League of Nations Factfile
League of Nations: Fact file
After the end of the Great War (WW1) the League of Nations was established with the aim to end warfare throughout the world. The idea was suggested by the American President Woodrow Wilson, in his 14 point plan. The premise of the League was, to improve international cooperation, peace and security through the world. Other things mentioned in its covenant were:
1. That all treaties would must a have registration to prevent secret alliances
2. The reduction and control of arms so that there could be no future arms races
3. A method of solving border disputes between countries
The League of Nations also known as League of Victors this meant that only victorious countries in the war could join, so that ruled out Germany, Austria-Hungary. Also, the Russians ( later named UUSR in 1923) were excluded because they had a peace treaty with Germany in 1918, so the league got off to a bad start. In addition to not allowing two major countries in Europe to join the League, the Americans didn’t join the League of Nations either (nor did they sign the treaty of Versailles) and without the financial support of the Americans the League wasn’t very powerful either. Despite this the League would still try to take actions if another country became quite aggressive to another, the way this would be done was in 3 stages:
1. Moral Condemnation: this meant that all the countries would try to put pressure on the aggressor to back down, this usually failed.
2. Economic sanctions: The second course of action would be that all the countries that had economical links with the aggressor would be stopped, this usually worked. Because with resources or any income they would have to back down
3. Military force: This was the ‘last resort’ if the aggressor ignored the previous two actions, the league would take control over a county’s army in order to stop the aggressor. This action was rarely ever used as the only two countries that had sizeable army was
After the end of the Great War (WW1) the League of Nations was established with the aim to end warfare throughout the world. The idea was suggested by the American President Woodrow Wilson, in his 14 point plan. The premise of the League was, to improve international cooperation, peace and security through the world. Other things mentioned in its covenant were:
1. That all treaties would must a have registration to prevent secret alliances
2. The reduction and control of arms so that there could be no future arms races
3. A method of solving border disputes between countries
The League of Nations also known as League of Victors this meant that only victorious countries in the war could join, so that ruled out Germany, Austria-Hungary. Also, the Russians ( later named UUSR in 1923) were excluded because they had a peace treaty with Germany in 1918, so the league got off to a bad start. In addition to not allowing two major countries in Europe to join the League, the Americans didn’t join the League of Nations either (nor did they sign the treaty of Versailles) and without the financial support of the Americans the League wasn’t very powerful either. Despite this the League would still try to take actions if another country became quite aggressive to another, the way this would be done was in 3 stages:
1. Moral Condemnation: this meant that all the countries would try to put pressure on the aggressor to back down, this usually failed.
2. Economic sanctions: The second course of action would be that all the countries that had economical links with the aggressor would be stopped, this usually worked. Because with resources or any income they would have to back down
3. Military force: This was the ‘last resort’ if the aggressor ignored the previous two actions, the league would take control over a county’s army in order to stop the aggressor. This action was rarely ever used as the only two countries that had sizeable army was