•   42 countries joined at the start (i.e. all which signed the ToV).

•   By the 1930s this had risen to 60.

•   The leading members (of the Council) were Britain, France, Japan and Italy.

•   May 1920, the US Senate voted against Versailles - biggest setback (expand from below)

•   Germany was not allowed to join the League as a punishment for causing WWI.   Admitted 1926 (Stresemann) but Hitler left in 1933.

•   The USSR did not join the League - instead it set up the Comintern (1919) to cause world revolution.   It joined in 1934 when Germany was rearming, but left in 1938 in protest at appeasement.

•   Japan left in 1933 when a vote went against it over Manchuria

•   Italy left in 1937, after making the Anti-Comintern Pact with Germany and Japan

•   Eight other countries (Spain and countries in Latin America) left as the League failed 1935-1939.

•   Britain and France stayed members till the end, but they abandoned the principle of collective security to follow appeasement after 1936, and Hoare-Laval betrayed the League over Abyssinia (1936)

1.   Wilson had suffered a number of 'headaches' (small strokes) during the Versailles Conference, and was not as strong as he had been.

2.   He failed to consult powerful Senators such as Taft/ Cabot Lodge.

3.   Many Americans were 'isolationist' - as early as May 1919, Lodge rejected the idea of 'mutual guarantee' in the Covenant (i.e. would not support other member countries if they were attacked)

4.   NB other factors:

•    many German Americans thought the ToV was unfair

•    most Americans hated the British Empire

1.   Wilson returned home on 8 July 1919.   He told the Senate: 'The stage is set, the destiny disclosed.'

2.   July 14-28: Lodge read all 246 pages of Treaty to Senate out loud.

3.   Great opposition in the Senate (a Senate Committee proposed 14 'Lodge reservations').  

1.   4 Sept 1919: Wilson set off on a 8000 mile tour, planning speeches in 29 cities in 22 days to advocate the League to the public.

2.   25 Sept 1919: Wilson collapsed in Pueblo, suffered a stroke soon after; was ill for 7 months

3.   Jan 1920: Hitchcock and Taft both proposed reservations giving America the chance NOT to go to war for another country unless Congress agreed.   Wilson refused ALL changes to the Treaty.

4.   19 March 1920: the Senate rejected the ToV/LoN

ORGANISATION

•   Article 10 of the Covenant proposed 'collective security'

•   Assembly (met once a year - needed a unanimous decision)

•   Council (GB+Fr+It+Jap+ Ger after 1926) met 4-5 times a year and in crises)

•   Secretariat (too small for all work)

•   Court of international justice

•   Conference of Ambassadors (informal meeting of main powers; made a lot of 'deals' in secret)

SUCCESSES

•   Aaland Islands, 1921: the League said the islands should belong to Finland; Sweden and Finland agreed.

•   Bulgaria, 1925: Greece invaded Bulgaria, but withdrew when Bulgaria appealed to the League.

FAILURES

•   Vilna, 1920: the League could not stop Poland invading Lithuania.

•   Ruhr, 1923: the League did not stop France invading the Ruhr.

•   Corfu, 1923: Italy occupied Corfu.   The League ordered Mussolini to leave, but the Conference of Ambassadors overruled & made Greece pay compensation to Italy.

ORGANISATION

Article 23 of the Covenant agreed to improve lives, which was to be accomplished by the 'agencies' of the League:

•   Health committee

•   International Labour Organisation

•   Refugees committee

•   Mandates commission

•   Slavery commission 

SUCCESSES

•   400,000 Prisoners of War repatriated

•   Turkish refugee camps (1922)

•   Leprosy

•   Drugs companies closed down

•   Attacked slave owners in Sierra Leone and Burma

•   Economic help to Austria and Hungary

FAILURES

ORGANISATION

•   Disarmament Conferences in 1923 and 1931

SUCCESSES

•   Kellogg-Briand Pact, 1928: signed by 23 nations and supported by 65, to outlaw war.

FAILURES

•   Britain objected to the 1923 conference

ORGANISATION

•   Article 10 of the Covenant proposed 'collective security'

•   Wilson spoke of a 'Community of Power'

SUCCESSES

•   Bulgaria, 1925: Greece invaded Bulgaria, but withdrew when Bulgaria appealed to the League.

FAILURES

Conference of Ambassadors made a lot of 'deals' in secret

•   Corfu, 1923: The League ordered Mussolini to leave, but the Conference of Ambassadors overruled & forced Greece to pay compensation to Italy

'Moral persuasion' did not work with powerful or determined countries

•   Vilna, 1920: the League could not stop Poland invading Lithuania.

•   Ruhr, 1923: the League did not stop France invading the Ruhr.

•   Manchuria and Abyssinia in the 1930s

ORGANISATION

•   Court of international justice

SUCCESSES

•   Aaland Islands, 1921: said the islands should belong to Finland; Sweden and Finland agreed.

FAILURES

Useless where countries determined to go to war:

•   Vilna, 1920: the League could not stop Poland invading Lithuania.

•   Ruhr, 1923: the League did not stop France invading the Ruhr.

•   Manchuria and Abyssinia in the 1930s

ORGANISATION

•   Article 16 of the Covenant gave the League the right to impose trade sanctions

SUCCESSES

•   None.

FAILURES

The problem with sanctions is that they hurt countries by damaging trade, so nobody wanted them:

•   Manchuria, 1931: the League decided not to impose sanctions because they wouldn't work without the USA and the USA wasn't in the League

•   Abyssinia, 1935: the League banned weapons sales, and put sanctions on rubber and metal, but this hurt Abyssinia more than Italy.   It did NOT close the Suez Canal or ban oil sales, which would have stopped the Italian invasion.   America took the opportunity to increase their oil sales to Italy.   In 1936 Britain and France got sanctions lifted.

ORGANISATION

•   Article 16 of the Covenant gave the League the right to raise an army to protect the Covenent.

SUCCESSES

•   The League sent soldiers to make sure LoN plebiscites (e.g. Schleswig 1920, Silesia 1921, Saar 1935) took place peacefully.

FAILURES

•   The problem with this was that Britain and France were the only countries supporting the League big enough to do this, and they were not prepared to pay/go to war.