IGCSE History - Inter-War Period

The League of Nations formally came into existence on January 10, 1920, the same day as the Treaty of Versailles. It had its headquarters in Geneva. One of its main aims was to settle international disputes and so prevent war from ever breaking out again. The League seemed to function successfully during the 1920's even without the participation of the United States. It solved a number of minor international disputes and excelled at economic and social work, such as helping thousands of refugees and former prisoners of war to find their way home again.

During the 1930's the authority of the League was challenged several times. First with the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931 and then by the Italian invasion of Abyssinia in 1935. After December 1939 it did not meet again and was dissolved in 1946. It was a total failure at least as far as preventing war was concerned.

• Aims of the League of Nations - The League was the brainchild of Woodrow Wilson of the United States. It was written into the Treaty of Versailles and its ideas were optimistic and noble. Its aims were :
  1. to deal with disputes among nations
  2. to prevent war
  3. to protect the independence of countries and safeguard their borders
  4. to encourage each country to reduce its armaments
   

• Membership of the Great Powers

  Britain		1920 - 
  France		1920 - 
  Italy		1920- 1935
  Japan		1920 - 1933
  Germany		1926 - 1933
  USSR		1934 - 
  USA		never joined
  

   

• Successes of the League
  1. Commissions and Committees
     • International Labour Organization was developed and worked to improve working conditions all over the world. They persuaded governments to set maximum working day and week, specify adequate minimum wages and introduce old age pensions, unemployment and sickness benefits.

     • Refugee Organization - solved the problem of the thousands of prisoners of war marooned in Russia at the end of the war; about half a million were returned home. After 1933 valuable help was given to thousands fleeing from Nazi persecution in Germany.

     • Health Organization - did good work in investigating the causes of epidemics and was particularly successful in combating typhus in Russia which endangered the rest of Europe.

     • Mandates - supervised the government of the territories taken from Germany and Turkey according to the terms of the Treaty of Versailles. (Another committee was responsible for the Saar, which worked very efficiently. The 1935 plebiscite had a large majority vote to return to Germany.

  2. Political Disputes
     In the early 1920's all the Leagues decisions were accepted except two. It is significant to note that none of the settled disputes went against a major power which may have challenged the League's decision.
     • Aaland Islands(1920) - Sweden and Finland quarreled over the islands and the League decided in favour of Finland.

     • Upper Silesia(1921) - Germany and Poland quarreled over the industrial area. The League decided to partition the area between the two countries.

     • Greece and Bulgaria (1925) - Greek troops invaded Bulgaria after some shooting incidents on the frontier. The League swiftly intervened. Greek troops were withdrawn and damages paid to Bulgaria.

     • Province of Mosul - Turkey claimed the the province of Mosul which was part of the the British mandate of Iraq. The League ruled in favour of Iraq and therefore Britain.

     • Other Disputes - Bolivia and Paraguay, Peru and Columbia
   

• Failures of the League - Although the idea of the League was an excellent and noble idea, it was fatally flawed from the onset by the non participation by the United States. Other failures are outlined below.

  1. Commissions and Committees

     • Disarmament Commission - this committee made no progress in persuading the member states to reduce armaments, though all had agreed to do so when they agreed to the covenant of the League of Nations.

  2. Political Disputes

     • Poland and Lithuania - The two countries had rival claims to Vilna. The League of Nations was over ruled by the Conference of Ambassadors in Paris. The Conference of Ambassadors was formed to deal with problems arising out of the Versailles Treaty.
       

     • Corfu Incident - A group of ambassadors was working on a boundary dispute between Greece and Albania. An Italian General was sent to investigate and he was shot in Greece. The reasons for the shooting were never clear, but Mussolini immediately ordered the shelling of Corfu, a Greek island and demanded heavy compensation. The League offered a solution, but the Conference of Ambassadors rejected it and rewrote one in favour of Italy upon heavy pressure from Italy and Mussolini.

