CONFLICT + TENSION Flashcards
(122 cards)
Describe the membership of the league and how it changed over the years
- 42 members upon founding
- Rose to 58 by 1934
- Four permanent members - Britain, France, Italy and Japan
Who’s idea was the league of nations
Woodrow Wilson
Main aims of the league
- Stop war from breaking out again
- Encourage disarmament
- Improve working conditions
- Tackle deadly diseases
Why wasn’t America part of the league
- The senate refused to agree even though WIlson tried to convince the people it was a good idea
- Too many young Americans had died in Europe during the war
- Pursued the policy of isolation to keep themselves distant from Europe
- WIlson was devestated
Who was originally denied entry to the league, and how did this change
- Britain and France were suspicious of Communist Russia and so they were forbidden from joining
- Countries who had lost the war weren’t allowed (like Germany)
- The Locarno Treaty of 1926 was signed and Germany was allowed into the league
- Hitler took Germany out of the league in Nov 1933 and Japan and Italy also left
What responsibility did the league have over Germany’s colonies
They would run as mandates (The league would run as colonies until they were ready to be independent)
How did the league plan to keep peace
- Collective security - If all countries worked together there would be the threat of the masses
- Mitigation - Countries would talk through their problems
- Moral condemnation - Countries would reprimand the aggressor
- Economic sanctions - Members wouldn’t trade with the aggressor
- THe league didn’t have it’s own army, so if absolutely needed they would ask embers to lend their armed forces
What was the assembly of the league
- Every countries representatives were sent which met once a year to discuss and vote on matters
- Every country had an equal vote and the results had to be unanimous for the motion to be passed
- In charge of decided when a new country could join, election of judges to Court of international justice, and deciding how the money was spent
How was the council of the league set up
- There were 4 permanent members : Britain, France, Italy and Japan
- Four other countries would be chosen to sit on the council each for a three-year term
- It was later increased to 9 non-permanent members
- If the assembly made a unanimous vote then the council had the power of VETO on it
What was the Permanent COurt of International Justice
- A court of law that would settle international arguments
- Any country could bring an issue and 11 judges and 4 deputy-judges would give a verdict
- The court would give advice on what they thought, but couldn’t make decisions
- Elected by the assembly and the council, and judges would fill that role for 11 years
Responsibilities of the Secretariat in the league
The civil service that would be in charge of dealing with any decisions the league made, except military ones
Were the punishments the league threatened severe enoguh
There were so many members, so economic sanctions and moral condemnation were daunting punishments for many countries
Membership problem of the league
Many important countries didn’t join the league like the USA
THhs undermined the league as a ‘global’ organisation and meant that if a country faced economic sanctions, it could still trade with some of the most powerful countries
Other structural weaknesses of the league
- No standing army which meant they could not force people to obey it
- The structure was very complicated which confused people and slowed down action
- Decisions had to be unanimous which slowed down decision making
International Labour organisation aims, successes and failures
- Bring workers, employers and government together to improve conditions that people worked in
- Set up minimum wage in 77 countries
- Tried to stop children under the age of 14 working, however was not adopted by most countries
Commission for Refugees aims, successes and faliures
- Return prisoners of war home and support refugees by improving camps or finding new homes
- Helped free 427,000 out of 500,000 refugees from WW1 and helped 1.5mil Russians find new homes after their civil war
- In 1933, tried to appoint a high commissioner for refugees (who were mainly Jews fleeing Germany), but Germany VETO it
Economic and financial committee successes and failures
- Sent financial experts to Austria and Hungary to prevent them going bankrupt
- Unable to cope after the depression hit
Health committee successes
- Started an international campaign to kill mosquitoes that spread deadly diseases
- Sent officials to Russia to educate on how typhus was spread
Explain the Corfu incident of 1923, and how the league dealt with it
- Greece and Albania were having border disputes so Italian general Tellini was given the job
- He was murdered and the Italians blamed the Greeks
- Mussolini invaded and occupied Corfu
- Greece appealed to the league
- They deemed that Greece should pay compensation but also morally condemned Italy
- Greece paid compensation directly to Italy and apologized in the end
- A large country had threatened a smaller country, the league proved that they could be ignored
Explain the Bulgaria incident of 1925 and how the league reacted
- Greek soldiers were killed on the Bulgarian border so Greece invaded
- Bulgaria appealed to the league and the league condemned the Greeks and ordered them to withdraw
- Greece thought the league was hypocritical as Italy managed to get away with it in Corfu 1923
- Greece was too small of a country and didn’t want to risk poor relations with the league so obeyed
How did the league react to the Wall Street Crash
- America traded with lots of countries globally and now couldn’t, so lots of economies collapsed
- People lost faith in their governments and turned to extremist groups like the Nazis
- The league was powerless to do anything to help people or to control these new party leaders who were willing to resort to violence
What international agreements happened without the league and why
- Locarno Treaties 1925 - France and Germany signed border treaties and agreed to settle disputes peacefully, it represented the end of German resentment to Versailles and a voluntarily signing rather than the Diktat in 1919. Germany. asn’t a member so the league was uninvolved
- Kellogg-Briand Pact 1928 - 65 countries met in Paris to agree not to use war to solve disputes, and the USA was involved.USA wasn’t a member and so didn’t go through the league
How did the Great Depression affect the League of Nations
- Extremist groups came into power as people became desperate and liked their radical solutions
- Hitler and Mussolini weren’t threatened by moral condemnation or collective security
- The league didn’t have it’s own army to fight the aggressive dictatorships and countries didn’t want to provide their troops as they were affected as well
- Economic sanctions wouldn’t work either as no one was willing to stop trading with others as it would create more unemployment and hurt their own people
Why did Japan want Manchuria
Much of their exports were based on luxury goods like silk to countries like America, so when the depression hit, no one wanted to buy these luxury products. Manchuria was rich in natural resources like coal and iron ore