How Successful Was The League In The 1920s 1

How successf ul was the
L

Successes
 Aaland Islands, 1921
 Upper Silesia, 1921
 Economic collapse in Austria & Hungary, 1922-3
 Memel 1923
 Greek-Bulgarian dispute, 1925

Failures
Teschen 1919
Vilna, 1920
Corfu, 1923

The
Successes

Aaland Islands, 1921
Dispute over possession of the Aaland Islands between Sweden and Finland
Took it to the league, and they decided Finland should have the islands
Both countries accepted the League’s decision

Upper Silesia, 1921
 A plebiscite area with large numbers of Germans and Poles living in it  Voted to rejoin Germany by 700,000 to 420,000
 League split it:
 Germany got most of the land & population
 Poland got most of the industry

MEMEL 1923
 Memel was/is a port in Lithuania. Most people who lived in Memel were
Lithuanians
 The government of Lithuania believed that the port should be governed by it.
 The Treaty of Versailles had put Memel and the land surrounding the port under the control of the League.
 For three years, a French general acted as a governor of the port.
 In 1923 the Lithuanians invaded the port.
 The League intervened and gave the area surrounding Memel to Lithuania
 The port was made an "international zone".
 Lithuania agreed to this decision. Though this can be seen as a League success – as the issue was settled – a counter argument is that what happened was the result of the use of force and that the League responded in a positive manner to those (the Lithuanians) who had used force.

 Austria and Hungary were on the brink of bankruptcy due to reparations and weak economies after the war
 The league arranged international loans and helped them manage their finances

Economic Collapse,
Austria
& Hungary, 1922The Greek-Bulgarian
3
Dispute 1925

 They were able to begin economic recovery

Greek-Bulgarian border the source of dispute
After some violent incidents, Greece invaded Bulgaria
League condemned Greece’s actions and pressurised them to withdraw
They did so to avoid war