Essay 2.

• Essay Question - Strengths and weaknesses of the League of Nations
• LoN = success, but, failure or not, concept was far ahead of its time.
• • League created simply because Wilson demanded, 1919 - Promote international peace/ righteousness. (wanted communication rather than resorting to violence)
• • Made of 42 countries, by 1930s rose to 60.
  • Various flaws in League, but achieved many things in short life.
• LoN had four main functions: to stop war, disarmament, improving people's lives, and enforce Treaty of Versailles.
• • League did not stop war; possible that it helped cause World War II, but did settle cases that could have resulted in war. 
  • Corfu, League managed to get Italy to leave Greece. (forced Greeks to pay Italy compensation)
  • 1925, settled disagreements between Greece and Bulgaria. (condemned Greeks)
  • Persuaded Yugoslavia to leave Albania and stop dispute over Aaland Islands.
• League could not afford to displease any wealthy countries. (one law for the powerful one for the weak)
• Motives behind disarmament are honourable but if disputes happened, had no way of dealing.
• Kellogg-Briand Pact 1928 signed by 65 countries/outlawed war, completely ignored.
• • 30's, League's disarmament talks came to a halt.
  • Germany refused to agree - wanted quality with Br/Fr
• • League had four powers:
  • Power of Covenant (reminded to obey rules.)
  • Condemnation (if rules broke, had power to frown disapprovingly.)
  • Arbitration (made into councillors.) 
  • Sanctions (stop others from trading.)
  • This was most influential power but was useless.
  • Applied power of sanctions which would have devastated Japan - had no natural resources.
  • Yet trade continued with Japan - countries economies dependent.
• • League managed to make the world a better place.
  • Not abolish slavery completely but freed 200k slaves in Africa/Burma.
  • Cut down on leprosy/malaria.
  • Housed, fed, dealt with prisoners of war.
  • Made drugs illegal, shut down large pharmaceutical companies.
  • League helped Austria/Hungary with struggling economy.
• • Enforce ToV, League forced Germany to pay reparations/made sure they followed the rules. 
  • Br, Fr, Belgium invaded/forced Germany to pay.
  • 1923, Germany stopped paying.
  • Br/Bel did not invade/ only Fr went in.
• • League gave Germans no reason to respect/agree with them
  • League took control of Saar/demilitarised Rhineland - Germany vulnerable.
• • Beginning, League didn't allow Germany to join - representation = problem among League.
  • Idea was to encompass all nations but most never joined.
  • League was mainly made up of European countries, main powers = Fr, Br, It, Jap.
• • Greatest weakness of League = lack of US.
  • Took away most of League's potential power
  • Since US refused to join, Br/Fr often disagreed.
  • League made up of members from Alliance who all had biases towards Axis.
  • Bias caused many Axis to struggle in trying to rebuild their countries.
  • Important weaknesses = self-interest (few committed to goals of LoN)
• J. Joll - Failure of LoN = ToV divided Europe (into countries who wanted to uphold it and the ones who weren’t interested)
• E.H Carr - LoN did not fail but the member did
• P. Birdsall - US was not involved = main reason for failure ToV + LoN
• P. Kennedy - LoN + ToV were successful in 1920s but crushed by militarism of Japan, Germany, Italy 1930s and Great Depression
• A. Adamthwaite - ToV = brave attempt to deal with intractable perhaps insoluble problems