history- conflict and tension

• League of Nations


  An international peacekeeping organization to prevent future wars
• The League of Nations was established in 1920
• Aims of the League of Nations

  • Stop wars
  • Encourage countries to disarm their weapons
  • Improve the living and working conditions of the world
• Initial member countries of the League of Nations

  • 42 countries
  • Included powerful countries like Britain, France, Italy, Japan
• The USA never joined the League of Nations despite Wilson creating it, as the American people did not want to get involved in European problems
• Russia refused to join the League of Nations as they were communists and disliked by many countries like Britain and France
• Germany was not allowed to join the League of Nations initially as they were blamed for the First World War
• Structures of the League of Nations

  • Assembly
  • Council
  • Committees
  • Secretariat
• Assembly


  A league parliament where every country had one representative and met once a year to discuss minor decisions (all decisions had to be unanimous)
• Council


  The executive body of the League of Nations, made up of the most powerful countries (Britain, France, Italy, Japan) who met more often and made the most important decisions (each had veto power)
• Secretariat


  Organized the League of Nations by keeping records and preparing reports
• Powers of the League of Nations

  Moral condemnation, economic sanctions, military force (had to ask member countries to provide)
• The League of Nations was set up by the Treaty of Versailles, which was seen as unfair and hated by many countries
• The League's aims were too ambitious, like asking countries to disarm, which was unrealistic
• The absence of major powers like Germany, Russia and the USA meant the League's powers were ineffective
• The League did not have its own standing army and had to rely on member countries to provide military force, which they were unwilling to do
• League of Nations


  Created in 1920 with the hopes of maintaining world peace
• How the League of Nations dealt with disputes in the 1920s

  1. Investigated the issue

  2. Organized a vote for the people to decide

  3. Divided the territory along the lines of the vote

  4. Both countries accepted the decision
• Disputes the League of Nations dealt with in the 1920s


  • Åland Islands
  • Upper Silesia
• The League's agencies did extremely important humanitarian work, for example taking 400,000 prisoners of war home and closing down Swiss companies selling drugs
• Germany and other European countries signed the Locarno Treaties, with Germany accepting European borders and agreeing to keep troops out of the Rhineland


  1925
• Most of the world's major powers signed the Kellogg-Briand Pact, agreeing not to use war in disputes


  1928
• Despite successes, the League also had failures, such as being unable to get Poland to withdraw from Vilna in 1920 and being unable to handle the Corfu crisis with Italy in 1923
• The League was relatively successful in the 1920s, stopping wars and improving lives, but was always going to be judged on how it dealt with more powerful countries