history league of nations 1920s

Aaland Islands dispute

(Success in 1920s) 1921; dispute between Sweden and Finland; owned by the League oversaw a plebiscite; the League ruled they should be run by Finland but given significant autonomy

Aims of the League of Nations

Discourage aggression; improve living and working conditions; encourage disarmament; encourage cooperation and trade between countries

Arbitration

Method of resolving a dispute peacefully using an independent authority that is neutral who will listen to all evidence like a judge, then issue a ruling; League used the Permanent Court of International Justice for this

Assembly

'Parliament' of the League; it was comprised of all member-states; met once per year; admitted new members and elected non-permanent members of the Council; decisions had to be unanimous

Collective security

Key principle of the League; member-states would guarantee the security of every other country through a three-step process: (i) moral condemnation, (ii) economic sanctions, and (iii) military intervention

Committees

Bodies within the Secretariat that oversees aims of the League; they included the Health Committee, Refugee Committee, Mandates Committee, Slavery Committee, and Disarmament Committee

Corfu dispute

(Failure in 1920s) 1923; Conference of Ambassadors sent Italian General Tellini to establish new border between Albania and Greece; he was murdered and no arrests made; Mussolini ordered occupation of Corfu as compensation; Greece appealed to League; Council sent commission to investigate which found no evidence that Greece had failed to investigate properly; Conference of Ambassadors (under pressure from Italy) ruled that Greece must pay Italy 50 million lire in compensation

Council

'Executive' body of the League; comprised of permanent members (Great Britain, France, Italy, Japan, and later Germany) and non-permanent members; met four times per year; main decision-making body; each permanent member had a veto

Covenant

Constitution of the League that laid out its rules

Dawes Plan

1924; agreement that involved American banks loaning 800 million Marks to Germany to restart their economy after hyperinflation

Economic sanctions

(Power #2 of the Council in response to an act of aggression) A penalty or punishment imposed by an official body; typical sanction would be a ban on trade, which has an impact on the country targeted so that they might then change their policies or reverse actions; importantly sanctions on sale of oil to Italy during Abyssinian Crisis were not implemented

Geneva Protocol

1924; agreement that stated if two members of the League were in dispute, they would accept the decision made by the League

Greek-Bulgaria dispute

(Success in 1920s) 1925; two Greek border guards were killed on the border with Bulgaria; Greek gov't mistakenly told Bulgaria had launched invasion; Greece attack Bulgaria; Bulgaria inform Council who order both sides to end military action; League found out that Greece had stolen crops and cattle upon retreat; Greece forced to pay £45,000 compensation to Bulgaria

Health Committee

Committee of the League that sought to deal with global crises after WWI; led by Ludwig Rajchman, the Health Committee became one of the most successful of the League; it supported Soviet Russia in preventing a typhus epidemic in the 1920s, reduced the incidence of leprosy and began international campaign to eliminate mosquitoes (reducing spread of malaria)

Humanitarian

Taking action to promote the welfare of people

International Labour Organisation

Organisation within the League designed improve working conditions around the world; ILO introduced 8-hour working day and 48-working week to many countries, restricted the addition of lead to paint and campaigned to end child labour

Isolationism

Foreign policy of the USA following WWI in which they sought to isolate themselves from world affairs

Kellogg-Briand Pact

1928; agreement in which 65 states agreed not to use force to settle disputes

Locarno Treaties

1925; agreement wherein Germany accepted its western borders as set out in the Versailles Settlement

Mandate

Term used to describe the process of the League taking control of Germany's former colonies (e.g. the Cameroons) and allowing Great Britain, France and Japan to govern them on the League's behalf; the Mandates Committee oversaw this process

Mandates Committee

Committee of the League responsible for oversight of the mandated territories

Military intervention

(Power #3 of the Council in response to an act of aggression) If all other methods failed, Council could send military help to victim of attack

Moral condemnation

(Power #1 of the Council in response to an act of aggression) Public condemnation by the Council of an act of aggression by a country

Occupation of the Ruhr

(Failure in 1920s) 1923; Germany failed to pay its second instalment of reparations; French and Belgian troops occupy the Ruhr region of western Germany; 132 Germany were killed and 150,000 expelled from the region; League did nothing; troops eventually withdrew in August 1923 upon resumption of reparation payments

Permanent Court of International Justice

Organisation within the League that worked as a neutral arbiter when countries entered a dispute

Permanent member

Constant members of the Council; in 1920: Britain, France, Japan, and Italy (Germany joined in 1926)

Refugee Committee

Committee of the League that sought to deal with the refugee crisis in Europe after WWI; led by Fridtjof Nansen, it successfully returned 425,000 refugees within two years of WWI

Secretariat

'Administrative' body of the League; worked to carry out the Council's decisions; oversaw the work of the League's committees

Slavery Committee

Committee of the League that sought to abolish slavery around the world; successfully freed 200,000 slaves in British-owned Sierra Leone, and banned slavery in Afghanistan (1923), Iraq (1924), Nepal (1926), and Abyssinia (1942)

General Tellini

Italian General sent by the Conference of Ambassadors to establish new border between Albania and Greece; he was murdered and no arrests made; led to the Corfu crisis

Unanimous

Term used to describe a decision in the League's Assembly that has the support of every representative who is voting, and so no one has opposed the proposal being voted on

Upper Silesia dispute

(Success in 1920s) 1921; Dispute between Germany and Poland; League oversaw a plebiscite and the territory was divided between the two countries

Vilna dispute

(Failure in 1920s) 1920; Dispute between Lithuania and Poland; Vilna was made the capital of Lithuania in the Versailles Settlement; Poland took it over; the League did nothing to stop them

Wall Street Crash

1929; for Japan, their silk market collapsed; led to an economic depression around the world

Washington Naval Disarmament Conference

1921; USA, Britain, France and Japan agreed to limit the size of their navies

Young Plan

1929; agreement in which Germany's reparation payments were reduced