League of Nations Flashcards
(21 cards)
When was the League set up?
1920 - 44 countries originally joined with USA, Russia and Germany not allowed to join because of the senate refusing to work with European politics and the Allies were suspicious of the communist government in Russia
How did the League work?
The league would work through collective security- countries worked together to make sure that peace was kept and that interests of every nation were looked after. In 1920, they set of an international court that would establish international laws so there would be less chance of disagreement if countries followed the same laws.
The covenant set out rules for dealing with aggression. First was mitigation (bringing people together to talk through problems), moral condemnation and economic sanctions where members couldn’t trade with the country.
Main aims of the League
The league was a vision for bringing the world together in peace, with a group of countries working together to solve problems. They would stop war from breaking out, encourage disarmament, improve working conditions and tackle deadly diseases
What was the Assembly
The League acted like a world parliament. Every member sent representatives to the Assembly where they met once a year to discuss and vote on matters. Every country had equal vote but to pass a vote the decision had to be unanimous, meaning every country had to agree. The Assembly was in charge of deciding when a new country should join, the election of judges, voting for non-permanent members of the Council and deciding how the money should be spent.
Permanent Court of International Justice
The league set up and funded a court of law where countries could bring an issue before 11 judges and 4 deputy judgs to settle international arguments. The Court would listen to both sides and reach a verdict but would only advise the parties as it wasn’t a compulsory ruling and it was difficult to make countries obey it. The Court was elected and judges would fill role for 11 years
The coucil
The council was made up of 4 permanent members (B, F, J, I) who were there to ensure the Leageu ran smoothly ad to react quickly inan emergency. 4 other countries were invited to sit in coucil for a one-year term later increased to 9. THe Coucil had the power of veto so could stop rulings with a vote, regardless of whether it was unanimous.
The Secretariat
This was the civil service meaning it was in charge of administration and organising any action the League wanted. It was a body of experts from different areas that were responsible for carrying out any decisions taken by the Leagueq
International Labour Organisation
Brought workers, employers and governments together to improve the contions that people worked into make people’s live better.
1930 - helped greece set up social insurance
1928- 77 countries agreed to set up a minimum wage
1919- tried to stop children under 14 from working but members disagreed as it would cost too much
1935- suggested an 8 hour working day but only 4 voted in favor since it would cost industries too much
Special Commissions
Special groups that would tackle issues the League were concerned with, helping underdeveloped countries, supporting minoritries and supervising mandates.
Strengths vs Weakness
The Leageu was well recognised as an organisation with a vast membership and sanctions that were daunting punishments
The League had no army so couldn’t enforce rules, the structure was complicated so confused people, decisions had to be unanimous so made decision-making slow and many important countries didn’t join so undermined the league as a global organisation and meant countries could trade with other powerful countries
Commission for refugess
To return prisoners of war home, support refugees by improving camp conditions and find them new homes and return them to their own countries once the threat of conflict went
1921- helped set 427,000 prisoners of war from WW1 free and returned them to their homelands
1917- revolution led to civil war in Russia with 1.5 million fleeing which the League helped to find new homes
1933- Germany rejected the proposal of a high commissoner for Jewish refugees fleeing from Germany
Slavery Comission
Organised raids on the camps of slave traders in Sierra Leone setting 200,000 free with the country abolishing slavery in 1927
Organisation for Communication and Transport
Regulated transport developed during the war to keep people safe
-Introduced shipping lanes so there were less collisions
-Produced an international highway code so car drivers followed the same traffic rules
Health Commitee
Started an international campaign to kill mosquitoes that spread diseases
Sent doctors to look after refugees and improve living conditions in refugee camps
Vilna (1920)
After WW1, countries that were in the Austria-Hungarian empire were given independence. Lots of countries were created with VIlna to be the capital of Lithunania. The majority of people there wanted it to be Polish and soon a Polish army took control of the city. Poland refused to remove its army
France saw Poland as an ally against Germany and refused to help and Britain wouldn’t send troops without the support of others. The League didn’t settle the dispute
Upper Silesia (1921-1925)
US was on the border between Germany and Poland at the end of the war and both nations were living there, wanting to claim the area for iron and steel production. They held a plebiscite to decide who would own it with Germany winning 60% of the vote, Poland claimed many of people who voted no longer lived there and thy complained so the League split it. Germany recieved most of the rural areas while Poland recieved the industrial areas. The Leageu ensured that resources where available to both nations. The settlement was considered unfair to the Poles since they had a third of the land and half the population with lots now living in German territory. The Germans lost 3/4 quarters of the coal mines they had owned which was a good source of income and complained to the League and awarded the right to import coal in 1922. Relations worsened aftrt the agreemend ended in 1925
Aland Islands (1921)
Sweden and Finland both claimed these whcih were between both countries adn threatened war on each other. THe Leageu decided they should go to Finalnd but they weren’t allowed to build forts on the island to use as a base to attack Swede. The League avoided war`
Corfu (1923)
The boundaries between greece and albania were still to be agreed. The Leageu gave the job to a general naed Tellini who was murderd while survyeing an area in Greece. Italy was ruled by dictator, Mussolini, whho blamed the Greek government. He demanded that they should be paid compensation but the Greek governmnt didn’t know who had murdered them. On the 31st August, he invaded Corfu killing 16 peope. Greece appealed to the League who condemned his act of aggression but agreeed thy should be paid compensation. Mussolini complained to the Conference of Ambassados, a group of powerful countries, and persuaded them to undermine the league, Greece was forced to apologise and pay compensatino directly to Italy, with italy withdrawing troops. A larger country had threatened a smaller one with military actions and the league proved they could be overturned by international groups.
Bulgaria (1925)
Greek soldiers were milled on the Bulgarian border and Greece invaded. Bulgaria appelaed for help and the league ordered the Greeks to withdraw their troops. Greece felt they were being hypocritical like how Mussolini got away with similiar actions in 1923 but was a small country so were unwillling to risk poor relations with powerful members so they obeyed
Wall Street Crash (1929)
In 1929, the American economy crash and the country were plunged into depression. America traded with countries across the world and had lent money so global economies were also effected. People didn’t believe thir governments during desperate times and turned to extremist parties who promised to make their country strong. The League was powerless to do something and control the new leaders who would be violent to get what they wanted.
The Great Depression
In the 1920’s there were many newindustries an businesses that created lots of jobs. America had loaned moeny to other countries to help them rebuild and countries wanted to work together. In 1929, a finicial crisis hit America where the country was plunged into an economic depression. The economy collasped adn industries went bankrupt with pople not affording to by luxuries. Industries all over the world lost a valluable market for trade and their proficts droppe, having to fire workers and people soon became desperate.By 1933, 15 million Americans were unemployed and many lost their homes. People lost trust in governmnts and looked for strong leaders who could help their countries recover and solve the probkems. they turned to policies of extremist parties with extreme political ideas who had com into power and were pormimsing to makketheir countries strong again. For example Hitler was skilled at offering solutions using simple message to complex solutions offerd both other parties. In a dictatorship sate, the government ran everything so are more likly to take care of the unemplyed. The prmised to take land by force so population would have spacem food and resources. they used the promise of victories in wars overseas to distract people from problems to rsore national pride, support governmnt more,= and expand their borders. Countris were too busy dealing with their own problems to support the League.
It showed that extremists weren’t afriad to use violence to get what they wanted and wern’t interested in collective security or scared by moral condemnation. The league would need an army to fight aggressive dictators but countries didn’t want the expense of a war during the Depression. The only sanctions they could impose were economi but e=countries weren’t willing to stop trading with others which would create more unemployment and hurt more people.
