The League of Nations

The League of Nations was the Fourteenth Point of Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points.

It showed very clearly what Wilson thought the most important aim of the Versailles’ conference should be; to try to prevent any further wars.

Unlike the other leaders he was not so concerned with punishing Germany, but wanted to try to ensure that no wars took place in the future.

Membership of the League was open to all countries, providing they signed the Covenant of the League; this was the set of rules that members had to agree to accept.

However, some countries were not allowed to join. Germany was not allowed to join and nor was Russia. This immediately meant that two of the most important countries of the world were banned.

In fact both of these countries did join later. Germany was admitted in 1926 and the USSR, as it became known in 1924, joined in 1934.

The Organisation of the League

The Council met three times a year. There were four permanent members, Britain, France, Italy and Japan (Germany became the fifth in 1926). They took most of the important decisions.

The Assembly had representatives of all the members and it meant once a year.

Covenant was the agreement which members had to sign. It was a set of rules, which included not using force to settle a disagreement with another country.

The League could use two types of sanctions to punish a country, which broke the Covenant. Economic Sanctions banned trade; Military Sanctions meant a declaration of war by each member.

The Council of Ambassadors often took decisions, because the Council and Assembly only met occasionally. This was dominated by the ambassadors of the Great Powers, especially Britain and France.

The Secretary-General was in charge of the administration of the League. The first holder of the office was Sir Eric Drummond, who was British.

Successes of the League

The League itself was a success, as nothing like it had ever existed before. After the First World War there was a genuine desire for peace.

The League was successful in the 1920s in settling disputes between countries like Finland and Sweden over the Aaland Islands and Greece and Bulgaria over a border dispute.

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It also did very good work in an attempt to stamp out the slave trade and in tackling diseases.

In the 1920s the League had the support of most major countries and was successful in settling a series of minor disputes.

Problems of the League

Russia was not allowed to join after the Communist Revolution in 1917.

The USA did not join, even though the League was Woodrow Wilson's idea. Congress voted against membership. In fact the USA would probably have made little difference. In the 1920s and 1930s, US armed forces were very weak.

Germany was not allowed to join, but did become a member in 1926.

Italy broke the Covenant in 1923 when Mussolini occupied Corfu, which was owned by Greece. He was forced to back down but no Sanctions were applied.

The League came to be seen as a club for the victors of the First World War and was mostly European. Its headquarters were in Geneva. It appeared to give even more influence to Europe.

It was a mistake to appoint Sir Eric Drummond as the Secretary-General. He was a representative of one of the Permanent Members of the Council.

This made countries outside Europe believe that the League was pro-European. As a result many countries outside Europe joined and left.

The League had no army; it had to rely on member countries declaring war on countries that broke the Covenant.

But the real problem faced by the League was the determination of dictators to ignore it. There was little that could be done about that.

Why did the USA not join the League?

Americans believed that the United States would be drawn into internal conflicts in other countries. The only way American soldiers could be drawn into war or ordered anywhere was if Congress said so. Congress was the American Parliament.

The United States needed to concentrate her interests on domestic issues.

The League would prop up old empires of Britain and France. The Americans had never forgot that they had won their independence from Britain.

Many Americans were unsure about the League, for example, how would decisions be enforced since the League had no army?

The League infringed on the Monroe Doctrine. This was a policy that said that America would not interfere in European affairs as long as European countries did not interfere in American affairs.

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The Republican Party was for the most part against it and wanted to make this a winning issue in their 1920 presidential campaign.

The League of Nations in the 1920s

Border disputes

The League was successful in the 1920s in settling disputes between countries. Members showed a readiness to send disputes to the League and then accept its decisions.

In 1921 Finland and Sweden argued over which country should own the Aaland Islands.

For a time it seemed that war would break out, but the two countries submitted the dispute to the League, which reviewed their claims and then settled the dispute in favour of Finland.

In the same year, the League tried to sort out German and Polish claims to Upper Silesia.

Both countries believed that they had the right to the whole area because there were large numbers of Poles and Germans living there.

But Upper Silesia also contained a great deal of industry and both wanted to get their hands on it.

