1. The League of Nations
1919-1939

2. The birth of the League
 In 1918 nobody wanted
to repeat the mass
slaugther of the war.
 The First World War
should be “the war that
ended all wars”
 Countries needed to find
a place to meet and
collaborate to find
peaceful soutions

3. But leaders disagreed about the type of
organisation that was needed:
The LoN should be like a world parliament
in which representatives of all nations
would met regularly to reach agreements
The LoN should only meet when an
emergency arose
The LoN should be a strong organisation
with its own army

4. The LoN Covenant
Mainly followed president Wilson’s ideas
 All major nations would be
members.
 Nations would disarm
 Disputes among nations
would be solved on the LoN
 They would protect each
other whenever an invasion
may occur
 Any nation breaking the
Convenant would suffer an
economic blockade

5. Although the LoN was president Wilson’s
idea the USA’s Senate rejected it:
Some American
Americans did Some businessmen
not like the Americans did were worried
terms of the not want to be about the
Treaty of involved again costs of
Versailles in in European’s mantaining
which the LoN disputes or the League
Covenant was wars and its
included decissions

6. Some thought
that the USA
would be
controlled by
other nations
throught the
LoN

7. The LoN’s Weaknesses
 USA’s rejection
discouraged many other
nations about the power of
the LoN to take action
 Great Britain’s priority was
to strengthen its Empire
and trade
 France was still concerned
about Germany and
thought that the L0N was
useless without an army
which could apply its
decissions

8. Membership of the League
 42 countries joined the
League at the start and in
1930 it had 59 members.
 Great Britain and France
were the major powers
that guided the LoN
policy.
 Italy and Japan were also
members of the Council.

9. The Aims of the League
 To discourage agression
 To encourage disarmament
 To increase cooperation among nations, specially in
trade an business
 To improve the living conditions of people

10. How did the League of Nations work?
THE
COUNCIL
THE
THE MANDATES
ASSEMBLY COMMISION
THE
PERMANET
THE THE REFUGEES
COURT OF
SECRETARIAT COMMITTEE
INTERNATIONAL
JUSTICE
THE
INTERNATIONAL
THE SLAVERY
LABOUR
COMMISSION
ORGANISATION
(ILO) THE HEALTH
COMMITTEE

11. The LoN’s main bodies
The Council The
The Assembly
Secretariat
• Small group with • Parliament with all the • Record the League’s
permanent members that members. meetings
had a veto plus • Recomended actions to • Prepare reports for the
temporary members the Council agencies
• Discuss problems in case • Met once a year
of emergency and • Its decissions had to be
establish moral unanimous
condemnation, economic
sanctions and/or military
actions if needed

12. Border disputes in the 1920’s
• Poland occupied Vilna, capital of Lithuania
Vilna, 1920 • The LoN could not solve it
Upper • Germany and Poland disputed the region
Silesia, 1921 • It was divided in two by the LoN
• Sweeden and Finland disputed the islands
Aaland • The LoN decided that the islands would
Islands, 1921 belong to Finland. Sweeden accepted the
decision.

13. Border disputes in the 1920’s
• Greece and Albania disputed the island.
Italians supervised it.
• The Italian general was killed and
Corfu, 1923 Mussolini, Italy prime minister, bombarded
Corfu.
• Greece had to apologise and pay compensation
to Italy.
• Great Britain and France designed the Protocol
to avoid the League to be undermined by one of
The Geneval its members as in Corfu.
Protocol • It stated that the members of the League would
have to acept the League’s decission.
• The British Parliament rejected it.
• Greece invaded Bulgaria.
• The LoN forced Greece to apologize and pay
compensations to Bulgaria.
Bulgaria, 1925 • It showed the members that there seemed to be
a different rule for the large states (Italy) and
for the smaller ones (Greece)

14. Failure of disarmament
 No major agreements
were made apart from
the Washington
Conference (1923) in
which USA, Japan, Great
Britain and France
accepted to reduce the
size of their navies.
 This damaged the
reputation of the League
(particularly in
Germany)

15. International Agreements
The Locarno The Kellogg-Briand
Treaties, 1925 Pact, 1928
 Germany accepted the  Renounced war as a
terms of the Treaty of
Versailles related to its way to solve disputes
Western borders: but it made no
 Borders with France and
Belgium provisions for
 Demilitarisation of Rhineland sanctions if any
 Disputes with other nations
would be solved at the LoN member broke the
pact.
 In exchange, Germany was
accepted as a member of
the LoN in 1926

16. The mood by the end of the 1920’s
 The LoN has not been
succesful in some
territorial disputes or in
disarmament but
international relations
were at its high point
with all nations willing to
collaborate and avoid
war.
 At the same time the
economies of European
nations were recovering.

17. Economy
Recovers
- The Dawes Plan
established a way to
collect war reparations
from Germany, thus
getting British and
French economies
moving again.
- Trading relationships
among nations reduced
tensions.
- But USA’s loans would
be a burden to Europe’s
economy in the 1930’s

18. During the 1920’s the League of Nations tried to
increase international cooperation to avoid war.
Nevertheless, in the 1930’s the LoN failed.