League of Nations


The League of Nations was an international organization established on
January 25, 1919 by part I of the Treaty of Versailles, founded with the
intentions of reducing armaments, settling disputes between countries and
maintaining living conditions. This was largely motivated by the bloodshed
during World War I. While the League failed to prevent World War II, it was
successful in dealing with minor conflicts throughout the 1920s. The League
held its first meeting on January 10, 1920 and on the same day ratified the
Treaty of Versailles thus officially ending World War I. The League formally
dissolved itself on April 18, 1946 and transfered its mission to the United Nations.

Structure of the League

The League had a Council, which began with four permanent members, United
Kingdom, France, Italy and Japan and non-permanent members. It had an
Assembly in which each member was represented. Both of these required
unanimous votes for any action to be taken; the members were not always
represented in Geneva. The League was also involved in many other agencies
and the Permanent Court of International Justice which later became the
International Court of Justice.

General Secretaries of the League

   * Sir James Eric Drummond (U.K.) 1920 - 1933
   * Joseph Avenol (France) 1933 - 1940
   * Se‡n Lester (Ireland) 1940 - 1946

Reasons for perceiving the League as a failure

   * It lacked any armed forces.
   * Unanimous vote was required.
   * Major countries not included. Even though president Woodrow Wilson had
     been a driving force behind the League of Nations, the United States
     never joined, after its Senate refused to ratify the Treaty of
     Versailles and on January 19, 1919 voted not to join the League. Italy
     and Japan began as permanent members, but left in 1937 and 1932,
     respectively. Germany was only a member between 1926 and 1933. The USSR
     joined in 1934, it was expelled for aggression in 1939 when it invaded
     Finland.
   * The exclusion of the Japanese proposed Racial Equality Clause from the
     League's Covenant crippled the League's moral authority in the view of
     most historians.
   * Previous failures showed it to be ineffectual: Italy's invasion of
     Abyssinia was one of the most significant (the Abyssinia crisis).
   * A non-permanent council and assembly made for slow decisions.
   * Self-interest of most-important members.