. The USA and
other nations looked to take
care of themselves instead of
worrying about world peace
and humanitarian issues.
Britain and France no
longer wished to sort out
international disputes that
would cost them money
and could further damage
their trade.
Desperate people suffering
terrible economic hardship
increasingly turned to
leaders offering radical
solutions. This led to the
rise of militaristic fascist
governments.

1930s
The Manchurian Crisis, 1931-33
The Crisis of Abyssinia, 1935

Invasion of manchuria
• The League of Nations failed in the 1930’s because countries began to
realise that the League didn’t have any power and the League’s only way
to stop them was to emplace trade sanctions on them.
• One of the Leagues major failures in the 1930’s was when Japan invaded
Manchuria, Japan invaded Manchuria because in September 1931 an
explosion on the South Manchurian railway which was owned by Japan.
Japan blamed the Chinese who subsequently opened fire on Japanese
guards; Japan had no option but to invade Manchuria.
• The League dealt with Japan first by sending Lord Lytton to gather
information and report what happened, the members of the League
agreed that Japan was at fault and condemned them.
• The League instructed Japanese forces to withdraw but they ignored
them, also Japan left the League. This exposed the League as powerless to
deal with major powers. This was really the League’s first major failure in
the 1930’s.

Abyssinia
• One of the Leagues other major failures was in Abyssinia. In 1935
Mussolini invaded the African state of Abyssinia to deal with the great
depression. Abyssinia was not under European control and was located
next to the Italian colonies of Eritea and Somaliland, Mussolini thought
because it was not under European control the League would not mind.
• However, this was a violation of one of the Leagues most important rule.
Everything depended on Britain and France, but they needed Mussolini’s
friendship because they saw him as potential ally against the growing
power of Hitler.
• The League imposed trade sanctions, by which League members were not
allowed to trade with Italy, however this sanctions did not include basic
war materials like oil and coal. Britain left the Suez Canal open for Italy to
use, so Mussolini could supply his troops and continue the invasion.
• Again this showed to everybody that the only way the League would try
and stop you would be to place trade sanctions on you. Also because
Manchuria was so far away not very many people were worried about it,
but because this one involved Italy which was much closer to home, lots
of people realised that the League was powerless to deal with major
problems.

Absence of USA
• Like in the 1920’s where the League failed to bring about disarmament. In
the 1930’s there was another disarmament conference, this failed again
more many reasons, the main one. really was that Britain and France
were not really serious about it.
• The USA and other major countries were absent, the fact that the USA
was not there meant that the League really had no force as it was the
major power in the world in that time. This links to the fact that the
economic sanctions did not work, when Italy invaded Abyssinia the
League imposed sanctions on Italy meaning that all League members
could not trade with them, however this did not stop the USA trading with
them so this didn’t really help stop the invasion.

Absence of military force
• If the economic sanctions did not work, military force
was the next option. Yet the League had no armed
forces of it’s own and relied on the co-operation of it’s
members. Britain and France, however, in their own
self-interest were not willing to commit troops to the
cause and never did.
• In conclusion The League of Nations failed in the
1930’s because people began to realise that it was
powerless to deal with major threats unless Britain and
France helped, and even then they rarely did anything.

Decision making was too
slow
• Decisions were very slow; when a crisis occurred,
the League was supposed to act quickly.
However, in many cases the League didn’t meet
frequently enough and when they did they often
took to long to make decisions. You can see this
as when Japan invaded Manchuria the League
took seven months to send Lord Lytton to start
an inquiry.

Treaties involved
• Germany: Treaty of Versailles (28 June 1919)
• Disarmament - Forces limited to 100,000 soldiers, six
battleships, no airforce
• Reparations - this was eventually set at £6600 million.
Afterwards, The Dawes and Young Plans re-scheduled
Germany's payments
• Land lost - Poland gained Posen from Germany, and also
gained East Prussia. This became known as the Polish
Corridor. Alsace-Lorraine were returned to France. Germany
lost her colonies

Germany: Treaty of
Versailles (28 June 1919)
• Disarmament - Forces limited to 100,000 soldiers, six
battleships, no airforce
• Reparations - this was eventually set at £6600 million.
Afterwards, The Dawes and Young Plans re-scheduled
Germany's payments
• Land lost - Poland gained Posen from Germany, and also
gained East Prussia. This became known as the Polish
Corridor. Alsace-Lorraine were returned to France. Germany
lost her colonies

Hungary: Treaty of Trianon
(4 June 1920)
• Disarmament - army limited to a force of 35,000 volunteers
and three patrol boats
• Reparations - apart from some shipments of coal, Hungary
could not meet the demands for reparations. As a result the
payments were suspended
• Land lost - Austro-Hungarian Empire dismantled.
• Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia and Romania all gained land
from Hungary.
• The population of Hungary fell from 21 million to around 7.5
million

Bulgaria: Treaty of Neuilly
(27 Nov 1919)
• Disarmament - army limited to a force of 20,000 volunteers,
four torpedo boats, no air force
• Reparations - set at £100 million
• Land lost - land lost to Yugoslavia, Romania and Greece

Turkey: Treaty of Sèvres
(10 Aug 1920)
• Disarmament - 50,000 soldiers, seven sailboats and six torpedo boats.
No air force
• Reparations - the economy was to be controlled by the Allies
• Land lost - the Ottoman Empire was broken up areas such as Iraq and
Palestine became British mandates. Syria became a French mandate.the
Straits of the Dardanelles would be placed under international
controlArmenia became an independent country
• The treaty provoked a backlash in Turkey. Turkish nationalists, led by
Kemel Attaturk, rebelled against the Sultan and rejected the treaty. In
1923 a new treaty was signed at Lausanne in Switzerland. This removed
foreign control over the economy. Turkey also regained land and some
control over the Dardanelles.

Exam Relevance:
c) How successful was the League of Nations in dealing with
disputes in the 1920s and 1930s? Explain your answer.
(June 2008)
a) What were the successes of the League of Nations
in the 1920s?
b) How far was the Great Depression responsible for
the failure of the League of Nations in the 1930s?

Exam Relevance: Nov 2006
(a) Describe the successes of the League of
Nations in peacekeeping in the 1920s. [5]
(b) Explain how the Japanese invasion of
Manchuria showed the weaknesses of the League. [7]
(c) Which was the more important cause of the failure
of the League of Nations – the World Depression of
the 1930s or the invasion of Abyssinia? Explain your
answer. [8]

(a) Describe the humanitarian work of the League
of Nations in the 1920s. [5]
(b) Why was the League able to achieve some
successes in the 1920s in dealing with international
disputes? [7]
(c) How far can the World Depression be blamed for
the failure of the League? Explain your answer.

(a) Describe the successes of the League of
Nations in the 1920s. [5]
(b) Why did the League fail to deal with Japanese
aggression against Manchuria? [7]
(c) ‘It was the Abyssinian crisis that destroyed the
League of Nations as an effective peacekeeping
body.’ How far do you agree with this statement?
Explain your answer. [8]

Exam Relevance: Jun 2008
Describe the work of the Agencies of the League of
Nations. [5]
Why was the structure of the League a weakness?
[7]
How successful was the League of Nations in dealing
with disputes in the 1920s and 1930s? Explain your
answer. [8]

To what extent was the league of nation a success?

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