The League lasted for 26 years; the United Nations (UN) replaced it after the end of the Second World War and inherited several agencies and organisations founded by the League. ==Origins== ===Background=== The concept of a peaceful community of nations had been proposed as early as 1795, when Immanuel Kant's A Philosophical Sketch outlined the idea of a league of nations to control conflict and promote peace between states.
The islands are almost exclusively Swedish-speaking, but in 1809, the Åland Islands, along with Finland, were taken by Imperial Russia.
The Finnish government considered the islands to be a part of their new nation, as the Russians had included Åland in the Grand Duchy of Finland, formed in 1809.
This period also saw the development of international law, with the first Geneva Conventions establishing laws dealing with humanitarian relief during wartime, and the international Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907 governing rules of war and the peaceful settlement of international disputes.
This period also saw the development of international law, with the first Geneva Conventions establishing laws dealing with humanitarian relief during wartime, and the international Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907 governing rules of war and the peaceful settlement of international disputes.
"Imperial polities, intercolonialism and shaping of global governing norms: public health expert networks in Asia and the League of Nations Health Organization, 1908–37," Journal of Global History 12#1 (2017): 4–25. Barros, James.
In November 1921, the League decided that the frontiers of Albania should be the same as they had been in 1913, with three minor changes that favoured Yugoslavia.
Goldsworthy Lowes Dickinson, a British political scientist, coined the term "League of Nations" in 1914 and drafted a scheme for its organisation.
Led by chairwoman Fanny Garrison Villard, women from trade unions, feminist organizations, and social reform organizations, such as Kate Waller Barrett, Mary Ritter Beard, Carrie Chapman Catt, Rose Schneiderman, Lillian Wald, and others, organized 1500 women, who marched down Manhattan's Fifth Avenue on 29 August 1914.
Japan and the League of Nations: Empire and world order, 1914–1938 (U of Hawaii Press, 2008). Clavin, Patricia.
Guarantee of Peace: The League of Nations in British Policy 1914–1925 (Oxford UP, 2009). ==== Specialised topics ==== Temperley, A.C.
In Dickinson's 1915 pamphlet After the War he wrote of his "League of Peace" as being essentially an organisation for arbitration and conciliation.
On 9–10 January 1915, a peace conference directed by Addams was held in Washington, D.
Coordinated by Mia Boissevain, Aletta Jacobs and Rosa Manus, the Congress, which opened on 28 April 1915 was attended by 1,136 participants from both neutral and non-belligerent nations, and resulted in the establishment of an organization which would become the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF).
In the midst of the War, Wilson refused. In 1915, a similar body to the Bryce group proposals was set up in the United States by a group of like-minded individuals, including William Howard Taft.
By 1916 in Britain, the leader of the Allies, and in the neutral United States, long-range thinkers had begun to design a unified international organisation to prevent future wars.
Historian Peter Yearwood argues that when the new coalition government of David Lloyd George took power in December 1916, there was widespread discussion among intellectuals and diplomats of the desirability of establishing such an organisation.
Several empires collapsed: first the Russian Empire in February 1917, followed by the German Empire, Austro-Hungarian Empire and Ottoman Empire.
In December 1917, during the turmoil of the Russian October Revolution, Finland declared its independence, but most of the Ålanders wished to rejoin Sweden.
One proposed remedy was the creation of an international organisation whose aim was to prevent future war through disarmament, open diplomacy, international co-operation, restrictions on the right to wage war, and penalties that made war unattractive. In London Balfour commissioned the first official report into the matter in early 1918, under the initiative of Lord Robert Cecil.
The British committee was finally appointed in February 1918.
The proposals were approved by the British government, and much of the commission's results were later incorporated into the Covenant of the League of Nations. The French also drafted a much more far-reaching proposal in June 1918; they advocated annual meetings of a council to settle all disputes, as well as an "international army" to enforce its decisions. American President Woodrow Wilson instructed Edward M.
House to draft a US plan which reflected Wilson's own idealistic views (first articulated in the Fourteen Points of January 1918), as well as the work of the Phillimore Commission.
The Covenant of the League of Nations was signed on 28 June 1919 as Part I of the Treaty of Versailles, and it became effective together with the rest of the Treaty on 10 January 1920.
