Preview

Was the League Doomed to Fail?

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
467 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Was the League Doomed to Fail?
Chap 1 (Unit 1.2)
Factors that contribute to the League of Nations' weakness

(Point) Limited membership
(Eg/Evidence) USA did not want to join (most Americans were isolationist), Russians refused to join (they were Communists and hated Britain and France) and Germany was not allowed to join until 1925
(Elaborate) USA was the strongest and most powerful country in the world and commanded great respect and political clout. Its inclusive in the League of Nations would have enhanced the league’s credibility, reputation and enforcement power. Its absence was a crucial missing link in the cornerstone of establishing peace in the 1920s. This was not a problem in the 1920s, when the League dealt mainly with small countries like Sweden and Finland (Aaland Islands, 1921) and Bulgaria and Greece (1925). But, without the three world powers, the League was too weak to make a big country do as it wished for instance, in the case of Lithuanian & Polish dispute in Vilna, LON was unable to force withdrawal of Polish troops & eventually Polish annexed Vilna. Also, Italy invaded Greece because of Corfu incident. The LON had to accede to Italy's request for reparations & an official apology from Greece before Italy agreed to pulling troops out of Greece.
(Link) This showed that the League was powerless against big nations as they could not command sufficient authority without the support of a big nation's military backing. Additionally, limited membership resulted in the League being weak because it did not represent the interest of the whole world, and hence it could not enforce actions if it had to on the world community.

(Point) Structural weakness of the LON
(Eg/Evidence) The parts of the organization did not contribute towards congruent functioning of the League.
(Elaborate) The Assembly could only make a decision by a unanimous vote and as because the unanimity impeded efficiency, the Assembly thus hardly never made any decision. The Council was the executive body

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Coming out of World War I, the United States emerged as the most powerful nation in the world. The president at this time was the Progressive Woodrow Wilson. Wilson came up with a plan for long lasting peace at the conclusion of the war called the Fourteen Points. One of these points was the League of Nations which was Wilson's favorite thing. This part of Wilson's plan stated, "A general association of nations must be formed under specific covenants for the purpose of affording mutual guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity to great and small states alike." However, the United States never signed the Treaty of Versailles and never became a member of the League of Nations. Opposition against Wilson's plans…

    • 858 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    League Of Nations Dbq

    • 464 Words
    • 2 Pages

    There was much debate if the United States was going to join the League of Nations…

    • 464 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Involvement In Ww2

    • 755 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The convent of League of Nations wanted the United States not to ratify there treaty because the other big three countries saw America as a powerhouse of democracy in Europe. A other reason was why the USA did not ratify the treaty because there some serious concerns that the league of nations may force the united states into a unwanted war with also they would erode US sovereignty. Many Americans worried about the collective security provision in the League of Nations charter. Also the people feared that they would be forced to go to war in order to defend other countries that mighty be invaded by hostile forces. For these reason the League of Nations would reduce America’s ability to control its own foreign policy and would potentially involve the USA into an unnecessary…

    • 755 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Isolationists raised a Whirlwind of protest against the treaty, especially against Wilson’s commitment to usher the United States into his newfangled League of Nations. Invoking the revered advise of Washington and Jefferson, they wanted no part of any “entangling alliance.” Members of League of Nations were important, because it was the first major attempt to create an international organization that could prevent war…

    • 406 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Britain joined because they were worried about the German Navy. Finally Russia joined because they were worried about attacks from Germany and Austria-Hungary who both had growing armies. Russia also promised Serbia help if they were attacked.…

    • 472 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    * The peace settlement at the end of World War I had tried to fulfill nineteenth century dreams of nationalism by creating new boundaries and new states. President Woodrow Wilson placed many of his hopes for the future in the League of Nations. This however was not very effective. One major reason it failed is that the United States didn’t want to join the league. They didn’t wish to be involved in European affairs. The U.S. senate refused to ratify the Treaty of Versailles. Between 1919 and 1924 desire for security led the French government to demand strict enforcement of the treaty. Inflation then led to workers going on strike and the government paid their salaries by printing paper money.…

