The Impact of the Global Economic Crisis on the League of Nations

Assess the impact of the global economic crisis on the League of Nations. The League of Nations was created in January 10th 1920. It worked by the principle of collective security, in which all disputes threatening war would be submitted to the League and any member resorting to war would have broken the Covenant, and would face collective action by other members. However, permanent members such as Britain and France, had veto powers to reject decisions to safeguard their own national interests. Thus, unanimity was never achieved. However the league was not initially as powerful as it seemed as it lacked basic requirements such as a police force and authority overall. Therefore the great depression was not the only factor which had an impact on the league as there remained many faults in the way the league was run. The global economic crisis of 1929 affected nearly all great powers. It led to countries who owed money to each other drowning in huge debt e.g. Austria’s bank, which went bust. During the economic crisis, every country imposed high duties on imports in an effort to protect its own industries. This increased tensions between countries as they were all trying to reproduce their own economy and secure themselves as the most powerful country, but revealed the Leagues weaknesses. This is supported by a historian who states, “The situation really began to drift out of control with the onset of the great depression, it brought unemployment and living standards to most countries causing extreme right wing governments to come into power in Japan and Germany together with Mussolini, they refused to keep with the rules and took a series of actions which revealed the Leagues weakness.” Japan was affected by the economic crisis of 1929, so aimed to rebuild its economy. However they did this by acquiring the south Manchurian Railway, while completely ignoring the League’s aim of avoiding aggression. China was angered by this and considered the

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