He also argued for a large and permanent secretariat to carry out the League's administrative duties. The League of Nations was relatively more universal and inclusive in its membership and structure than previous international organisations, but the organisation enshrined racial hierarchy by curtailing the right to self-determination and prevented decolonization. ===Establishment=== At the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, Wilson, Cecil and Smuts all put forward their draft proposals.
After more negotiation and compromise, the delegates finally approved of the proposal to create the League of Nations (Société des Nations, Völkerbund) on 25 January 1919.
On 28 June 1919, 44 states signed the Covenant, including 31 states which had taken part in the war on the side of the Triple Entente or joined it during the conflict. French women's rights advocates invited international feminists to participate in a parallel conference to the Paris Conference in hopes that they could gain permission to participate in the official conference.
At the Zürich Peace Conference held between 17 and 19 May 1919, the women of the WILPF condemned the terms of the Treaty of Versailles for both its punitive measures, as well as its failure to provide for condemnation of violence and exclusion of women from civil and political participation.
The Executive Council would create a Permanent Court of International Justice to make judgements on the disputes. Despite Wilson's efforts to establish and promote the League, for which he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in October 1919, the United States never joined.
The Court was open to all the nations of the world under certain broad conditions. The International Labour Organization was created in 1919 on the basis of Part XIII of the Treaty of Versailles.
This plan, defined as the mandate system, was adopted by the "Council of Ten" (the heads of government and foreign ministers of the main Allied powers: Britain, France, the United States, Italy, and Japan) on 30 January 1919 and transmitted to the League of Nations. League of Nations mandates were established under Article 22 of the Covenant of the League of Nations.
The settlement produced peace in the area until the beginning of the Second World War. ===Albania=== The frontiers of the Principality of Albania had not been set during the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, as they were left for the League to decide; they had not yet been determined by September 1921, creating an unstable situation.
President Woodrow Wilson had been a driving force behind the League's formation and strongly influenced the form it took, but the US Senate voted not to join on 19 November 1919.
It consists of approximately 15 million pages of content dating from the inception of the League of Nations in 1919 extending through its dissolution, which commenced in 1946.
online ==External links== The League of Nations., Boston: Old Colony Trust Company, 1919.
Founded on 10 January 1920 following the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War, it ceased operations on 20 April 1946. The organisation's primary goals, as stated in its Covenant, included preventing wars through collective security and disarmament and settling international disputes through negotiation and arbitration.
The Covenant of the League of Nations was signed on 28 June 1919 as Part I of the Treaty of Versailles, and it became effective together with the rest of the Treaty on 10 January 1920.
The first meeting of the Council of the League took place on 16 January 1920, and the first meeting of Assembly of the League took place on 15 November 1920.
After some notable successes and some early failures in the 1920s, the League ultimately proved incapable of preventing aggression by the Axis powers in the 1930s.
The Senate voted on the ratification on March 19, 1920, and the 49-35 vote fell short of the needed 2/3 majority. The League held its first council meeting in Paris on 16 January 1920, six days after the Versailles Treaty and the Covenant of the League of Nations came into force.
On 1 November 1920, the headquarters of the League was moved from London to Geneva, where the first General Assembly was held on 15 November 1920.
It met in Geneva and, after its initial sessions in 1920, it convened once a year in September.
In total, 107 sessions were held between 1920 and 1939. ===Other bodies=== The League oversaw the Permanent Court of International Justice and several other agencies and commissions created to deal with pressing international problems.
The First Assembly in December 1920 recommended that the Council take action aiming at the international organisation of intellectual work, which it did by adopting a report presented by the Fifth Committee of the Second Assembly and inviting a Committee on Intellectual Cooperation to meet in Geneva in August 1922.
Nonetheless, in 1920 the Council of the League called for a financial conference.
The first member to withdraw permanently from the League was Costa Rica on 22 January 1925; having joined on 16 December 1920, this also makes it the member to have most quickly withdrawn.
The questions the League considered in its early years included those designated by the Paris Peace treaties. As the League developed, its role expanded, and by the middle of the 1920s it had become the centre of international activity.
During the second half of the 1920s, France, Britain and Germany were all using the League of Nations as the focus of their diplomatic activity, and each of their foreign secretaries attended League meetings at Geneva during this period.
By 1920, the dispute had escalated to the point that there was danger of war.
