League of Nations

• when founded their were 42 members- this rose to 58 in 1934
• there were four permanent member of the council: Britain, France, Italy and Japan
• they met once a year, this was called the assembly all the representatives go to
• every country had an equal vote and in order to pass a vote the decisions had to be unanimous
• The assembly was in charge of deciding when a new country could join
• the council had the power to VETO; it could stop a ruling with its votes
• strength= written in all the peace treaties at the end of world war one
• Strength= had a vast membership
• strength= as there were many members, economic sanctions and moral condemnation were daunting punishments for many countries
• Weakness= many important countries didn’t or didn’t want to join the league Eg USA
• Weakness= the league had no army- could not force people to obey
• Weakness= the structure was complicated- confused people and slowed action
• weakness= decisions were unanimous- this made decision making slow
• Aim- to stop war breaking out again
• Aim- to encourage disarmament
• Aim- to improve working conditions
• Aim- to tackle deadly diseases
• the league was based in Geneva (Switzerland) this was perfect as Switzerland had not been involved in the war