The League tried to negotiate a compromise by holding a vote to decide what should happen. 700,000 people voted to be joined to Germany and 480,000 voted for Poland.

The League divided the area between the two countries, with Germany getting the bigger share.

However, Poland gained most of the industry. Neither side was happy, but both accepted the decision.

The Greeks had invaded Bulgaria, but the League intervened and put pressure on the Greeks to withdraw.

The dispute was settled peacefully and the reputation of the League was enhanced.

The League also did very good work in a campaign to stamp out the slave trade and in tackling diseases.

In 1925 there were agreements to restrict the trade in opium and to prohibit the use of poison gas.

But the League was less successful in other areas. In 1920, Polish forces occupied Vilna, which was part of Lithuania.

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The city had a large Polish population, but Lithuania called on the League to intervene. Britain and France opposed intervention because they saw Poland as a defence against communism in Russia.

Other nations were reluctant to declare war on Poland so soon after the Great War. The League tried to negotiate, but eventually gave up and accepted the Polish occupation of Vilna.

Corfu

But the League also had failures in the 1920s. The most important one was over Corfu.

In August 1923 five Italian surveyors were mapping the Greek-Albanian border for the League of Nations.

They were shot and killed on the Greek side of the border and Mussolini, the Italian Prime Minister, demanded compensation from the Greeks.

When the Greek government ignored the demand, Mussolini ordered the Italian navy to bombard and then occupy the Greek island of Corfu.

There was rather more to this incident than met the eye. Corfu was one of the islands that the Italians had been expecting to be given after the First World War.

Mussolini was obviously trying to win popular support in Italy by being aggressive. But Italy was also a Permanent Member of the Council of the League.

These countries were supposed to up hold the Covenant. The League was in trouble. Did it back Italy in its illegal actions, or did it back Greece.

The League ordered compensation to be paid by Greece to the League, but the Council Ambassadors, which was usually dominated by Britain and France, reversed the decision.

Eventually the League backed Mussolini and forced the Greeks to pay compensation to Italy. Then Mussolini had to withdraw his forces from the island.

The Corfu incident did the League a great deal of harm. It seemed to suggest that Permanent Members of the Council could get away with breaking the Covenant.

It also suggested that while the League could deal effectively with small countries, it was going to find controlling large countries, particularly Council members, much more difficult.

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Despite the difficulties that the League of Nations ran into in the 1930s, it is important to remember that during the 1920s it was generally regarded as a success.

The idea of Collective Security was widely accepted and the people of many countries took the League very seriously.

The later years of the 1920s seemed to suggest that the world could look forward to a lengthy period of peace.

International agreements

A series of international agreements were signed in the 1920s. None of these were organised by the League.

The Washington Naval Treaty, also known as the Five-Power Treaty, limited the naval armaments of its five signatories: the United States of America, the British Empire, the Empire of Japan, the French Third Republic, and the Kingdom of Italy.

The treaty was agreed at the Washington Naval Conference, which was held in Washington, D.C. from November 1921 to February 1922, and was signed by representatives of the treaty nations on 6 February 1922.

After specifying some exceptions for ships in current use and under construction, the treaty limited the total capital ship tonnage of each of the signatories to fixed amounts.

In addition, no single ship could exceed 35,000 tons and no ship could carry a gun in excess of 16 inches.

In addition to total tonnage limits, rules regarding maximum vessel size were imposed.

Only two carriers per nation could exceed 27,000 tons and those two were limited to 33,000 tons each.

The number of large guns carried by an aircraft carrier was sharply limited—it was not legal to put a small aircraft on a battleship and call it an aircraft carrier.

The United States, the British Empire, and Japan agreed to maintain the status quo as far as fortifications were concerned at the time of the signing.

No new fortifications or naval bases could be established, and existing bases and defences could not be improved in the territories and possessions specified.

In general, the specified areas allowed construction on the main coasts of the countries, but not on smaller island territories.

The Locarno Pacts

In 1925, after French and Belgian troops had been withdrawn from the Ruhr, the Locarno Pacts were signed.

France, Germany and Belgium agreed to respect each other’s borders and Britain and Italy signed the pacts as guarantors.

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There was also a series of agreements to settle border disputes between Germany, Poland and Czechoslovakia.