        

     • Japanese Invasion of Manchuria 1931
       In 1931 Japan controlled most of the economy of Manchuria. It owned the important mines, railroads, factories and ports. It kept a large army in the port city of Kwantung to protect these assets. The world wide depression had hit Japan hard and many people within Japan saw conquering new territory as a way out of the depression. During the night of September 18, Japanese soldiers blew up a section of the Japanese railroad and blamed the explosion on the Chinese and so had an excuse to occupied the city of Shenyang. China asked for the Leagues help. The League ordered the troops to withdraw. Japan agreed to order the withdrawal of the troops, but the Japanese government did not have control over their troops. The Japanese army continued to advance into Manchuria. By the end of 1931 the Japanese troops had control of the entire province of Manchuria which they renamed Manchukuo.

       The League of Nations was meant to keep the peace through 'collective security'. If persuasion did not work, the League could use economic sanctions (a ban on trade with the attacker) or military sanctions (a League army) against the attacker. Although these were options, none of the members of the League of Nations wanted to use sanctions against Japan. First, because the Depression had damaged the worlds economy no nation wanted to worsen the damage. Second, the powerful members of the League, Britain and France, did not think that they could enforce the sanctions. They believed that if they tried to enforce them that Japan would seize Hong Kong and Singapore.

       The solution that was reached was to set up a commission. In October of 1932 the Lytton Commission recommended that the Japanese should leave Manchuria and it should continue as a semi-independent country instead of returning to China. The League approved the Commissions recommendation, but by 1933 Japan left the League and went on to occupy the Chinese province of Jehol. The Japanese justified the invasion of this mountainous province because it was vital to the defence of Manchuria.

       The Manchuria affair damaged the reputation of the League. One of its leading members had gone to war with another member and the League had failed to stop it. By the end of the affair in 1933, even the League's strongest supporters had doubts about its ability to maintain world peace.

        

     • Italian Invasion of Abyssinia 1935
       The most serious failure of the League of Nations was the Italian invasion of Abyssinia. Italy wanted to expand its overseas colonies and in October 1935 invaded Abyssinia. The League condemned Italy and introduced economic sanctions which, however did not include a ban on exports of coal, oil and steel to Italy. (These are vital to modern warfare.) So half-hearted were the sanctions that Italy was able to complete the conquest of Abyssinia by May 1936. A few weeks later sanctions were abandoned and Mussolini had flouted the League. Britain and France had not wanted to antagonise Mussolini and had even tried to form a secret deal with him during the invasion to give him two thirds of Abyssinia. They did not want to push him into an alliance with Hitler. Mussolini was annoyed by the sanctions anyway and began to draw closer to Hitler; small states lost faith in the League; and Hitler himself was encouraged to break the Versailles Treaty. After 1935, the League was not taken seriously again.

       The League was only as strong as the determination of its leading members to stand up against aggression; unfortunately determination of that sort was sadly lacking during the 1930's.

A. Read the following letter the Japanese Prime Minister sent to the Japanese Emperor in 1927 and answer the questions that follow.

It is an area of 192,000 square kilometers, having a population of 28 million people. The territory is more than three times as large as our own empire, not counting Korea and Formosa, but is inhabited by only one third as many people. The attractiveness of the land does not arise from the scarcity of the population alone; its wealth of forestry, minerals and agricultural products is also unrivalled elsewhere in the world. In order to exploit these resources . . . we created especially the South Manchuria Railway Company.

The total investment involved in our undertakings in railways, shipping, mining, forestry, steel manufacture, agriculture, and in cattle raising . . . amount to no less than 440 million yen.

1. Bearing in mind who wrote the letter, and to whom it was written, how useful do you consider the above letter as evidence of Japan's intentions toward Manchuria? Explain your answer.
2. According to the letter, what attracted the Japanese towards Manchuria?

B. Read the following speech Haile Selassie, Emperor of Abyssinia, made to the League of Nations in 1936 and answer the questions that follow.

I, Haile Selassie, Emperor of Abyssinia, am here today to claim that justice which is due my people and the assistance promised to it eight months ago. I assert that the problem is a much wider one than the removal of sanctions. It is not merely a settlement of Italian aggression. It is the very existence of the League of Nations. It is the value of promises made to small states that their independence be respected and ensured. God and history will remember your judgements.

1. Why does Haile Selassie think that the existence of the League is at stake?
2. Why would other small states be concerned over the Abyssinia issue?

Last modified October 25, 1996.