Was the League of Nations a Success or Failure?
The League of Nations was first brought up by the President of the United
States of America, Woodrow Wilson in his 14 points. His Proposition was
this... “A general association of nations must be formed under specific
covenants for the purpose of affording mutual guarantees of political
independence and territorial integrity to great and small states alike”. Soon
after the war in 1920 the league was set up. Its headquarters were in
Geneva, a non league country to make the League of Nations look as
neutral as possible. The leagues aims were to:
● Stop wars
● Improve peoples living conditions
● Disarmament
● Enforce the treaties
In this essay I will try to cover all of the successes and failures of the league. The
adjudication of the Aaland Islands in 1921 is regarded as a success. The islands
are nearly equal distance between Finland and Sweden. In the past the islands
had been owned by Finland but most of the residents wanted to be ruled by
Sweden. Neither of the countries could resolve the problem so they asked the
League of Nations to arbitrate the matter. The league decided to keep the
islands under Finland's control, but no weapons can ever be kept there. The
decision was acknowledged and is still in effect.
The Treaty of Versailles gave the citizens of Upper Silesia (1921) a choice if they
wanted to be governed by Germany or Poland. 700,000 people voted for
Germany and 500,000 for Poland. A vote so close caused riots between the two
parties and the League of Nations were asked to resolve the quarrel. The League
decided to split Upper Silesia between Germany and Poland, two thirds to given
to Germany and one third to Poland. This verdict was accepted by both
Germany and Poland and also the population of Upper Silesia.
The Treaty of Versailles also caused a disagreement over a port in Lithuania
called Memel (1932). As the port was inhabited by mostly Lithuanians, the
Lithuanian government thought the port should be under Lithuanian control, but
the treaty had put the port and its surrounding land under the control of the
league. For three years it stayed under the leagues control but in 1923 the
uanians invaded the port. The league
intervened and gave to land surrounding Memel to Lithuania but made the port
an “international zone”. Lithuania approved of this decision. Memel was seen
as a success but there is a counter argument that what happened was a result
of force and reacted encouragingly even though Lithuania acted forcefully.
The League of Nations had failed to stop a bloody war in turkey but did take
action to counter the humanitarian crisis caused by this war. The war had created
1,400,000 refugees with a high percentage of them being women and children.
Diseases such as typhoid and cholera out of control and the league sent doctors
to prevent the rapid spread of the diseases. They also spent large amounts of
money building farms and homes for the refugees.
Greece and Bulgaria border each other and in 1925 shooting broke out between
the two parties and a Greek soldier was shot. The Greek military invaded
Bulgaria. The Bulgarians appealed to the league and the league examined the
situation and as a result the league decided that Greece was at fault and fined
her £45,000. Neither country argued with the decision.
Economic collapse in Austria and Hungary (1922-3) after the war, Austria and
Hungaryˇs economies were disintegrating, and with the trouble of reparations it
seemed they would simply collapse. The League arranged loans for the two
countries and in effect, took over the economic control of the two countries.
With this help, both Austria and Hungary were able to begin economic recovery.
The Leagueˇs action was quick and effective.
The border between Albania and Yugoslavia was dispute and Yugoslavian
military were in some Albanian territory. After clashes with Albanian tribesmen,
the Yugoslav forces invaded more. The League sent a commission to the region.
The commission supported Albania and the Yugoslav forces drew back in 1921.
War was again avoided.
The individual departments of the League were a success as they targeted some
of the issues all over the world. Such as slavery they attacked slave traders in
Sierra Leone and Burma. They also addressed the issue of drug trafficking and
closed down drug companies. Also the Court of International Justice worked
because the fifteen judges settled many disputes. Additionally the Mandates
Commission supervised the territories and made sure they were well governed.
Furthermore the International Labour Organisation changed the maximum
working hours in a day/week.
Now onto the failures. First of all one of the reasons the league failed was that
they were missing a key member of the league, the U.S.A. One of the reasons
why they didnˇt join was because Woodrow Wilson, who had put forward the
idea of the league, was made to leave his position as President of United States.
Also the American public didnˇt want to get caught up in European wars as they
could harm the American economy.
Vilna (1920) was under Lithuanian government but with 30% of its population
being Polish and only 2% being Lithuanian. The Poles took Vilna by force,
Lithuania asked for help from the league but the Polish could not be negotiated
out of Vilna and stayed there until world war two. The Poles had won by using
their military.
Several ideas were drawn up such as the Locarno Treaty (1925) the ideas were to
remember the borders that the Treaty of Versailles had imposed, but it could not
prevent the outbreak of world war two after Germany ignored the treaty and
sent troops into a demilitarised Rhineland. Another agreement was the KelloggBriand pact (1928). This pact had 65 countries agree to never to go to war unless
their country was attacked or threatened. This agreement failed several times:
Japanese invasion of Manchuria and the Italian invasion of Abyssinia. An
additional idea was drawn up called the Dawes Plan (1924). The Dawes Plan
consisted of America loaning Germany money to pay her reparations. The Dawes
Plan gave short term financial benefits to the German economy. It softened the
trouble of war reparations, stabilised the currency. However, it made the
German economy rely on foreign economies, and the Great Depression would
damage Germany.
The Corfu Incident in 1923, the border between Italy and Albania was far from
clear and the Treaty of Versailles had never really addressed this issue. It had
always been a source of squabbling between both nations. A mixed nationality
survey team was sent out to settle the argument. Whilst travelling to the area,
the Italian members of the survey team became separated from the rest. The
five Italians were shot by gunmen who had been in hiding. Italy thought Greece
were behind the incident and ordered Greece to pay a fine. Greece refused to
pay up. Italyˇs reaction was to bombard the Greek island of Corfu. Greece asked
the League for help but Italy, under the leadership of Benito Mussolini persuaded
the League to fine Greece 50 million lire.
The Ruhr in 1923, this dispute was about the fact that Germany couldnˇt pay her
reparations instead of going to the League, France marched into the Ruhr. Even
though France had clearly broken the Leagues rules. The League could not take
action against France because to be able to take action against one of the major
powers. It needed the backing of its two main members, Britain and France and
because the inner core of the league was involved in the dispute, it could not be
decisive.
In conclusion I think the League of Nations had the right idea but as Benito
Mussolini quoted “The League is very well when sparrows shout, but no good at
all when eagles fall out”. Meaning that the league could settle minor disputes
between small countries but when it came to the major powers e.g. Italy, France,
it did not have the authority to take any action.