Although these pacts were not directly organised by the League, they suggested that the League’s influence was growing.

Following the Locarno Pacts, Germany was admitted to the League of Nations and became the fifth Permanent Member of the Council.

This seemed to be a very important event. It suggested that Germany had recovered from the effects of the war and had been accepted as an equal by the rest of Europe.

It was all the more important because France nominated Germany’s membership.

Two years later, Frank Kellogg, the US Secretary of State, put forward a plan for the renunciation of war.

The idea was taken up by Aristide Briand, the French Foreign Minister and became the Kellogg-Briand Pact.

It was signed by most countries in Paris in August 1928. The League adopted the Pact the following month.

These events seemed to suggest that the likelihood of war was growing less and less.

There seemed to be a real desire for peace and a readiness to use the League of Nations as a way of achieving it.

On the other hand, it can be argued that the League of Nations was less effective in international diplomacy than at first seems to be the case.

Its successes were all in minor disputes and it failed whenever a major power was involved.

It was excluded from the negotiations which led to the Locarno Pacts and from the Kellogg-Briand Pact.

The spirit of Locarno

The Dawes Plan

The Dawes Plan was the work of Gustav Stresemann the German Foreign Minister and resulted from the conciliatory attitude after the end of passive resistance over the Ruhr.

Charles G. Dawes, an American banker, was asked by the Allied Reparations Committee to investigate the problem.

His report, published in April, 1924, proposed a plan for instituting annual payments of reparations on a fixed scale.

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He also recommended the reorganization of the German State Bank and increased foreign loans (800 million marks).

German politicians like Hitler and Hugenberg attacked the Dawes Plan because it did not reduce the reparations total.

They also disliked the idea that foreigners would have control over the German economy.

The Dawes Plan was initially a great success. The currency was stabilized and inflation was brought under control.

Large loans were raised in the USA and this investment resulted in a fall in unemployment.

Germany was also able to meet her obligations under the Treaty of Versailles for the next five years.

The Geneva Protocol

The Geneva Protocol for the Pacific Settlement of International Disputes was a proposal to the League of Nations by the British Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald and his French counterpart.

All legal disputes between nations would be submitted to the World Court. It called for a disarmament conference in 1925.

Any government that refused to comply in a dispute would be named an aggressor.

Any victim of aggression was to receive immediate assistance from League members.

The Protocol envisaged wide-ranging regulations to bring about general disarmament, effective international security and the compulsory arbitration of disputes.

After preliminary approval on 2 October 1924 by all the 47 member states of the League of Nations at the 5th General Assembly.

It was not ratified by Great Britain the following year under the newly elected Conservative government. It was feared it would damage relations with the USA.

These events seemed to suggest that the likelihood of war was growing less and less.

There seemed to be a real desire for peace and a readiness to use the League of Nations as a way of achieving it.

On the other hand, it can be argued that the League of Nations was less effective in international diplomacy than at first seems to be the case.

Its successes were all in minor disputes and it failed whenever a major power was involved.

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It was excluded from the negotiations which led to the Locarno Pacts and from the Kellogg-Briand Pact.

The Young Plan

After the Dawes Plan was put into operation in September 1924, it became apparent that Germany could not meet the huge annual payments, especially over an indefinite period of time.

It suggested that reparations should be reduced by about three-quarters and that Germany should make annual payments on a sliding-scale up to 1988.

The Young Plan set total reparations at $26,350,000,000 to be paid over a period of 58 years.

It was adopted by the Allied Powers in 1930 and replaced the Dawes Plan.

It was designed to substitute a definite settlement under which Germany would know the exact extent of their obligations and to reduce the payments appreciably.

The Young Plan divided the annual payment, set at about $473 million, into two elements an unconditional part (one third of the sum) and a postponable part (the remainder).

The rest was to be raised through a transportation tax and from the budget.

The Young Plan was a considerable achievement for Stresemann.  However, it did not bring peace and harmony to Germany. 

Extreme nationalists objected to any payment of reparations and denounced the Plan.

It was severely criticised in Germany by right-wing politicians such as politicians like Adolf Hitler and Alfred Hugenberg.

