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