Complaints about the attitude of the German authorities led to rioting and eventually to the first two Silesian Uprisings (1919 and 1920).
According to the British, who had been awarded a League of Nations mandate over Iraq in 1920 and therefore represented Iraq in its foreign affairs, Mosul belonged to Iraq; on the other hand, the new Turkish republic claimed the province as part of its historic heartland.
This heightened tension between Lithuania and Poland and led to fears that they would resume the Polish–Lithuanian War, and on 7 October 1920, the League negotiated the Suwałki Agreement establishing a cease-fire and a demarcation line between the two nations.
On 9 October 1920, General Lucjan Żeligowski, commanding a Polish military force in contravention of the Suwałki Agreement, took the city and established the Republic of Central Lithuania. After a request for assistance from Lithuania, the League Council called for Poland's withdrawal from the area.
Border skirmishes throughout the late 1920s culminated in an all-out war in 1932 when the Bolivian army attacked the Paraguayans at Fort Carlos Antonio López at Lake Pitiantuta.
The structure of the US federal government might also have made its membership problematic, as its representatives at the League could not have made decisions on behalf of the executive branch without having the prior approval of the legislative branch. In January 1920, when the League was born, Germany was not permitted to join because it was seen as having been the aggressor in the First World War.
Securing the world economy: the reinvention of the League of Nations, 1920–1946 (Oxford UP, 2013). Cooper, John Milton.
Partly as a result of pressure brought by the League of Nations, Afghanistan abolished slavery in 1923, Iraq in 1924, Nepal in 1926, Transjordan and Persia in 1929, Bahrain in 1937, and Ethiopia in 1942. Led by Fridtjof Nansen, the Commission for Refugees was established on 27 June 1921 to look after the interests of refugees, including overseeing their repatriation and, when necessary, resettlement.
In June 1921, the League announced its decision: the islands were to remain a part of Finland, but with guaranteed protection of the islanders, including demilitarisation.
A plebiscite took place on 20 March 1921, with 59.6 per cent (around 500,000) of the votes cast in favour of joining Germany, but Poland claimed the conditions surrounding it had been unfair.
This result led to the Third Silesian Uprising in 1921. On 12 August 1921, the League was asked to settle the matter; the Council created a commission with representatives from Belgium, Brazil, China and Spain to study the situation.
In November 1921, a conference was held in Geneva to negotiate a convention between Germany and Poland.
The settlement produced peace in the area until the beginning of the Second World War. ===Albania=== The frontiers of the Principality of Albania had not been set during the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, as they were left for the League to decide; they had not yet been determined by September 1921, creating an unstable situation.
In November 1921, the League decided that the frontiers of Albania should be the same as they had been in 1913, with three minor changes that favoured Yugoslavia.
In March 1921, the League abandoned plans for the plebiscite.
Coming to terms with world health: the League of Nations Health Organisation 1921–1946 (Peter Lang, 2009). Burkman, Thomas W.
The number of non-permanent members was first increased to six on 22 September 1922 and to nine on 8 September 1926.
The First Assembly in December 1920 recommended that the Council take action aiming at the international organisation of intellectual work, which it did by adopting a report presented by the Fifth Committee of the Second Assembly and inviting a Committee on Intellectual Cooperation to meet in Geneva in August 1922.
It established camps in Turkey in 1922 to aid the country with an ongoing refugee crisis, helping to prevent the spread of cholera, smallpox and dysentery as well as feeding the refugees in the camps.
When this agreement became public in May 1922, bitter resentment was expressed in Germany, but the treaty was still ratified by both countries.
After unsuccessful proposals by Paul Hymans to create a federation between Poland and Lithuania, which was intended as a reincarnation of the former union which both Poland and Lithuania had once shared before losing its independence, Vilnius and the surrounding area was formally annexed by Poland in March 1922.
It was not until the 1938 Polish ultimatum that Lithuania restored diplomatic relations with Poland and thus de facto accepted the borders. ===Colombia and Peru=== There were several border conflicts between Colombia and Peru in the early part of the 20th century, and in 1922, their governments signed the Salomón-Lozano Treaty in an attempt to resolve them.
One of its innovations in this latter area was the 1922 introduction of the Nansen passport, which was the first internationally recognised identity card for stateless refugees. ===Greece and Bulgaria=== After an incident involving sentries on the Greek-Bulgarian border in October 1925, fighting began between the two countries.