The plan came into effect when Germany felt the full impact of economic depression and a moratorium was called for the fiscal year 1931-32.

When Adolf Hitler took over Germany, he defaulted on the unpaid reparations debt.

The Depression and its impact

On 24 and 29 October 1929, Wall Street crashed. The effects were felt worldwide, but were particularly bad in Germany, where unemployment reached 6 million.

Japan was also badly hit and prices of the main exports, rice and silk, plummeted.

After the Wall Street Crash, agreement between the Great Powers proved far more difficult.

The Disarmament Conference

One of the main aims of the League of Nations was disarmament to prevent a repeat of the First World War.

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In 1921, a Temporary Mixed Commission on Armaments was set up by the League of Nations to suggest possible solutions.  

It discussed proposals such as prohibiting chemical warfare and the bombing of civilian populations, and limiting artillery and tanks.

The members were specifically appointed as private individuals, not government representatives.

Agreement proved difficult; the sticking point was how could a country be guaranteed safety if it gave up its weapons.

The Commission on Armaments presented a draft Treaty of Mutual Assistance in 1923, which proposed to make a war of aggression illegal.

If a country was attacked, all countries of the League would send troops to defend it.  

The Assembly rejected the draft treaty after objections from Britain, which did not want to commit troops which were needed to defend the Empire.

Therefore, the League set up in 1926: The Preparatory Commission for the Disarmament Conference. This was ti discuss and prepare a Disarmament Conference. 

Aristide Briand and Frank B Kellogg worked outside the League of Nations to persuade 65 nations to sign the General Treaty for the Renunciation of War: the Kellogg-Briand Pact.

All the signatories agreed to condemn war as a means of settling disputes.  

It was looked on as a turning point in history, but in effect it achieved nothing. The Pact said nothing about what would happen if a country was attacked.  

After six years of preparations, the Conference for the Reduction and Limitation of Armaments of 1932-37 met in Geneva.

The Chairman was the former British Foreign Secretary Arthur Henderson.  

The talks ran into difficulties from the start, because Germany demanded the same level of armaments as other powers.

France wanted Germany to be kept disarmed, and Britain and America were not prepared to offer the unlimited support that France needed to give up its armaments. 

The French refused to accept a suggestion to reduce their forces to 500,000 and allow Germany to increase its army to 200,000.

Although the conference lasted until 1937, talks in practice broke down in October 1933.

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Hitler withdrew from both the Conference and the League of Nations. A Permanent Member of the Council of the League had resigned.

Lausanne Conference 1932

The Lausanne Conference was a meeting of representatives from Great Britain, France and Germany that suspended reparations.

Delegates came to an informal understanding that the permanent elimination of Germany's debt and war reparations would be subject to reaching an agreement with the United States with respect to their outstanding war debts.

In December 1932, the US Congress rejected the Allied war debt reduction plan, which meant that the war reparations and debt reverted to the debt reduction previously of the Young Plan.

Payments under the Young Plan had collapsed so that the Lausanne Agreement had no effect.

By 1933, Germany had made World War I reparations of only one eighth of the sum required under the Treaty of Versailles.

London Conference

The London Economic Conference was a meeting of representatives of 66 nations from 12 June to 27 July, 1933.

Its purpose was to win agreement on measures to fight the depression, revive international trade, and stabilize currency rates.

The European governments believed that ‘the settlement should relieve the world’ of the crushing debt burdens. 

Most of these debts were owed to the USA and Americans were reluctant to write them off. 

President Roosevelt refused to accept devaluation of the dollar and the conference collapsed..

The collapse of collective security

Why did Japan invade Manchuria and China?

In the 1920s, however, there was a revival of traditional Japanese ideas.

Why did Japan become more militarist in the 1920s and 1930s?

Japan failed to gain the land that she was expecting at the Treaty of Versailles.

The population began to grow rapidly and Japan needed more land and raw materials. The price of rice fell and exports of silk were affected by the Depression.

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The Washington Naval Agreement of 1922 made Japan an inferior partner.

The impact of the Great Depression

The Great Depression, just as in many other countries, hindered Japan's economic growth.

