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In what ways did the League’s failure contribute to the collapse of peace? Manchuria crisis 1931-33 Problem: Japan invaded Manchuria (north–east china) Response: after a long delay no action was taken Effect: made the league seem weak and ineffective. All sorts of excuses were offered for the failure of the league. Japan was so far away. Japan was a special case. Japan did have a point when it said that china was itself in the grip of anarchy. However, the significance of the Manchurian crisis was obvious. As many of its critics have predicted, the league was powerless if a strong nation decided to pursue an aggressive policy and invade neighbours. Japan had committed blatant aggression and got away with it. Back in Europe both Hitler and Mussolini looked with interest. Within three years they would both follow Japan’s example. Disarmament conference 1932 – 34 Problem: Germany complained that only it had disarmed Response: league could not get other members to agree to disarm Effect: Germany left the league and began to rearm openly. League members such as Britain no longer tried to stop it. League members also began to rearm themselves. When other countries refused to do so, Hitler withdrew Germany form the disarmament conference and then pulled out of the League of Nations. Hitler said this gave Germany the right to build up its armed forces because Germany could no longer rely on collective security through the League of Nations. Abyssinian crisis 1935 – 36 Problem: Italy invaded Abyssinia. Response: league member could not agree effective sanctions against Italy. Britain and France tried to do a secret deal to give most of Abyssinia to Italy. Effect: league was seen as powerless and irrelevant as well as it had made the other small countries feel weak and powerless causing conflict within the league because the other countries were punished while Italy wasn’t. Some historians believe that the failure to take strong action against Italy was a step along the road to war, Italy was weak, and defeat able. It would show that Britain and France were prepared to word together against aggression scaring any future aggressor. USA not joining the League of Nations A second world war was caused by the weakness and misjudgement of Britain, France and the USA. The USA tried to remain isolated from Europe and this weakened the League of Nations. The sanctions could have been more successful and the league more respected if USA was a member. The self-interest of leading members The league depended on Britain and France to provide firm support in times of crisis. When occurred, however neither the British nor the French government has prepared to abandon its own self-interest to support the league. Britain and France were not firm in the League of Nations or individually Britain suffered high unemployment. It was not willing to get involved sorting out international disputes while its economy was suffering. The USA was unwilling to support economic sanctions when its own trade was such a mess. Worried about the changing situation in Germany, France began building a series of frontier defences on its border with Germany. In Italy economic problems encouraged Mussolini to try to build an overseas empire to distract people’s attention away from the difficulties the government had. Resuming With the failure of the League of Nations tension between countries rose dramatically in the 1930s. Hitler was rearming Germany and openly defying the treaty of Versailles. Dictatorships in other countries became more and more powerful and the democracies seemed either unwilling or unable to stop them. Finally in 1939 war once again broke out in Europe. Judgement In a scale of 1 to 10 I believe the leagues failure was a 7 because, without the league war could have had started much earlier. If the league hadn’t been incompetent the war could also not have broke out, it could have been avoided, or it could have been of a different scale. If the league managed to solve Abyssinia or Manchuria there wouldn’t have conflict and if the league had succeeded in disarmament as it was supposed to a war couldn’t have occurred because countries would have no arms to fight. The league failed by causing conflict between big and large countries and helped make other countries feel more power because of their failure to proceed with punishments, the league failed to disarm Europe and therefore made war a possibility. How does the world peace collapse connect with the other 3 points? The Lacarno treaty made the British and the French feel much easier and so they moved their troops out of Germany and Germany was accepted as a member of the League of Nations even though it went out when countries weren’t willing to disarm. The peace treaties were supposed to be enforced by the league. Hitler’s foreng policy wasn’t stopped by the leagues main members because of the treaty of Versailles guilt.