Download In what ways did the league`s failure contribute to the

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
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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.