The Japanese Empire's main problem lay in that rapid industrial expansion had turned the country into a major manufacturing and industrial power that required raw materials

These could only be obtained overseas as there was a critical lack of natural resources on the home islands.

In the 1920s and 1930s Japan needed to import raw materials such as iron, rubber and oil to maintain strong economic growth. Most of these resources however came from the United States.

The Japanese felt that acquiring resource-rich territories would establish economic self-sufficiency and independence, and they also hoped to jump-start the nation's economy in the midst of the depression.

As a result Japan set its sights on East Asia, specifically Manchuria with its many resources; Japan needed these resources to continue its economic development and maintain national integrity.

In 1931, Japan invaded Manchuria, which was a province of China, claiming that they were acting in self-defence.

It claimed that a railway had been blown up at Mukden on 18 September.

Japan claimed that this invasion was a liberation of the Manchus from the Chinese, although the majority of the population were Han Chinese.

Japan then established a puppet regime called Manchukuo, and installed the former Emperor of China, Puyi, as the official head of state.

Jehol, a Chinese territory bordering Manchuria, was also taken in 1933. This puppet regime had to carry on a protracted pacification campaign against the Anti-Japanese Volunteer Armies in Manchuria.

In 1936, Japan created a similar Mongolian puppet state in Inner Mongolia named Mengjiang which was again predominantly Chinese.

How did the League of Nations react to the Japanese actions?

The League of Nations set up a Commission of Inquiry under the Earl of Lytton to investigate.

In October the Lytton Commission reported that there was no evidence that the Japanese had acted in self-defence.

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It recommended that Manchuria should be an autonomous region under Chinese control.

The Japanese ignored the report and the condemnation from the League and resigned in 1933.

The Japanese action was a major blow to the League of Nations because it failed to act effectively.

Japan was also a Permanent Member of the Council and the second one to resign after breaking the Covenant.

Why was the League unable to do anything about Manchuria?

The lack of an army meant that countries had to be persuaded to declare war on Japan.

Manchuria was remote and military action would be very difficult.

There was very little sympathy for China and some support for Japan, which seemed to be trying to restore law and order.

In reality there was very little that the League could have done.

What effects did the League's actions have upon Japan?

The failure to condemn Japan led to the government falling under the control of the army. Politicians who stood up to the armed forces were sometimes murdered.

The country began a period of territorial expansion on the mainland.

Italian Foreign Policy in the 1930s

Italian foreign policy under Mussolini had to be aggressive and robust to show how powerful Italy was under his leadership.

As leader of the nation he wanted to re-build the greatness of the Roman Empire.

He also believed that conquering foreign territory was the sign of a great nation – hence the invasion of Abyssinia.

Mussolini shared with many Italians grievances about the Treaty of Versailles although the outcome of the treaty was not as disappointing as he suggested.

Italy had made territorial gains in the North and the Austro-Hungarian Empire had been destroyed.

He believed that the Mediterranean Sea should be an Italian sphere of influence as he regarded Italy as the most powerful of the Mediterranean countries.

He referred to the sea as ‘Mare Nostrum’ – ‘Our Sea’.

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Unfortunately for Italy, Great Britain dominated the Mediterranean with naval bases in Malta, Gibraltar and Cyprus.

Britain also controlled the Suez Canal along with the French. Such domination was a clear obstacle to Italian ambitions.

In 1934, Mussolini moved Italian troops to the Austrian border to discourage Hitler from pursuing his ambitions against Austria.

In 1935, at a conference held at Stresa in the Italian Lake District, Britain, France and Italy formed the Stresa Front.

They issued a joint protest at German rearmament and pledged themselves to maintain the peace treaties signed at the end of World War 1.

By associating with Britain and France at Stresa, Mussolini could be portrayed as a figure of increasing international importance.

From 1935, he could use his new importance to make a greater impact on the international scene.

Changes in Italian foreign policy, 1935 – 1939

Initially, Mussolini was alarmed at the increasing power of Germany and the threat it represented to Austrian independence and thereby the security of the Italian northern frontier.

He soon realised however, that an increasingly aggressive Germany would revive French fears for its own security.

France might therefore be less interested in blocking his ambitions in the Mediterranean and in Africa.