The League secured a commitment from Ethiopia to end slavery as a condition of membership in 1923, and worked with Liberia to abolish forced labour and intertribal slavery.
Partly as a result of pressure brought by the League of Nations, Afghanistan abolished slavery in 1923, Iraq in 1924, Nepal in 1926, Transjordan and Persia in 1929, Bahrain in 1937, and Ethiopia in 1942. Led by Fridtjof Nansen, the Commission for Refugees was established on 27 June 1921 to look after the interests of refugees, including overseeing their repatriation and, when necessary, resettlement.
In 1923, a permanent economic and financial Organization came into being. ==Members== Of the League's 42 founding members, 23 (24 counting Free France) remained members until it was dissolved in 1946.
Yugoslav forces withdrew a few weeks later, albeit under protest. The borders of Albania again became the cause of international conflict when Italian General Enrico Tellini and four of his assistants were ambushed and killed on 24 August 1923 while marking out the newly decided border between Greece and Albania.
The Greeks said they would not pay unless it was proved that the crime was committed by Greeks. Mussolini sent a warship to shell the Greek island of Corfu, and Italian forces occupied the island on 31 August 1923.
By 1923, the fate of the area had still not been decided, prompting Lithuanian forces to invade in January 1923 and seize the port.
In December 1923, the League Council appointed a Commission of Inquiry.
After Lithuania took over the Klaipėda Region, the Allied Conference set the frontier between Lithuania and Poland, leaving Vilnius within Poland, on 14 March 1923.
The Corfu incident of 1923: Mussolini and the League of Nations (Princeton UP, 2015). Bendiner, Elmer.
Partly as a result of pressure brought by the League of Nations, Afghanistan abolished slavery in 1923, Iraq in 1924, Nepal in 1926, Transjordan and Persia in 1929, Bahrain in 1937, and Ethiopia in 1942. Led by Fridtjof Nansen, the Commission for Refugees was established on 27 June 1921 to look after the interests of refugees, including overseeing their repatriation and, when necessary, resettlement.
The Klaipėda Convention was approved by the League Council on 14 March 1924, and then by the Allied powers and Lithuania.
A League of Nations Commission of Inquiry, with Belgian, Hungarian and Swedish members, was sent to the region in 1924; it found that the people of Mosul did not want to be part of either Turkey or Iraq, but if they had to choose, they would pick Iraq.
The first member to withdraw permanently from the League was Costa Rica on 22 January 1925; having joined on 16 December 1920, this also makes it the member to have most quickly withdrawn.
In 1925, the commission recommended that the region stay part of Iraq, under the condition that the British hold the mandate over Iraq for another 25 years, to ensure the autonomous rights of the Kurdish population.
The League Council adopted the recommendation and decided on 16 December 1925 to award Mosul to Iraq.
One of its innovations in this latter area was the 1922 introduction of the Nansen passport, which was the first internationally recognised identity card for stateless refugees. ===Greece and Bulgaria=== After an incident involving sentries on the Greek-Bulgarian border in October 1925, fighting began between the two countries.
The number of non-permanent members was first increased to six on 22 September 1922 and to nine on 8 September 1926.
Werner Dankwort of Germany pushed for his country to join the League; joining in 1926, Germany became the fifth permanent member of the Council.
Partly as a result of pressure brought by the League of Nations, Afghanistan abolished slavery in 1923, Iraq in 1924, Nepal in 1926, Transjordan and Persia in 1929, Bahrain in 1937, and Ethiopia in 1942. Led by Fridtjof Nansen, the Commission for Refugees was established on 27 June 1921 to look after the interests of refugees, including overseeing their repatriation and, when necessary, resettlement.
Under the Weimar Republic, Germany was admitted to the League of Nations through a resolution passed on 8 September 1926. An additional 15 countries joined later.
Brazil was the first founding member to withdraw (14 June 1926), and Haiti the last (April 1942).
It was annexed by Turkey with French consent in mid-1939. ===Mosul=== The League resolved a dispute between the Kingdom of Iraq and the Republic of Turkey over control of the former Ottoman province of Mosul in 1926.
Nonetheless, Britain, Iraq and Turkey ratified a separate treaty on 5 June 1926 that mostly followed the decision of the League Council and also assigned Mosul to Iraq.
Among its successes were its fight against the international trade in opium and sexual slavery, and its work to alleviate the plight of refugees, particularly in Turkey in the period up to 1926.
The League Covenant assigned the League the task of creating a disarmament plan for each state, but the Council devolved this responsibility to a special commission set up in 1926 to prepare for the 1932–1934 World Disarmament Conference.
The League had accepted Germany, also as a permanent member of the Council, in 1926, deeming it a "peace-loving country", but Adolf Hitler pulled Germany out when he came to power in 1933. ===Collective security=== Another important weakness grew from the contradiction between the idea of collective security that formed the basis of the League and international relations between individual states.
Lithuanian authorities refused to accept the decision, and officially remained in a state of war with Poland until 1927.
"“(O) n the side of justice and peace”: Canada on the League of Nations Council 1927–1930." Diplomacy & Statecraft 24#2 (2013): 171–191. McCarthy, Helen.
Partly as a result of pressure brought by the League of Nations, Afghanistan abolished slavery in 1923, Iraq in 1924, Nepal in 1926, Transjordan and Persia in 1929, Bahrain in 1937, and Ethiopia in 1942. Led by Fridtjof Nansen, the Commission for Refugees was established on 27 June 1921 to look after the interests of refugees, including overseeing their repatriation and, when necessary, resettlement.
After some notable successes and some early failures in the 1920s, the League ultimately proved incapable of preventing aggression by the Axis powers in the 1930s.
In 1930, a League report confirmed the presence of slavery and forced labour.
In February 1937, the League did ban foreign volunteers, but this was in practice a symbolic move. ===Second Sino-Japanese War=== Following a long record of instigating localised conflicts throughout the 1930s, Japan began a full-scale invasion of China on 7 July 1937.
Ultimately, the Commission failed to halt the military build-up by Germany, Italy, Spain and Japan during the 1930s. The League was mostly silent in the face of major events leading to the Second World War, such as Hitler's remilitarisation of the Rhineland, occupation of the Sudetenland and Anschluss of Austria, which had been forbidden by the Treaty of Versailles.
The League was further weakened when major powers left in the 1930s.
In 1931 the staff numbered 707. The Assembly consisted of representatives of all members of the League, with each state allowed up to three representatives and one vote.
In September 1931, a section of the railway was lightly damaged by the Japanese Kwantung Army as a pretext for an invasion of Manchuria.
Iraq, which joined in 1932, was the first member that had previously been a League of Nations mandate. The Soviet Union became a member on 18 September 1934, and was expelled on 14 December 1939 for invading Finland.
With the exception of the Kingdom of Iraq, which joined the League on 3 October 1932, these territories did not begin to gain their independence until after the Second World War, in a process that did not end until 1990.
On 1 September 1932, business leaders from Peruvian rubber and sugar industries who had lost land, as a result, organised an armed takeover of Leticia.
In May 1934, a final peace agreement was signed, resulting in the return of Leticia to Colombia, a formal apology from Peru for the 1932 invasion, demilitarisation of the area around Leticia, free navigation on the Amazon and Putumayo Rivers, and a pledge of non-aggression. ===Saar=== Saar was a province formed from parts of Prussia and the Rhenish Palatinate and placed under League control by the Treaty of Versailles.
They renamed the area Manchukuo, and on 9 March 1932 set up a puppet government, with Pu Yi, the former emperor of China, as its executive head.
The Lytton Report appeared a year later (October 1932).
In the end, as British historian Charles Mowat argued, collective security was dead: The League and the ideas of collective security and the rule of law were defeated; partly because of indifference and of sympathy with the aggressor, but partly because the League powers were unprepared, preoccupied with other matters, and too slow to perceive the scale of Japanese ambitions. ===Chaco War=== The League failed to prevent the 1932 war between Bolivia and Paraguay over the arid Gran Chaco region.
Border skirmishes throughout the late 1920s culminated in an all-out war in 1932 when the Bolivian army attacked the Paraguayans at Fort Carlos Antonio López at Lake Pitiantuta.
The League Covenant assigned the League the task of creating a disarmament plan for each state, but the Council devolved this responsibility to a special commission set up in 1926 to prepare for the 1932–1934 World Disarmament Conference.
In particular, Germany's attempts to overturn the Treaty of Versailles and the reconstruction of the German military made France increasingly unwilling to disarm. The World Disarmament Conference was convened by the League of Nations in Geneva in 1932, with representatives from 60 states.
The Whispering Gallery Of Europe (1938), highly influential account of League esp disarmament conference of 1932–34.
A provisional peace agreement, signed by both parties in May 1933, provided for the League to assume control of the disputed territory while bilateral negotiations proceeded.
The report passed 42–1 in the Assembly in 1933 (only Japan voting against), but instead of removing its troops from China, Japan withdrew from the League.
Fear of attack increased as Germany regained its strength after the First World War, especially after Adolf Hitler gained power and became German Chancellor in 1933.
In 1933, Japan simply withdrew from the League rather than submit to its judgement, as did Germany the same year (using the failure of the World Disarmament Conference to agree to arms parity between France and Germany as a pretext), Italy and Spain in 1937.
Japan began as a permanent member of the Council since the country was an Allied Power in the First World War, but withdrew in 1933 after the League voiced opposition to its occupation of Manchuria.
The League had accepted Germany, also as a permanent member of the Council, in 1926, deeming it a "peace-loving country", but Adolf Hitler pulled Germany out when he came to power in 1933. ===Collective security=== Another important weakness grew from the contradiction between the idea of collective security that formed the basis of the League and international relations between individual states.
During the Second Italo-Ethiopian War, when the League accused Italian soldiers of targeting International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement medical tents, Benito Mussolini responded that "the League is very well when sparrows shout, but no good at all when eagles fall out." At its greatest extent from 28 September 1934 to 23 February 1935, it had 58 members.
The largest number of member states was 58, between 28 September 1934 (when Ecuador joined) and 23 February 1935 (when Paraguay withdrew). On 26 May 1937, Egypt became the last state to join the League.
Iraq, which joined in 1932, was the first member that had previously been a League of Nations mandate. The Soviet Union became a member on 18 September 1934, and was expelled on 14 December 1939 for invading Finland.
In May 1934, a final peace agreement was signed, resulting in the return of Leticia to Colombia, a formal apology from Peru for the 1932 invasion, demilitarisation of the area around Leticia, free navigation on the Amazon and Putumayo Rivers, and a pledge of non-aggression. ===Saar=== Saar was a province formed from parts of Prussia and the Rhenish Palatinate and placed under League control by the Treaty of Versailles.
During the Second Italo-Ethiopian War, when the League accused Italian soldiers of targeting International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement medical tents, Benito Mussolini responded that "the League is very well when sparrows shout, but no good at all when eagles fall out." At its greatest extent from 28 September 1934 to 23 February 1935, it had 58 members.
The largest number of member states was 58, between 28 September 1934 (when Ecuador joined) and 23 February 1935 (when Paraguay withdrew). On 26 May 1937, Egypt became the last state to join the League.
When the referendum was held in 1935, 90.3 per cent of voters supported becoming part of Germany, which was quickly approved by the League Council. ==Other conflicts== In addition to territorial disputes, the League also tried to intervene in other conflicts between and within nations.
By the time a ceasefire was negotiated on 12 June 1935, Paraguay had seized control of most of the region, as was later recognised by the 1938 truce. ===Italian invasion of Abyssinia=== In October 1935, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini sent 400,000 troops to invade Abyssinia (Ethiopia).
Marshal Pietro Badoglio led the campaign from November 1935, ordering bombing, the use of chemical weapons such as mustard gas, and the poisoning of water supplies, against targets which included undefended villages and medical facilities.
The modern Italian Army defeated the poorly armed Abyssinians and captured Addis Ababa in May 1936, forcing Emperor of Ethiopia Haile Selassie to flee. The League of Nations condemned Italy's aggression and imposed economic sanctions in November 1935, but the sanctions were largely ineffective since they did not ban the sale of oil or close the Suez Canal (controlled by Britain).
In October 1935, the US president, Franklin D.
The League sanctions were lifted on 4 July 1936, but by that point, Italy had already gained control of the urban areas of Abyssinia. The Hoare–Laval Pact of December 1935 was an attempt by the British Foreign Secretary Samuel Hoare and the French Prime Minister Pierre Laval to end the conflict in Abyssinia by proposing to partition the country into an Italian sector and an Abyssinian sector.
