Why Did the League of Nations Fail?

Jari Eloranta, Ph.D Assistant Professor of Comparative Economic and Business History, Appalachian State University, Department of History, Whitener Hall, Boone, NC 28608, USA Phone: [phone], email: [e-mail] Paper to be presented at the Sixth European Historical Economics Society Conference, 9-10 September 2005, Historical Center of the former Imperial Ottoman Bank, Istanbul.

WHY DID THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS FAIL?
INTRODUCTION

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.

Why did the League of Nations ultimately fail to achieve widespread disarmament, its most fundamental goal? Maurice Vaïsse (1993) has summarized the explanations in the following manner: 1) It failed because it was an imperfect instrument for achieving disarmament; 2) It failed because the League was not universal; 3) It failed because of the confrontation between Great Britain and France; 4) It failed because there were domestic forces inside the countries hostile to disarmament; 5) It failed because the Disarmament Conference was convened too late, under hostile conditions; 6) It failed because of the confrontation between France and Germany at the Disarmament Conference; 7) It failed because of the overly ambitious aims and the practical problems involved in the reduction of armaments.1 And, as Frederick Northedge has argued, the League failed because it was seen as the defender of the status quo, the infamous Versailles settlement.2 As argued here, all of these explanations have merit, yet the list

1 2

Vaïsse 1993.

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