Download The League of Nations

The League of Nations
Effects of the Absence of Major
Powers.
Max McGonigle
3/6/12
3A
What was the League of Nations?
• Intergovernmental organization founded as a result of
the Paris Peace Conference which ended the First
World War.
• It was the first permanent international organization
whose main goal was to maintain world peace.
• The largest the league ever got was 58 members from
September 28, 1934 to February 23, 1935.
• It lacked its own armed force and depended on the
Great Powers to enforce its resolutions, economic
sanctions, or provide an army if and when needed.
Failures of the League of Nations
• Experienced notable successes and some failures in the
1920s, the League was unable to prevent aggression by
the Axis powers in the 1930s.
• Germany Japan, Italy, Spain withdrew from the League,
among others.
• The beginning of the Second World War illustrated that
the League was unable to prevent any future world
war, which was its main purpose.
• Replaced by the United Nations at the end of World
War II. The UN inherited a number of agencies and
organizations founded by the League.
Major Powers That Were Absent
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•
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Germany
USSR
United States of America
Italy
United States of America
• The United States was never a part of the
League of Nations.
• Isolationists in the Senate who were put off by
America's intervention in World War I, which
they felt was more of a European civil war
than a true world war, prevented American
participation.
Effect of USA not joining League of
Nations.
• The U.S was the only major power to come out of the war
more powerful than it had been when the war began causing
the league to lose a force that could reinforce their
resolutions etc.
• The other nations all had been severely weakened, and only
two major victor powers were left in the League. This meant
that any move to change or challenge to the peace by a
defeated power would be opposed by a very small number of
very weak nations.
• The United States had also been the driving forces behind the
League’s creation, making the League seem less legitimate
and less likely to be able to resolve future conflict.
Germany
• Germany joined the League of Nations on
September 8, 1926.
• They withdrew on October 19, 1933.
• Withdrew because the League of Nations
refused to end an arms limitations imposed on
Germany after World War I.
• Adolf Hitler was the leader of Germany at the
time of their withdrawal.
Effect of Germany withdrawing.
• The absence of Germany meant that one of the powers
most likely to cause future conflict was now outside of
a framework for peaceful reconciliation.
• This allowed Germany to disregard the decrees of the
League of Nations, also by having the USSR on the
outside with them, they gained additional strength
against the league.
• Germany formed an alliance with Russia that allowed
them to work around any kind of League action against
them, including treaties banning German rearmament
and military buildup.
USSR
• Joined the League of Nations on September
18, 1934.
• Expelled from the league on December 14,
1939.
• USSR expelled from League because of the
Soviets' invasion of Finland on October 30.
Effect of USSR’s Absence
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•
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USSR’s absence from the League meant that one of the most
powerful post war nations was viewed as an outlaw state and
felt that its interests were not represented.
It also lead to a large amount of turmoil over the following
years, as USSR attempted to regain lost territory.
The fact that the USSR was excluded at the behest of
President Wilson also lead to a very strong sense that the
idealistic nature of the League had been compromised.
Created the idea that the League would be used as a method
of reinforcing the current power balance rather than as a way
of preventing future war.
Like Germany, The USSR had no interest in protecting the
status quo as established at Versailles, and had no means to
renegotiate.
Italy
• Italy was one of the founding members of the
League of Nations in 1919.
• Withdrew from the League on December 11,
1937.
• Italy left the League of Nations after the
Abyssinian crisis.
• The League of Nations condemned Italy's
aggression and imposed sanctions including n
attempt to ban countries from selling arms,
rubber and some metals to Italy.
Effect of Italy’s Withdrawal.
• After the League of Nations imposed
Sanctions upon Italy, some political leaders
in France and Britain were opposed to the
sanctions arguing that it might persuade
Mussolini to form an alliance with Adolf Hitler.
Bibliography
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/League_of_Natio
ns
• http://ibhistory.wikidot.com/the-league-ofnations
• http://www.history.com/this-day-inhistory/ussr-expelled-from-the-league-ofnations