    • 933 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    One of the main reasons why the League of Nations could not succeed in its aims of global harmony was the fact that the country that first proposed the idea of the organisation did not join in the end. The U.S. Senate forbade America from joining on the grounds that they did not want to forsake national sovereignty, they didn't want to police the world, and many German-Americans, a significant percentage of the population at the time, resisted the idea of the States as a League of Nations member because of their indignance with the US' role in the Treaty of Versailles. Because the US did not join the League of Nations, the League lost much credibility in the eyes of other nations. Furthermore, the US was a trusted nation because of its relative newness and apparent flexibility, and the loss of them as a mediator was a blow to the League's effectiveness in negotiations with other countries. Nations would have trusted the League more if the US was part of it, as other countries leading the League were considered to be only looking out for their own interests, and the US did not have that image. Also, the economic and political weight of the League would have increased exponentially had the US joined, as they were a financial superpower with even more influence after World War 1. Without them, the League was automatically less effective, both in terms of economic…

    • 1265 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Secondly, at the Paris Peace Conference, many of the nation's didn’t attend. Because of this, the Treaty of Versailles weakened. “Russia had fought as one of the Allies until December 1917, when its new Bolshevik Government withdrew from the war. The Bolshevik decision to repudiate Russia’s outstanding financial debts to the Allies and to publish the texts of secret agreements between the Allies concerning the postwar period angered the Allies”(Milestones:1914-1920). To clarify, though Russia was part of the Allies in the beginning, this nation angered the Allies when the Bolshevik removed themselves from the war. Finally, the U.S. signed a treaty with Germany. “This separate peace treaty with Germany stipulated that the United States would enjoy all “rights, privileges, indemnities, reparations or advantages” conferred to it by the Treaty of Versailles, but left out any mention of the League of Nations,…

    • 664 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    weaknesses. Various parts of the league did not work well together due to their conflicting…

    • 316 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The economic and political instability of the interwar period and the rise of authoritarian regimes are often seen as extensions of World War I and the Great Depression. The League of Nations, in turn, is usually seen as an organization that failed to act adequately during the various political crises of the period, beginning with the Japanese aggression in Manchuria. But, I would argue that its failure has to be seen in the larger context of the failed disarmament processes of the interwar period.…

    • 14500 Words
    • 58 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    One of the main causes of World War II was the failure of the League of Nations. The League of Nations was an international organization that resulted from Wilson’s fourteen points, to help keep world peace. Unfortunately, the League of Nations failed in maintaining peace and could not prevent the breakout of another World War. The League of Nations proved a failure for many reasons. They could not resolve the worldwide economic crisis, the Great Depression in the late 1930's. Also, they were unable to control wars after World War I. For instance, Japan was one of the members of the League of Nations; it declared war against Manchuria in 1931. The League of Nations tried to solve Japan’s war issues. As a result, Japan quit the League of Nations, creating a lack of unity. Countries like Britain and France abandoned the concept of collective security for the appeasement, which let Adolf Hitler build a German military. Also due to the lack of an armed force, the League of Nations could only rely on economic sanctions. These were the League's main weapon and used occasionally, but the sanctions could not be forceful enough without the help of the USA. Perhaps the biggest source of weakness of the League of Nations was the absence of the superpower of the United States. Without the United States, a major economic and military power, the decisions made by the League were less effective. The greatest failures of the League was not stopping Hitler's…

    • 848 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Appearing weak and taking years to come to a conclusion, stronger countries started invaded weaker ones as they knew that the League wouldn’t be able to stop them. The League of Nations had no real power.…

    • 344 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    However, there were also failures. The League sometimes failed to enforce the Treaty of Versailles (e.g., the Poles captured Vilna in 1920, and Lithuania seized Memel in 1923). The League could not stop powerful nations (e.g., in 1923, when France invaded the Ruhr, and Italy occupied Corfu). Also, the ILO failed to bring in a 48-hour week, and both disarmament conferences failed – in 1923 (because Britain objected) and in 1931 (because Germany walked out).…

    • 683 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Another weakness of the League was that it did not have an army of its own, and that if it wanted an army to stand up to a troublesome country, it must raise an army from member countries. This became ineffective, as many member countries were very unwilling to raise an army and physically challenge a country, as they were afraid that it would affect their own self-interests. The lack of army resulted in the league being weak because it was unable to stop…

    • 813 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Italy had left Germany and Austro-Hungary for the Allies, and other countries such as Romania joined the allies in the war. America had joined due to Germany’s deadly Unrestricted Submarine war doctrine, which involved German U-Boats sinking any ship that wasn’t German, including passenger ships. After a British passenger ship was sunk and 100 Americans lost their lives, the civil unrest in America that was brought on by the war reached the tipping point, and American president Woodrow Wilson led us into the war. Also in 1917, the Russians were forced out of the war after the Communist Revolution that took place in October of that year, where the Bolshevik party, lead by Vladimir Lenin, overthrew the Czar of Russia and took over the country that would be known as the Soviet Union 5 years from…

    • 1266 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays