THE LEAGUE & UN CHAP. 1; creation & successes of the league, 1919-29

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.

What crises did the refugee commission deal with?

• 1920-22; The repatriation of POWs post-WW1

• 1920-25; Repatriation & relocation of 1.5 million Russian refugees fleeing the civil war

• 1919-23; Refugees fleeing massacring during the Greek-Turkish conflict

• 1920s-30s; Armenian refugee crisis

• 1930s; German Jews fleeing Nazi persecution

(think RP, triple R, GT, A, JG)

Repatriation of POWs post-WW1

1920-22

• Huge international operation to organise funds, shipping & resources

• 400,000+ POWs repatriated for less than £1 each

Repatriation & relocation of Russian refugees fleeing the civil war

1920-25

• Introduced “Nansen Passports” for refugees

• Fridjof Nansen coordinated 40+ nations to take the refugees unwilling to return

• 1922; an agreement is made with the USSR to repatriate those who want to return

Refugees fleeing massacring from the Greek-Turkish conflict

1919-23

• Dealt with food shortages & healthcare issues with the refugees

• 1923; Population exchange. Greeks left Turkey for Greece & Turks left Greece for Turkey

• Loans arranged for Greece to give refugees homes & farming resources.

Armenian refugee crisis

1920s-30s

• Special committee established with the ILO to resettle & employ refugees

• 30,000+ Armenian refugees resettled & employed by 1938

German Jews fleeing Nazi persecution

1930s

• The League protected 600,000 refugees, Thousands settled in Israel, the USA and across Europe

How successful was the Refugee Commission?

Very successful despite the large scale and the little funding. In the end, they relocated millions of refugees.

What methods did the Drugs Commission use to deal with illegal drugs?

• Limiting, gathering information on & monitoring the legal production, manufacture & trade of dangerous drugs

• Monitoring members’ compliance with the League’s agreements

• Recommending an embargo on drug trade with non-compliant nations

• Finding economic alternatives for opium-growing regions

• Categorizing drugs according to their danger & their medicinal benefits

When & what was the first convention on Opium?

1926

• Import, sale & distribution of drugs to be a government monopoly only. Retail sales only, no large-scale open market trades

• Restriction on the number of retailers licensed to sell drugs

• Prohibited the sale & use of opium by minors

When & what was the second convention on Opium?

1928

• Import & export licenses developed for dangerous drugs

• Permanent Control Board established to gather & review data from members

• Nations producing more than they needed had to provide an explanation

When & what was the convention on drugs?

• Nations agreed to estimate & comply with the amount of drugs needed for medical & scientific purposes

• Drugs Supervisory Body established to oversee international drug requirements and estimate the needs of non-signatories

• Categorization of drugs according to their danger & medicinal benefits

Limitations of the Drugs Commission

• Drug companies moved to countries that ignored the League’s controls

• The illegal trade was difficult to control. Persia (Iran) produced even more to meet the demand & China still produced excess opium

• By the late 1930s fewer countries were cooperating, especially since some left the League (e.g Germany, Italy, Japan)

Successes of the Drugs Commission

• even non-League nations such as the USA worked with the Commission & agreed to their international conventions

• USA reported a 50% fall in drug addicts in the 1930s

• Data gathered by the OAC made things clear such as the supply + demand for illegal drugs and where they were a big problem

• By 1935 the legal production of dangerous drugs was close to equal to the medical & scientific demands

How successful was the Drugs Commission?

Partially successful. It organized international agreements such as the conventions on opium, which increased government control over dangerous drugs. However, its impact was limited as many countries still traded & produced drugs illegally. The League also had no real power to enforce its decisions.

Disarmament Commission aims & actions

To decrease national armaments to only what was necessary for self-defense.

• Geneva Protocol 1924; all signatories promised disarmament & abandoned war as a way to settle disputes

• World disarmament conference 1932

Health Commission aims & actions

Spread good health practices, major health campaigns, preventing disease, etc

• 1921; Epidemiological Intelligence Service established to give information on infectious diseases

• 1923; Health Committee set up to investigate diseases

• 1928; Institute for the study of Malaria set up

Overall, a lot of information found & distributed on different diseases

International Labour Organization aims & actions

Created as part of the Treaty of Versailles; To deal with workers’ pay, rights, & working conditions

• annual conferences

• By 1939, 67 conventions agreed on issues such as hours, unemployment, working conditions for women & children, health & safety

Mandates Commission aims & actions

To govern the former colonies of the defeated powers that weren’t ready to be independent yet.

• Divided colonies into 3 categories according to how ready they were to be independent

Slavery Commission aims & actions

To deal with slavery, the slave trade & human trafficking

• 1921 conference agreed to handle women & children trafficking

• 1924-26; investigated trafficking in Europe, the Mediterranean region & America

• 1926 convention defined slavery

• 1926; investigated trafficking in the Near, Middle, & Far East + Africa

Attitudes towards the Committees & Conventions

Not all members signed up or carried out the conventions. National governments weren’t used to working with international organizations to deal with social, economic & political problems

What was the 1920s like for the League overall & why?

Positive.

• Dealt effectively & mostly successfully with some of the consequences of WW1 & the Treaty of Versailles such as refugees, minorities and border disputes

• —> However, the League wasn’t dealing with powerful aggressors at the time

• A lot of the League’s work was complex, long term and needed international co-operation, but it did make progress

• The weaknesses in the League because of its membership & lack of force only became problems in the 1930s due to the Great Depression (1929). 1930s were also the time disarmament became such a big issue & failure