History Of The League Of Nations- Essay, Research Paper

History of the League of Nations-

Through my studies and research I have come to the following

conclusion about the League of Nations: despite all of President

Woodrow Wilson’s efforts, the League was doomed to fail. I feel this

was so for many reasons, some of which I hope to convey in the

following report. From the day when Congress voted on the Fourteen

Points, it was obvious that the League had a very slim chance of being

passed in Congress, and without all of the World powers, the League

had little chance of surviving.

On November 11, 1918 an armistice was declared in Europe.

Wilson saw the opportunity to form an international organization

of peace to be formed. He acted quickly. On January 18, 1919 he

released his fourteen points. The Fourteen Points consisted of many

things, but the most important was the fourteenth-the establishment of

a league of nations to settle international disputes and to keep the

peace. After congress had voted, only three of Wilson’s fourteen

points were accepted without compromise. Six of the others were

rejected all together. Fortunately the League was compromised.

Wilson then went to Europe to discuss the Treaty of

Versailles. Representatives from Italy, France, and Britain didn’t

want to work with the nations they had defeated. They wanted to hurt

them. After much fighting and negotiating, Wilson managed to convince

them that a league of nations was not only feasible, it was necessary.

The Senate supported most of the Treaty of Versailles but not

the League. They thought it would make the U.S.A. too involved in

foreign affairs. Wilson saw that the League may not make it through

Congress, so he went on the road and gave speeches to sway the public

opinion. Unfortunately, Wilson’s health, which was already depleted

from the negotiations in France, continued to recede. Wilson’s battle

with his health reached its climax when Wilson had a stroke on his

train between speeches. After Wison’s stroke, support of the League

weakened, both in Congress and in the public’s opinion. In 1920 G.

Harding, who opposed the League, was elected as president. The League

formed but the U.S. never joined.

The first meeting of the League was held in Geneva,

Switzerland on November 15, 1920 with fourty two nations represented.

During twenty-six years the League lived, a total of sixty-three

nations were represented at one time or another. Thirty-one nations

were represented all twenty-six years. The League had an assembly, a

council, and a secretariat. Before World War II, the assembly convened

regularly at Geneva in September. There were three representatives for

every member state each state having one vote. The council met at

least three times a year to consider political disputes and reduction

of armaments.

The council had several permanent members, France, Great

Britan, Italy, Japan, and later Germany and the Soviet Union. It also

had several nonpermanent members which were elected by the assembly.

The council’s decisions had to be unanimous. The secretariat was the

administrative branch of the League and consisted of a secretary,

general, and a staff of five hundred people. Several other

organizations were associated with the League- the Permanent Court of

International Justice, also called the World Court, and the

International Labor Organization.

One important activity of the League was the disposition of

certain territories that had been colonies of Germany and Turkey

before World War I. Territories were awarded to the League members in

the form of mandates. The mandated territories were given different

degrees of independence in accordance with their geographic situation,

their stage of development, and their economic status.

The League, unfortunately, rarely implemented its available

resources, limited through the were, to achieve their goal, to end

war. The League can be credited with certain social achievements.

These achievements include settlement of disputes between Finland and

Sweden over the Aland Islands in 1921 and between Greece and Bulgaria

over their mutual border in 1925.

Great powers preferred to handle their affairs on their own;

French occupation of the Ruhr and Italian occupation of Corfu, both in

1923, went on in spite of the League. The League failed to end the war

between Bolivia and Paraguary over the Gand Chaco between 1932 and

1935. The League also failed to stop Italy’s invasion of Ethiopia,

which began in 1935. Although Germany joined in 1926, the National

Socialist government withdrew in 1933 as did Japan, after their

attacks on China were condemned by the League. The League was now

powerless to prevent the events in Europe that lead to World War II.

In 1940 the secretariat in Geneva was reduced to a skeleton staff and

moved to the U.S. and Canada.

In 1946 the League voted to effect its own dissolution,

whereupon much of its property and organization were transferred to

the United Nations which had resently been founded. Never truly

effective as a peace keeping organization, the lasting importance of

the League of Nations lies in the fact that it provided the groundwork

for the United Nations. This international alliance, formed after

World War II, not only profited by the mistakes of the League but

borrowed much of the organizational machinics of the League of

Nations.

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Bibliography

Mothner, Ira. Woodrow Wilson, Champion of Peace. New York: Watts Inc.,

1969

Mason, Lorna; Garcia, Jesus; Powell, Frances; Risinger, Fredrick.

America’s Past and Promise. Boston McDougal Littell, 1995

Albright, Madeleine. “America and the League of Nations, Lessons for

Today” Speech United States Department of State 1994

McNally, Rand. Atlas of World History. New York: Reed International

Books Limited, 1992

Microsoft. “The League of Nations.” Encarta 95. 1995