In many ways, Mussolini was greatly impressed by German power and by the energy of its new government.

He could see much in common between the Nazis and the Italian fascists, not least the hatred of Communism.

He also realised that if the territorial ambitions of Hitler lay in northern and Eastern Europe the way could be cleared for Italian expansion into the Mediterranean, the Balkans and Africa.

The failure of France and Britain to stand up to Hitler filled Mussolini with contempt for western democracies.

it made him determined to follow a more aggressive approach himself – hence the attack on Ethiopia in 1935.

War with Abyssinia (Ethiopia)

The crisis in Abyssinia from 1935 to 1936 increased international tension in Europe.

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It brought Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy together for the first time. It highlighted the weaknesses of the League of Nations.

Like Britain and France, Italy whad been involved in ‘The Scramble for Africa’ in the nineteenth century.

Unfortunately, prize territories were conquered by other nations and Italy gained only unimportant areas such as Eritrea and Somaliland.

The Italians attempted further expansion in eastern Africa by joining Abyssinia to her conquests but were heavily defeated by the Abyssinians in 1896 at the Battle of Adowa.

This defeat badly damaged Italian pride. The loss of 6,000 men against a backward Abyssinian army was difficult to bear.

However, the defeat did not stop Italian politicians planning a new attempt to take the country over particularly after World War 1 when Italy gained no colonies from the peace settlements.

The desire to display to the world Italian power was the prime motivation of Mussolini.

He saw himself as a modern day Julius Caesar who would one day rule a vast Italian empire as in the days of Caesar.

In 1928, Italy signed a friendship treaty with Haile Selassie, the emperor of Abyssinia but an invasion was already being planned.

From 1932, Mussolini took personal charge of Italian foreign policy. Following the conquest of Libya in the same year, he prepared to attack Abyssinia.

In December 1934, Mussolini accused the Abyssinians of aggression at Wal Wal oasis on the Ethiopian border with Italian Somaliland – several Italian soldiers were killed.

He ordered Italian troops in Somaliland and Eritrea to attack Abyssinia. Large amounts of ammunition and supplies had already been stockpiled there.

At the Stresa Conference in 1935, Mussolini had formed the impression that Britain and France would not oppose the attack.

They appeared to accept that north-eastern Africa was an Italian sphere of influence.

In October 1935, the Italians invaded Abyssinia with 400,000 men.

The Abyssinians could not stand up to a modern army; they were equipped with pre-World War I rifles and little else.

The Italians used armoured vehicles and even mustard gas in their attack.

Although there was considerable military incompetence on the Italian side, the capital Addis Ababa fell in May 1936.

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Haile Selassie was removed from the throne and replaced by the Italian king, Victor Emmanuel.

Somaliland, Eritrea and Abyssinia were all united under the name Italian East Africa.

International reaction to the invasion of Abyssinia

When the Italians invaded in October 1935, the Abyssinians appealed to the League of Nations for help.

The League condemned the attack and League members were ordered to impose economic sanctions on Italy.

It took six weeks for the sanctions to be organised and they did not include vital materials such as oil. Germany, Japan and the United States did not carry out any sanctions.

Italy could survive the sanctions imposed on gold and textiles but a ban on oil could have had a major impact on Italy’s war machine.

The argument put forward for not banning oil was that Italy would simply get her oil from America – a non-League country.

Britain and France were also concerned about provoking Mussolini in the Mediterranean Sea where Britain had two large naval bases – Gibraltar and Malta.

In reality, the size of the Italian navy was vastly overestimated by both the British and French but it was this fear which also led Britain to keep open the Suez Canal.

If this route had been cut, then Italy would have had great difficulty keeping her armed forces supplied.

It is also possible that both Britain and France considered the war too far away to be of any importance to them.

They were not prepared to risk their naval power in the Mediterranean for the sake of a country few had heard of in either France or Britain.

In an attempt to end the war, the British Foreign Secretary Samuel Hoare and the French Prime Minister Pierre Laval met in December 1935.

They came up with the Hoare-Laval Pact. This gave two large areas of Abyssinia to Italy and a gap in the middle of the country – the ‘corridor of camels’ to the Abyssinians.

