History Summary

(Part 2)

Following what’s left of Chapter 2.

Vilna, 1920
Following the Versailles Settlement, Vilna, with a largely Polish population, was made the
capital of the newly created state of Lithuania. A Polish army seized the city in 1920, Lithuania
made an appeal to the League. The League asked the Polish troops to withdraw while a
Plebiscite was arranged but Poland refused. The matter was then passed on to the Conference of
Ambassadors who awarded Vilna to Poland.
Occupation of the Ruhr, 1923
When Germany defaulted on its reparations payment in 1922. Then France, supported by
Belgium, decided to take unilateral action by ordering their troops to occupy the Ruhr in
January 1923. This action served to confirm that the League was little more than a victors club
for the pursuit of victors’ interests.
Corfu incident, 1923
The Corfu Incident exposed the weakness and ineffectiveness of the League when dealing with
a relatively major power.
In August 1923 Mussolini, the Italian Prime minister, ordered the naval bombardment and
occupation of the Greek island of Corfu. This was in response to the murder of an Italian
general and some of his staff. These had been patrolling part of the border frontier between
Greece and Albania. The murders had taken place on Greek soil and Mussolini had immediately
demanded 50 million lira in compensation as well as the execution of the assassins. When
Greece was unable to locate the culprits, Mussolini resorted to direct action.
The Conference of Ambassadors ordered Greece to pay the compensation and Italy to withdraw
its troops from Corfu.
Agreement made outside the League
The leading European powers had little faith in the League´s ability to deal with challenges. Its
committees and commission performed useful work and could resolve disputes between minor
states.
France, concerned about its security, set about establishing mutual assistance pacts with various
Eastern European state such as Poland and Czechoslovakia. These pacts were designed to give
France added protection in the event of German aggression.
-Locarno treaties
-Kellogg-Briand Pact
 How far did the Depression make the work of the League more
difficult?

In October 1929 the Wall Street Crash marked the beginning of a worldwide economic
recession. Unemployment rises, every country of the capitalist world was affected, especially
USA. Unemployment levels were at their highest in Germany, peaking at approximately one
third of the workforce in 1932.

Reduced inclination of League members to impose economic sanctions. World markets

were shrinking, and all countries wanted to maintain their existing trade contacts.
Brought extremists to power in Germany (and in Europe and the Far East too) who
were committed to destroying the Versailles settlement. Before the WSC the Nazis were
a fringe party at 3% of the vote. As the recession deepened so the Nazis picked up
support.
Encouraged militarism in Japan
Put pressure on governments to cut expenditure to balance the books. Serious
rearmament had to be delayed. As a result, League members lacked the military means
to deal with the aggressors.

Those seeking to make a case for the positive achievements of the League during the 1930s
would point to the following.
• The continuing good work of the agencies, committees, and commissions. The Saar
Commission, for example, successfully organized the plebiscite which led to the return of the
region to Germany in January 1935.
• The contribution made towards the resolution of border disputes in South America between
Bolivia and Paraguay over the Chaco and between Peru and Columbia over Leticia. But overall,
there is no disguising the fact that the 1930s was a disastrous decade for the League of Nations.
Three of the permanent members of the Council- Japan, Germany, and Italy-left the League and
Soviet Russia was expelled for invading Finland in November 1939.
Following the German invasion of Poland in September 1939, there were no further meetings of
the League until April 1946, when it was wound up and its assets transferred to the newly
formed United Nations.
There were three main events that collectively demonstrated the complete inadequacy of the
League during the 1930s:
1. The Japanese invasion of Manchuria

2. The failure of the Disarmament Conference

3. The Italian invasion of Abyssinia

By 1936 the League had become an irrelevancy and was thereafter largely ignored by European
statesmen.

Why did Japan invade Manchuria?

