Versailles Treaty Revision

   League of Nations Revision

       

If you click on yellow pointers, you will reveal all the facts that you ought to remember.
Try to remember BEFORE you click!

   

  •  FOUR AIMS OF THE LEAGUE [memory word: SIDE]
    • Stop war
      • (Article 10 of the Covenant = ‘collective security’)
    • Improve people's lives and Jobs
      • Encourage co-operation in trade
      • Economic and social agencies.
    • Disarmament
    • Enforce the Treaty of Versailles
  •  MEMBERSHIP OF THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS (5 THINGS)
    • 42 countries joined at the start. By the 1930s this had risen to 60.
    • May 1920, the US Senate voted against Versailles.
    • The USSR did not join the League. In 1919 it set up the Comintern to cause revolution.
    • Germany was not allowed to join the League as a punishment for causing WWI.
    • The leading members were Britain and France, helped by Japan and Italy.
  •  THE STRUCTURE OF THE LEAGUE [memory word: SCACHIRMS]
    • Secretariat (2 things):
      • supposed to co-ordinate the different functions of the League
      • too few secretaries to do the work - slow and inefficient
    • Council (2 things):
      • met 4-5 times a year
      • 5 permanent members - Br, Fr, It, Jap & Ger - with a veto.
    • Assembly (2 things):
      • the League’s main meeting, held once a year
      • decisions only by unanimous vote
    • + the Committees (CHIRMS):
      • Court of international justice
      • Health committee
      • International Labour Organisation
      • Refugees committee
      • Mandates commission
      • Slavery commission
      • ALSO Conference of ambassadors (not really part of the League's organisation).
  •  THE THREE STRENGTHS OF THE LEAGUE [memory Word: SUM]
    • Set up by the Treaty of Versailles
    • Universal membership, all of which had signed the Covenant promising to support the League.
    • Means of Influence (6 things)
      • Covenant (26 promises which every member agreed to follow)
      • Moral condemnation (public opinion)
      • Arbitration (act as a referee)
      • Sanctions (refuse to trade)
      • Military Force (send an army)
      • ‘Community of Power’ (acting together).
  •  SIX SUCCESSES OF THE LEAGUE IN THE 1920s [memory word: SAMBOK]
    • Silesia, 1921
      • Germany and Poland agreed to paritiion after a plebiscite.
    • Aaland Islands, 1921
      • said the islands should belong to Finland; Sweden and Finland agreed.
    • Mosul, 1924
      • the Turks demanded Mosul, Iraq. The League supported Iraq; Turkey agreed.
    • Bulgaria, 1925
      • Greece invaded Bulgaria, but withdrew when Bulgaria appealed to the League.
    • Other (6 things):
      • 400,000 Prisoners of War repatriated
      • Turkish refugee camps (1922)
      • Leprosy
      • Drugs companies closed down
      • Attacked slave owners in Sierra Leone and Burma
      • Economic advice to Austria and Hungary
    • Kellogg-Briand Pact, 1928
      • signed by 23 nations and supported by 65, to outlaw war.
  •  SIX FAILURES OF THE LEAGUE IN THE 1920s [memory word: VIMCOD]
    • Vilna, 1920
      • Poland refused the League orders to withdraw from Vilna.
    • Invasion of the Ruhr, 1923
      • by France; the League was not even consulted, and Britain disagreed.
    • Memel, 1923
      • The League told Lithuania to leave, but the Conference of Ambassadors agreed.
    • Corfu, 1923
      • General Tellini murdered, so Italy occupied Corfu. The Conference of Ambassadors overruled the League’s order to Mussolini to leave – forced Greece to pay compensation to Italy.
    • Other Treaties (4 things):
      • Washington, 1921
      • Dawes Plan, 1924
      • Locarno Pact, 1925
      • The Geneva Protocol, 1924 (to support the League of Nations) failed because Britain refused to sign it
    • Disarmament (2 things):
      • Britain objected to the 1923 conference
      • 1932-1934 conference was wrecked when Hitler demanded parity with France.
  •  TWO FAILURES OF THE LEAGUE IN THE 1930s
    • Manchuria, 1931 (3 points):
      • The League sent officials (took a year)
      • voted that Japan return Manchuria (Feb 1933 - Japan resigned from the League)
      • could not agree economic sanctions or arms sales ban.
    • Abyssinia, 1935 (3 points)
      • Mussolini invaded (October 1935) Haile Selassie’s Abyssinia
      • Britain and France secretly agreed to give Abyssinia to Italy (Hoare-Laval Pact, 1935)
      • The League tried sanctions on arms sales, rubber and metals, but they did not close the Suez Canal or ban oil sales.
    • These failures killed the League:
      • Mussolini gained prestige
      • Britain, France and the League were weakened - countries decided it was a ‘sham’, left and began to prepare for war instead.
  •  EIGHT REASONS THE LEAGUE FAILED [memory word: BUSTED UP]
    • Britain and France
      • were not prepared to use their armies and had other priorities.
    • USA, USSR and Germany (3 points):
      • USA was never a member
      • USSR not until 1934
      • Germany not until 1926, and Hitler left the League in 1933.
    • Structure
      • its organisation [SCACHIRMS] was cumbersome so decisions were very slow.
    • Treaty of Versailles set up the League
      • so it was hated because the Treaty was hateful.
    • Economic Depression
      • countries acted to save their own interests, and ignored the League.
    • Dictators
      • dictators like Mussolini and Hitler would not compromise.
    • Unsuccessful
      • the League’s failures damaged its reputation, so members left/ignored it.
    • Powerless (3 points):
      • moral condemnation was just ignored by powerful nations
      • the League had no armies
      • people found ways round sanctions.