The modern Italian Army defeated the poorly armed Abyssinians and captured Addis Ababa in May 1936, forcing Emperor of Ethiopia Haile Selassie to flee. The League of Nations condemned Italy's aggression and imposed economic sanctions in November 1935, but the sanctions were largely ineffective since they did not ban the sale of oil or close the Suez Canal (controlled by Britain).
On 5 October and later on 29 February 1936, the United States endeavoured, with limited success, to limit its exports of oil and other materials to normal peacetime levels.
The League sanctions were lifted on 4 July 1936, but by that point, Italy had already gained control of the urban areas of Abyssinia. The Hoare–Laval Pact of December 1935 was an attempt by the British Foreign Secretary Samuel Hoare and the French Prime Minister Pierre Laval to end the conflict in Abyssinia by proposing to partition the country into an Italian sector and an Abyssinian sector.
Julio Álvarez del Vayo, the Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, appealed to the League in September 1936 for arms to defend Spain's territorial integrity and political independence.
Partly as a result of pressure brought by the League of Nations, Afghanistan abolished slavery in 1923, Iraq in 1924, Nepal in 1926, Transjordan and Persia in 1929, Bahrain in 1937, and Ethiopia in 1942. Led by Fridtjof Nansen, the Commission for Refugees was established on 27 June 1921 to look after the interests of refugees, including overseeing their repatriation and, when necessary, resettlement.
It was formed in 1937, and later became part of the United Nations as the Commission on the Status of Women. The Covenant of the League said little about economics.
The largest number of member states was 58, between 28 September 1934 (when Ecuador joined) and 23 February 1935 (when Paraguay withdrew). On 26 May 1937, Egypt became the last state to join the League.
The League of Nations failed to prevent the secession of the Memel region to Germany. ===Hatay=== With League oversight, the Sanjak of Alexandretta in the French Mandate of Syria was given autonomy in 1937.
In February 1937, the League did ban foreign volunteers, but this was in practice a symbolic move. ===Second Sino-Japanese War=== Following a long record of instigating localised conflicts throughout the 1930s, Japan began a full-scale invasion of China on 7 July 1937.
In 1933, Japan simply withdrew from the League rather than submit to its judgement, as did Germany the same year (using the failure of the World Disarmament Conference to agree to arms parity between France and Germany as a pretext), Italy and Spain in 1937.
Italy began as a permanent member of the Council but withdrew in 1937 after roughly a year following the end of the Second Italo-Ethiopian War.
Renamed Hatay, its parliament declared independence as the Republic of Hatay in September 1938, after elections the previous month.
It was not until the 1938 Polish ultimatum that Lithuania restored diplomatic relations with Poland and thus de facto accepted the borders. ===Colombia and Peru=== There were several border conflicts between Colombia and Peru in the early part of the 20th century, and in 1922, their governments signed the Salomón-Lozano Treaty in an attempt to resolve them.
By the time a ceasefire was negotiated on 12 June 1935, Paraguay had seized control of most of the region, as was later recognised by the 1938 truce. ===Italian invasion of Abyssinia=== In October 1935, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini sent 400,000 troops to invade Abyssinia (Ethiopia).
Universal disarmament was a practical impossibility, Crowe warned. ==Demise and legacy== As the situation in Europe escalated into war, the Assembly transferred enough power to the Secretary General on 30 September 1938 and 14 December 1939 to allow the League to continue to exist legally and carry on reduced operations.
The Palais Wilson on Geneva's western lakeshore, named after US President Woodrow Wilson in recognition of his efforts towards the establishment of the League, was the League's first permanent home. ==Languages and symbols== The official languages of the League of Nations were French and English. In 1939, a semi-official emblem for the League of Nations emerged: two five-pointed stars within a blue pentagon.
In total, 107 sessions were held between 1920 and 1939. ===Other bodies=== The League oversaw the Permanent Court of International Justice and several other agencies and commissions created to deal with pressing international problems.
Iraq, which joined in 1932, was the first member that had previously been a League of Nations mandate. The Soviet Union became a member on 18 September 1934, and was expelled on 14 December 1939 for invading Finland.
In 1939 Germany retook the region following the rise of the Nazis and an ultimatum to Lithuania, demanding the return of the region under threat of war.