The south of the country would be reserved for Italian businesses. In return for this land, the Italians would have to stop the war.

Mussolini accepted the plan but in Britain there was a huge outcry. It was widely believed that a British government minister had betrayed the people of Abyssinia.

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The protests caused Hoare to resign and the plan was dropped. Mussolini continued with the invasion.

The pact had indicated that two major European League members were prepared to negotiate with a nation that had used aggression to impose its will on a weaker nation.

The involvement of the League in the Abyssinia crisis was a disaster. It showed the world that its sanctions were half-hearted even when enforced.

It also showed that member states were prepared to negotiate with aggressor nations and effectively give in to them.

The effects of the Manchurian and Abyssinian Crises on the League of Nations

Italy resigned from the League in 1937. Two Permanent Members of the Council of the League had ignored the Covenant and invaded and occupied territory of another member.

This was an enormous blow to the prestige and authority of the League; it did not encourage other countries to join or to maintain their membership.

It meant that the two remaining Permanent members of the Council, Britain and France, were left alone to shoulder the burdens of the League.

In the late 1930s, neither country was led by politicians who were ready to stand firm against the dictators

The Spanish Civil War

Civil war broke out in Spain in 1936; General Franco led a nationalist revolt against the Republican government.

The League of Nations called for non-intervention and Britain and France set up a Non-Intervention Committee.

At first, the Soviet Union supported non-intervention. Stalin had joined the League in December 1934 after the rise of Hitler.

Germany and Italy rejected non-intervention and sent forces to Spain. Stalin changed his mind and sent equipment, which had to be paid for in gold.

What role was played by appeasement?

The roots of appeasement lay within the democracies of Britain and France, with Britain playing the leading role. It existed for a variety of reasons in the period 1935 to March 1939:

It was difficult for the British to defend the continued inconsistencies and contradictions of the Treaty of Versailles, especially as even in 1919 Lloyd George had personally opposed the more punitive aspects of the Treaty.

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By the early 1930s, some revision had taken place through Locarno and the easing of reparations. There was a general belief that further revision was legitimate.

Chamberlain, Daladier and other French and British politicians did not believe that Mein Kampf actually represented Hitler’s true beliefs.

Therefore they took his statements at face value until they had the evidence of his failure to keep his word over Czechoslovakia.

European politicians preferred concession to confrontation if it meant that they could avoid a repetition of the slaughter of the Great War.

Britain and France had scaled down the size of their armed forces during the 1920s.

By the mid 1930s, neither power was in a strong enough position to take on Germany without preparation: potentially, appeasement provided an opportunity to rearm and prepare for war.

Appeasement made sense in the context of a continental Europe where the communist Soviet Union was seen as a potential threat to stability.

A strong Germany would counter-balance this threat and was therefore acceptable to many western European politicians.

It could be argued that the removal of German grievances over the Treaty of Versailles was a sensible course of action for Britain and France to pursue.

It might have been more effectively pursued in the 1920s before Hitler came to power.

Appeasement aided Hitler in strengthening his domestic position.

The humiliation caused to the German people by the Treaty of Versailles had become a well-established grievance.

By successfully revising some of its most punitive terms, Hitler had increased his popularity at home.

This is demonstrated most effectively by the results of the various plebiscites that were held following specific action.

Appeasement was never likely to be an effective long-term policy as Britain and France would not allow Germany to have hegemony over the whole of Central and Eastern Europe.

Thus, Hitler was simply prepared to make use of it as long as he could in order to reap maximum advantage.

The Anschluss and after

Hitler occupied Austria in March 1938 and united it with Germany. The British reaction was to give moderate support. The French government followed the British line

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In the League of Nations Assembly, most European nations accepted the German action. Only Mexico spoke out against it.

Opposition to Hitler now depended exclusively upon Britain and France. The League continued to discuss, but without Britain and France, it could not act.

As the situation in Europe drifted into war, the Assembly in effect transferred power to the Secretary General on 30 September 1938.

This was the date of the Munich Agreement and meant that the League in practice no longer existed.

The League to continue to exist legally and carry on reduced activities, but was finished to all intents and purposes.

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