  
The League of Nations Revision
|
If you click on the points in blue, you will reveal all the facts that you ought to
remember.
Try
to remember BEFORE you click!
 |
Apologies
to 
Firefox users - collapsible lists do not work on your browser; click
here for advice.
|
|
-
FOUR
Aims
of the League [memory word: SIDE]
 |
Stop
war
 |
(Article
10 of the Covenant = ‘collective security’) |
|
|
Improve
people's lives and Jobs
|
Encourage
co-operation in trade/ |
|
Economic
and social agencies. |
|
|
Disarmament |
|
Enforce
the Treaty of Versailles
|
-
Membership of the League of Nations
(5 things)
|
42 countries joined at the start. By the 1930s this had risen to 60.
|
|
May 1920, the US Senate voted against Versailles.
|
|
The USSR did not join the League. In 1919 it set up the Comintern to
cause revolution.
|
|
Germany was not allowed to join the League as a punishment for causing
WWI.
|
|
The leading members were Britain and France, helped by Japan and Italy.
|
-
The Structure of the League
[memory
word:
SCACHIRMS]
|
secretariat
(2 things):
|
supposed
to co-ordinate the different functions of the League |
|
too
few secretaries to do the work - slow and inefficient
|
|
|
Council
(2 things):
|
met 4-5 times a
year
|
|
5 permanent members - Br, Fr, It, Jap & Ger -
with a veto. |
|
|
Assembly
(2 things):
|
the League’s main
meeting, held once a year
|
|
decisions only by
unanimous vote
|
|
|
+
the Committees (6 things):
|
Court of international
justice
|
|
Health
committee
|
|
International Labour Organisation
|
|
Refugees committee
|
|
Mandates
commission
|
|
Slavery commission
|
|
|
ALSO Conference of
ambassadors (not really part of the League's organisation).
|
-
Three Strengths of the League
[memory
Word:
SUM]
|
Set up by the Treaty of
Versailles
|
|
Universal membership, all of
which had signed the Covenant promising to support the League.
|
|
Means of Influence
(6 things)
|
Covenant
(26 promises which every member agreed to follow)
|
|
Moral condemnation (public
opinion)
|
|
Arbitration (act as a
referee)
|
|
Sanctions (refuse to
trade)
|
|
Military
Force (send an army)
|
|
‘Community of Power’ (acting together).
|
|
-
Six Successes of the League in the
1920s
[memory
word:
SAMBOK]
|
Silesia,
1921
|
Germany and
Poland agreed to paritiion after a plebiscite.
|
|
|
Aaland Islands,
1921
|
said the
islands should belong to Finland; Sweden and Finland agreed.
|
|
|
Mosul,
1924
|
the Turks demanded Mosul, Iraq. The League supported Iraq; Turkey agreed.
|
|
|
Bulgaria,
1925
|
Greece invaded
Bulgaria, but withdrew when Bulgaria appealed to the League.
|
|
|
Other
(6 things):
|
400,000 Prisoners of
War repatriated
|
|
Turkish refugee camps
(1922)
|
|
Leprosy
|
|
Drugs
companies closed down
|
|
Attacked slave
owners in Sierra Leone and Burma
|
|
Economic advice to Austria and Hungary
|
|
|
Kellogg-Briand Pact,
1928
|
signed by 23 nations and supported by 65, to outlaw war.
|
|
-
six failures of the league in the
1920s
[memory
word:
vimcod]
|
Vilna,
1920
|
Poland refused the League orders to withdraw from
Vilna.
|
|
|
Invasion of the Ruhr, 1923
|
by
France; the League was not even consulted, and Britain disagreed.
|
|
|
Memel,
1923
|
The League told
Lithuania to leave, but the Conference of Ambassadors agreed.
|
|
|
Corfu,
1923
|
General Tellini
murdered, so Italy occupied Corfu. The Conference of Ambassadors overruled the
League’s order to Mussolini to leave – forced Greece to pay compensation to
Italy.
|
|
|
Other
Treaties (4 things):
|
Washington ,
1921
|
|
Dawes Plan,
1924
|
|
Locarno Pact,
1925
|
|
The Geneva Protocol, 1924 (to support
the League of Nations) failed because Britain refused to sign it
|
|
|
Disarmament
(2 things):
|
Britain objected
to the 1923 conference
|
|
1931 conference was wrecked by Germany.
|
|
-
Two Failures of the League in the
1930s
|
Manchuria,
1931 (3 points):
|
The League sent officials (took a
year)
|
|
voted that Japan
return Manchuria (Feb 1933 - Japan resigned from the League) |
|
could not agree
economic sanctions or arms sales ban.
|
|
|
Abyssinia,
1935 (3 points)
|
Mussolini invaded (October 1935) Haile Selassie’s
Abyssinia
|
|
Britain and France secretly agreed to give Abyssinia to Italy (Hoare-Laval
Pact, 1935)
|
|
The League tried sanctions on arms sales, rubber and metals, but
they did not close the Suez Canal or ban oil sales.
|
|
|
These
failures killed the League:
|
Mussolini gained
prestige
|
|
Britain, France
and the League were weakened - countries decided it was a ‘sham’, left and began to prepare for war instead.
|
|
-
Eight Reasons the League Failed
[memory
word:
BUSTED
UP]
|
Britain and France
|
were not
prepared to use their armies and had other priorities.
|
|
|
USA,
USSR and Germany (3 points):
|
USA
was never a member
|
|
USSR
not until 1934
|
|
Germany not until
1926, and Hitler left the League in 1933.
|
|
|
Structure
|
its organisation [SCACHIRMS]
was cumbersome so decisions were very slow.
|
|
|
Treaty of Versailles set up
the League
|
so it was hated because the Treaty was hateful.
|
|
|
Economic
Depression
|
countries
acted to save their own interests, and ignored the League.
|
|
|
Dictators
|
dictators like
Mussolini and Hitler would not
compromise.
|
|
|
Unsuccessful
|
the League’s
failures damaged its reputation, so members left/ignored it.
|
|
|
Powerless
(3 points):
|
moral
condemnation was just ignored by powerful nations |
|
the League had no
armies |
|
people found ways round sanctions.
|
|
|