Manchuria was a province of north-east China with part of its southern frontier bordering
Korea. It was a sparsely populated province, rich in mineral wealth, agricultural land, and
forestry.
Since 1905 the Japanese had been in control of Korea with additional trading rights extending
northwards into the Manchurian interior.
As an island trading nation Japan was very affected by the Depression. Japan was not self-
sufficient in food and depended upon imports to feed its rapidly rising population. These
imports had to be paid for with exports, but Japan's main export commodity was silk, a luxury
item. As exports declined due to falling overseas demand Japan faced a growing economic
crisis.
Manchuria seemed to offer the answer to Japan's problems: it could provide a source of food
and raw materials, a market for Japanese exports, as well as land for the surplus Japanese
population.

The Mukden Railway Incident

Japanese soldiers staged an incident along the railway line in September 1931, using the excuse
of Chinese banditry to launch an invasion of the local area. China appealed to the League
following the initial attacks and the Japanese government promised to withdraw. It soon became
clear, however, that the civilian government Was no longer in control of events and the
Japanese army proceeded to occupy the whole province. In March 1932 Manchuria was
renamed Manchukuo.

What was the response of the League?

At this stage, the League could have called for sanctions, but it failed to do so. There were
several reasons for this.
• None of the European powers wanted to reduce their trade with the Far East, especially since
American firms could have taken over the lost business.
• The alternative of military sanctions was even less appealing. This would have involved
European states sending a naval task force to the other side of the world with very uncertain
prospects of success.
Both Britain and France possessed colonies in the Far East, including Hong Kong and
Singapore, and feared sanctions might provoke a Japanese attack.

The Lytton Commission

But the League did not feel it could do absolutely nothing and appointed Lord Lytton to lead a
commission of enquiry to Manchuria. Together with a four-man team, including a
representative from the United States, Lytton spent six weeks in the province and came to the
conclusion that although the Japanese were provoked by the Chinese, the invasion was not
justified. The findings were accepted. Japan´s response was to terminate its membership of the
League.

What were the lessons of the Manchurian crisis?

The League can be criticized for not acting quickly enough. By the time that Lytton arrived in
the Far East in April 1932 the invasion was a fait accompli, and the Japanese were busy
strengthening their hold on the province The Assembly of the League finally voted on the
Lytton Report 18 months after the original Japanese action. Even with the benefit of hindsight
there seems to be very little that the League could have done to resolve the crisis. With neither
Soviet Russia nor the United States as members of the League at this time, the European powers
were unable to call upon nearby military forces, and the chances of economic sanctions
achieving a positive result at a time of world recession looked remote.

Why did the World Disarmament Conference 1932-4 fail?

Before the First World War there had been an arms race, one element of which had been the
naval arms race between Germany and Britain. It was thought that this arms race had made war
more likely. After 1918 disarmament was considered to be a central issue in promoting world
peace. It was one of Wilson's Fourteen Points and a prominent feature of the Versailles
Settlement although only the defeated powers were required to disarm.
The Disarmament Commission arranged a Disarmament Conference to meet in Geneva between
1932 and 1934 so that the issues surrounding disarmament could be debated and resolutions
adopted.

Why did the members of the conference fail to agree?

In view of the ongoing economic recession, it might have been thought that disarmament would
have been an attractive idea for the 54 states attending the conference and so it was in theory.
The problems lay with the fears and anxieties of individual states and their reluctance to trust
one another.
• France, Poland, and Czechoslovakia were all worried about their future defensive security in
the event of an attack by Germany and were reluctant to place their faith in a system of
collective security that had already shown flaws.
France was willing to disarm but only if additional guarantees were provided by Britain
and the United States. Hitler, who had no intention of disarming, was able to exploit
these fears and claimed that France was not serious about disarmament, using this as an
excuse to withdraw from the conference altogether. Shortly afterwards Germany left the
League.
If disarmament was going to work all the major countries had to participate and by 1934
it was clear that this was not going to happen. The following year Hitler announced his
violations of the disarmament clauses of the Treaty of Versailles and this point marked
the beginning of the German military build-up. Italian and Japanese rearmament soon
followed.