The League was unable to provide any practical measures; on 4 October, it turned the case over to the Nine Power Treaty Conference. ===Soviet invasion of Finland=== The Nazi-Soviet Pact of 23 August 1939, contained secret protocols outlining spheres of interest.
After invading Poland on 17 September 1939, on 30 November the Soviets invaded Finland.
Then "the League of Nations for the first time expelled a member who had violated the Covenant." The League action of 14 December 1939, stung.
The final significant act of the League was to expel the Soviet Union in December 1939 after it invaded Finland. ==General weaknesses== The onset of the Second World War demonstrated that the League had failed in its primary purpose, the prevention of another world war.
Spain also began as a permanent member of the Council, but withdrew in 1939 after the Spanish Civil War ended in a victory for the Nationalists.
Universal disarmament was a practical impossibility, Crowe warned. ==Demise and legacy== As the situation in Europe escalated into war, the Assembly transferred enough power to the Secretary General on 30 September 1938 and 14 December 1939 to allow the League to continue to exist legally and carry on reduced operations.
Partly as a result of pressure brought by the League of Nations, Afghanistan abolished slavery in 1923, Iraq in 1924, Nepal in 1926, Transjordan and Persia in 1929, Bahrain in 1937, and Ethiopia in 1942. Led by Fridtjof Nansen, the Commission for Refugees was established on 27 June 1921 to look after the interests of refugees, including overseeing their repatriation and, when necessary, resettlement.
Brazil was the first founding member to withdraw (14 June 1926), and Haiti the last (April 1942).
The headquarters of the League, the Palace of Nations, remained unoccupied for nearly six years until the Second World War ended. At the 1943 Tehran Conference, the Allied powers agreed to create a new body to replace the League: the United Nations.
Founded on 10 January 1920 following the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War, it ceased operations on 20 April 1946. The organisation's primary goals, as stated in its Covenant, included preventing wars through collective security and disarmament and settling international disputes through negotiation and arbitration.
After the demise of the League, the ILO became an agency of the United Nations in 1946. The League's health organisation had three bodies: the Health Bureau, containing permanent officials of the League; the General Advisory Council or Conference, an executive section consisting of medical experts; and the Health Committee.
In 1923, a permanent economic and financial Organization came into being. ==Members== Of the League's 42 founding members, 23 (24 counting Free France) remained members until it was dissolved in 1946.
The designers of the structures of the United Nations intended to make it more effective than the League. The final meeting of the League of Nations took place on 18 April 1946 in Geneva.
This session concerned itself with liquidating the League: it transferred assets worth approximately $22,000,000 (U.S.) in 1946 (including the Palace of Nations and the League's archives) to the UN, returned reserve funds to the nations that had supplied them, and settled the debts of the League.
It consists of approximately 15 million pages of content dating from the inception of the League of Nations in 1919 extending through its dissolution, which commenced in 1946.
With the exception of the Kingdom of Iraq, which joined the League on 3 October 1932, these territories did not begin to gain their independence until after the Second World War, in a process that did not end until 1990.
Japan and the League of Nations: Empire and world order, 1914–1938 (U of Hawaii Press, 2008). Clavin, Patricia.
Coming to terms with world health: the League of Nations Health Organisation 1921–1946 (Peter Lang, 2009). Burkman, Thomas W.
Guarantee of Peace: The League of Nations in British Policy 1914–1925 (Oxford UP, 2009). ==== Specialised topics ==== Temperley, A.C.
1918–45 (Oxford UP, 2011).
Securing the world economy: the reinvention of the League of Nations, 1920–1946 (Oxford UP, 2013). Cooper, John Milton.
The Corfu incident of 1923: Mussolini and the League of Nations (Princeton UP, 2015). Bendiner, Elmer.
Nested Security: Lessons in Conflict Management from the League of Nations and the European Union (Cornell UP, 2015). Lloyd, Lorna.
It is located at the United Nations Office at Geneva. === Total Digital Access to the League of Nations Archives Project (LONTAD) === In 2017, the UN Library & Archives Geneva launched the Total Digital Access to the League of Nations Archives Project (LONTAD), with the intention of preserving, digitizing, and providing online access to the League of Nations archives.
The League of Nations: Perspectives from the Present (Aarhus University Press, 2019).
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