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The League of Nations - Definition, WW1 & Failure - HISTORY
The League of Nations - Definition, WW1 & Failure - HISTORY
League of Nations
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Table of Contents
7. Sources
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Woodrow Wilson, part of a presentation given in 1918 outlining of his ideas for
peace after the carnage of World War I. Wilson envisioned an organization that
was charged with resolving conUicts before they exploded into bloodshed and
warfare.
By December of the same year, Wilson left for Paris to transform his Fourteen
Points into what would become the Treaty of Versailles. Seven months later, he
returned to the United States with a treaty that included the idea for what
became the League of Nations.
In response, Wilson took the debate to the American people, embarking on a 27-
day train journey to sell the treaty to live audiences but cut his tour short due to
exhaustion and sickness. Upon arriving back in Washington, D.C., Wilson had a
stroke.
Congress did not ratify the treaty, and the United States refused to take part in
the League of Nations. Isolationists in Congress feared it would draw the United
Sates into international aWairs unnecessarily.
Under the leadership of Lord Cecil, the British Parliament created the Phillimore
Committee as an exploratory body and announced support of it. French liberals
followed, with the leaders of Sweden, Switzerland, Belgium, Greece,
Czechoslovakia and other smaller nations responding in kind.
In 1919 the structure and process of the League were laid out in a covenant
developed by all the countries taking part in the Paris Peace Conference. The
League began organizational work in the fall of 1919, spending its `rst 10
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months with a headquarters in London before moving to Geneva.
The Covenant of the League of Nations went into eWect on January 10, 1920,
formally instituting the League of Nations. By 1920, 48 countries had joined.
When Russia, which was not a member of the League, attacked a port in Persia
in 1920, Persia appealed to the League for help. The League refused to take part,
believing that Russia would not acknowledge their jurisdiction and that would
damage the League’s authority.
Adding to the growing pains, some European countries had a hard time handing
over autonomy when seeking help with disputes.
There were situations in which the League had no choice but to get involved.
From 1919 to 1935, the League acted as a trustee of a tiny region between
France and Germany called the Saar. The League became the 15-year custodian
of the coal-rich area to allow it time to determine on its own which of the two
countries it wished to join, with Germany being the eventual choice.
A similar situation happened in Danzig, which was set-up as a free city by the
Treaty of Versailles and became the center of a dispute between Germany and
Poland. The League administered Danzig for several years before it fell back
under German rule.
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Vilna was returned to Poland, but hostilities with Lithuania continued. The
League was also brought in as Poland grappled with Germany about Upper
Silesia and with Czechoslovakia over the town of Teschen.
Other areas of dispute that the League got involved in included the squabble
between Finland and Sweden over the Aaland Islands; disputes between
Hungary and Rumania; Finland’s separate quarrels with Russia, Yugoslavia and
Austria; a border argument between Albania and Greece; and the tussle
between France and England over Morocco.
In 1923, following the murder of Italian General Enrico Tellini and his staW within
the borders of Greece, Benito Mussolini retaliated by bombing and invading the
Greek island Corfu. Greece requested the League’s help, but Mussolini refused
to work with it.
The League was left on the sidelines watching as the dispute was solved instead
by the Conference of Ambassadors, an Allied group that was later made part of
the League.
The Incident at Petrich followed two years later. It’s unclear precisely how the
debacle in the border town of Petrich in Bulgaria started, but it resulted in the
deaths of a Greek captain and retaliation from Greece in the form of invasion.
Bulgaria apologized and begged the League for help. The League decreed a
settlement that was accepted by both countries.
In 1920 the League created its Mandates Commission, charged with protecting
minorities. Its suggestions about Africa were treated seriously by France and
Belgium but ignored by South Africa. In 1929, the Mandates Commission helped
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Iraq join the League.
The League was also involved in the Kellogg-Briand Pact of 1928, which sought to
outlaw war. It was successfully adapted by over 60 countries. Put to the test
when Japan invaded Mongolia in 1931, the League proved incapable of enforcing
the pact.
Soon the Allies endorsed the idea of the United Nations, which held its `rst
planning conference in San Francisco in 1944, eWectively ending any need for the
League of Nations to make a post-war return.
Sources
The Guardians. Susan Pederson.
The League of Nations: From 1919 to 1929. Gary B. Ostrower.
The League of Nations, 1920. U.S. Department of State, Ogce of the Historian.
The League of Nations and the United Nations. BBC.
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BY: HISTORY.COM EDITORS
Citation Information
Article Title League of Nations
URL https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-i/league-of-nations
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