THE LEAGUE & UN CHAP. 1; creation & successes of the league, 1919-2011

Key ideas in Woodrow Wilson’s 14 points

• the right to self-determination

• disarmament

• ending secret treaties and alliances

• a ‘League of Nations’ to preserve future peace

Different views on how to secure long-lasting peace

• France felt that they needed to punish & weaken Germany

• Britain didn’t want to punish Germany too severely since it could lead to conditions similar to those that allowed WW1 to start in Germany

• The USA disliked imperialism and Wilson was confident in self-determination as a way of guaranteeing peace. Neither France nor Britain wanted to give up their empires

What did the Covenant of the League of Nations do?

• Set out the League’s aims, organisation & how it was to be run

• created the Mandates Commission to deal with colonies taken from the German, Austro-Hungarian & Ottoman Empires

• created the Permanent International Court of Justice (PICJ) to settle disputes & advise on issues with international law

What were the League of Nation’s aims?

keeping the peace between nations by;

• encouraging discussion between nations

• requiring members to respect other member’s territorial boundaries

• working together to support if a member is attacked by an aggressor

• setting up systems to settle disputes and sanction nations that caused conflicts

• improving living conditions for regular people through a series of commissions

Structure of the League of Nations

• ASSEMBLY; the league’s parliament. Met once a year to debate issues & had ultimate authority over the League’s actions

• COUNCIL; smaller assembly of 4 members, 5 after 1926. met 3-4 times a year. required unanimous votes

• SECRETARIAT; did administrative work

• PICJ; enforced treaties. advised the Council

• ILO; regulated labour, protected women & children in workplaces, aimed for international co-operation on things such as unemployment

• COMMISSIONS; gathered data, published reports, developed policies ; disarmament, drugs, health, child welfare, refugees, minorities, slavery

4 key weaknesses of the League

MEMBERSHIP

• inconsistent. this made it lose international credibility

• the USA never joined; as it had such a strong economy it could’ve applied economic pressure on aggressors, could’ve strengthened the League’s collective security and discourage aggressive countries, Britain & France being imperial and the only superpowers seemingly putting their interests first caused resentment

UNANIMITY

• the council needed a unanimous agreement as it couldn’t enforce its decisions.

• even if action was desperately needed, 1 member voting against it would prevent it

THE VICTOR’S CLUB / EXCLUSION

• GERMANY couldn’t join until 1926 because it was a defeated country

• THE USSR couldn’t join until 1934 because it was communist

• THE USA never joined at all. Wilson wanted to, but Congress, the Republican party & the American public didn’t want to be involved in any more European wars

LACK OF FORCE

• The League didn’t have any peacekeeping forces of it’s own, so it couldn’t defend threatened members or enforce its decisions

• Collective security seemed less and less realistic as the 1930’s went on

Council members

PERMANENT

• Britain, France, Italy, Japan

• Germany 1926-1933

• USSR joined 1934

When & what was the Aaland Islands dispute?

1920

• Aaland Islands were given to Finland. However, 95% of the population was Swedish & they worried about losing their cultural identity. They campaigned, and despite the law passed that gave them significant autonomy, they continued until 2 campaigners were charged with high treason & the League had to get involved

• The islands stayed Finnish, but it was guaranteed that; The Swedish language & customs would be kept, the governor had to be agreed by the islanders, the islands would be demilitarized & supervised by the League

SUCCESS: it didn’t escalate significantly, and both sides were satisfied with what they got.

When & what was the Upper Silesia dispute?

1921

• Both Germany & Poland wanted the resource-rich Upper Silesia when borders were being redrawn after WW1

• There was a vote held to decide who it would go to. Results; 54% were in favor of it going to Germany. However, Polish workers claimed their German employers forced their votes and there was an uprising.

• 2/3 of the territory went to Germany, but Poland got more economic resources.

• German-Polish co-operation committee set up

SUCCESS; Both sides accepted the solution. However, the League had it easier with getting their way as Germany was still weak after WW1 and Poland was a new state.

When & what was the Corfu conflict?

1923

• 5 Italians that were redrawing the Greek-Albanian borders were murdered on Greek soil.

• Mussolini’s government blamed the Greeks & invaded the island of Corfu. This broke the League’s covenant

• Italy was an important member of the League’s Council and Britain & France were unwilling to risk their alliance with Italy by criticizing its government.

• The Council had Italy withdraw from Corfu, but Greece had to pay 50 million lire as compensation.

SUCCESS: Conflict resolved peacefully

HOWEVER: this showed the League was quite weak dealing with superpowers. Italy broke the Covenant but got off scott-free, while there was no evidence of Greece causing the murders but it had to pay compensations.

When & What was the Greek-Bulgarian War?

1925

• a small fight resulted in 2 Greek border guards being killed.

• Greece, suspecting Bulgaria would attack, invaded. Bulgaria responded

• The League condemned Greece & demanded both sides stop their military operations. It ordered all troops to be withdrawn within 60 hours, and both sides agreed.

• The Council awarded Bulgaria 30 million Lev as compensation

SUCCESS: Easy resolution as there were no superpowers involved, & neither Greece nor Bulgaria had the resources to have continued the conflict.