Unit 2 (LoN) - Key terms

From the IGCSE study and revision guide

Abyssinian crisis

International tensions resulting from invasion of Abyssinia (present-day Ethiopia) by Italy in 1935

Article 10

Article of the LoN Covenant which promised security to League members from attack by other states

Assembly

The main forum of the LoN for discussing important issues

Collective Security

The key principle of the LoN that all members could expect to be secure because the other members of the League would defend them from attack

Commissions

Organisations set up by the LoN to tackle economic, social and health problems

Conference of Ambassadors

An organisation involving Britain, France, Italy and Japan which met to sort out international disputes while working alongside the LoN

Council

An influential body within the LoN which contained the most powerful members of the League (Britain, France, Japan, Italy) C

Covenant

An agreement or set of rules

Depression

The period of economic downturn where trade between countries and inside countries declines, often leading to unemployment

Dictatorship

A system in which one person runs a country

Disarmament

The process of scrapping land, sea or air weapons

Isolationism

The policy in the USA in the 1920s which argued that the USA should not get involved in international disputes

Manchurian crisis

An international crisis sparked off when Japan invaded the Chinese province of Manchuria in 1931. Despite investigating, the LoN failed to stop Japanese aggression.

Military force

The use of armed force (e.g. troops, bombing by aircraft) as opposed to political or economic methods

Moral condemnation

Criticism of a state of actions against another state (the prelude to stronger action such as economic sanctions or military force)

Normalcy

The term used by the US President Warren Harding in the 1920s to describe the return of normal life after the First World War

Secretariat

The section of the LoN which carried out administrative tasks and also the agencies of the League

Tariffs

Taxes on imported goods which made them more expensive, often designed to protect makers of home-produced goods

Trade sanctions

Restricting sale of goods to a nation or sales from a nation

Unanimous

Agreed by all

Wall Street Crash

The collapse in value of US companies in October 1929 which led to a widespread economic distress