LON

• Britain wanted LON to be a league that only met in emergency
• France wanted LON to have its own army
• Wilson wanted an organisation that would solve international issues
• USA never joined due to isolationist republican Warren Harding winning and wanted to 'return to normalcy' which meant focusing on USA rather than Europe
• LON had four main aims:

  Discourage aggression

  Promote international co-operation

  Encourage disarmament

  Improve peoples living and working conditions
• Aaland islands 1921 - The islands in the Baltic sea were claimed by Finland and Sweden. League ruled in favour of Finland and Sweden accepted decision. Success
• Upper Silesia 1921 - a plebiscite was held over this industrial area on the German-polish border. Vote favoured Poland but due to German claim, league split region between them. Both sides agreed. success
• Ruhr invasion 1923 - After germany couldnt pay reparation payments, France and Belgium invaded Ruhr without consulting LON. League couldnt do anything. Failure
• Corfu 1923 - In response to murder of italian officer, Mussolini occupied Corfu(Greek island). Greece appealed to LON which condemned Mussolini at first. Mussolini demanded Conference of Ambassadors should decide what happens rather than LON. Mussolini got his way, Britain and France did nothing and LON changed decision forcing Greece to pay compensation. Total Failure
• Bulgaria 1925 - Greece had to pay £45,000 in compensation after incident on bulgarian border. Greece accepted but felt decision was unfair. partial success
• Vilna 1920-29 - Poland took control of Vilna in Lithuania. Lithuania appealed to LON and they asked Poland to pull out. Poland refused and Britain/France refused to do anything. Total failure
• International Labour Organisation

  Success: Improved health and safety by banning lead paint and limited hours for child labour. Campaigned for the introduction of an 8 hour day and 48 hour week

  Failure: It lacked fund to implement the changes and members refused to adopt the chnages
• Refugees commitee - Helped 425,000 displaced people return to thier homes or find new ones; helped stamp out diseases like cholera in refugee camps

  Failures: Constant lack of funds
• Health commitee - Spread good medical practices and helped introduce vaccines for diseases like malaria; became the World Health Organisation after 1945
• Slavery commitee - Freed 200,000 slaves in sierra leone and organised raids against slave traders in Burma

  Failures: Did not end white slavery
• Economic and financial organisation - Financial reconstruction in Austria 1922 and Hungary 1923. The league oversaw economic assistance to both countries in the form of loans

  Failures: Work was cut short due to depression of the 1930's
• Disarmament commission - Washington Naval Conference, 1921 limited navies of France, Britain, Japan and USA. Locarno treaty 1925 saw germany accept its western borders as set out in TOV

  failures: LON reputation damaged when Germany was only country forced to disarm. Disarmament conference not held until 1932
• Weakness of LON: Membership was limited

  USA never joined - Most powerful country in the world never joined reducing power to stop aggressive nations

  TOV forbade Germany from joining

  Britain and France were strongest in LON but were weakened by war leading to both countries having internal priorities over LON

  Britain and France felt only USA had influence and resources to be head of the league
• Structure 1, Assembly: The leagues parliment where each country had one representitive (42 founding members). New members could be admitted here, also where countries discussed and decided general policies

  Strengths - Very democratic, every country had equal vote

  Weakness - Only met once a year and votes had to be unanimous so slow to act
• Council - Smaller government body that met more often than assembly and in emergencys to resolve disputes. Had variety of powers to stop aggressive nations

  strengths - Met five times a year so could react quicker than assembly

  weakness - permanent member Britain, France, Italy and Japan could dominate decisions as they had veto to stop a decisive decision
• Secretariat - Civil service of the league, kept records and administered all the different bodies

  Strengths - Lots of experts brought together

  weakness - Expensive to run and grew larger as LON's role expanded over time
• Permanent court of international justice - Based in the Hague,Netherlands. Judges settled disputes and provided legal advice to the council

  strength - Made of legal experts from meber states

  weakness - Lacked power to follow up rulings
• International labour organisation - Brought together employers, employees and governments to improve working conditions
• Agencies - Commissions and committees set up to deal with social and economic issues caused by the first world war and peace settlements
• League of nations sanctions:

  Moral condemnation - Uses opinions to condemn aggressive actions

  Trade sanctions - Trade embargos against aggressor

  Military force - Members could raise a force against aggressor
• Depression made nations weak and aggressive such as Japan Italy and Germany wanting to use military expansion