League of Nations

What is League of Nations?

Structures of League of Nations.

Organs of League of Nations.

Failure of League of Nations.

League of Nations

The League of Nations was an intergovernmental organization founded on 10 January 1920 as a result of the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War. It was the first international organization whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. Its primary goals, as stated in its Covenant, included preventing wars through collective security and disarmament and settling international disputes through negotiation and arbitration. Other issues in this and related treaties included labour conditions, just treatment of native inhabitants, human and drug trafficking, the arms trade, global health, prisoners of war, and protection of minorities in Europe. At its greatest extent from 28 September 1934 to 23 February 1935, it had 58 members.

 

Organs

The main organs of the League of Nations were the General Assembly, the Council and the Secretariat.

General Assembly

The General Assembly, which met once a year, consisted of representatives of all the member states and decided on the organization's policy. The Council included four permanent members (Britain, France, Italy and Japan) and four (later nine) others elected by the General Assembly every three years. The Secretariat prepared the agenda and published reports of meetings.

The Assembly was the annual conference of League member states. The Proceedings of the Assembly appeared as a separate publication for the first three sessions, the first of which was held in Paris on January 16, 1920. Thereafter, until 1938, they were issued as a Special Supplement to the Official Journal. Resolutions passed in the Plenary Sessions were also published in Special Supplements. These supplements were numbered consecutively over the years. Dates for Assemblies and links to list of members of each country's delegation

Council

The Council's main function was to settle international disputes. The numbers of permanent and non-permanent members varied. Council meetings were held in ordinary session four times a year and as often as needed in extraordinary sessions. 107 public sessions were held between 1920 and 1939. From 1922 onwards, the minutes appeared in the Official Journal. Records for meetings held before 1922 were published separately. The resolutions can only be found in the minutes of the meetings. Hans Aufricht's Guide lists Assembly and Council meeting records.

Secretariat

The Secretariat carried out the day-to-day work of the League, under the direction of the Secretary-General. The three Secretaries-General were Sir Eric Drummond, 1919-1933; Joseph Avenol, 1933-1940; and Sean Lester, 1940-1946. The Secretary-General wrote annual reports on the work of the League. These are also listed in Aufricht's Guide

Failure of League of Nations

 

1. Absence Of Great Powers

The US being an outsider may have been a stabilizing force to the group. But Congress was uninterested in entangling the US any further in European affairs, Until the Second World War.

The absence of the great powers from the international organization weakened her and was partly responsible for its ultimate failure. Japan , Germany and Italy also left the League and their defection must have weakened the League.

2. The Treaty of Versailles

The terms of the treaty unfairly penalized Germany. Doing so made joining the League more of a "punishment" than a boon. The establishment of the UN after WWII didn't make the same mistake, which was partly why it has been successful.

3. Domination Of France and England

It was felt that the League Of Nations was dominated by England and France and consequently the other states began to loose their confidence in that organization.

4. Rise Of Dictatorship :

The rise of dictatorship in Italy, Japan and Germany also weakened the chances of success of the League of Nations .

In the wake up spreading dictatorship states continued to be the members of the League so long as their national interest were not in any way endangered and sacrificed.

5. The limited scope of the League

Many countries which would have been beneficial to the League simply weren't invited to join. As a result it was a boutique organization, rather than a true joining of nations.

6. Limitations Of Legal Methods

The League Of Nations demonstrated the limitations of the legal methods.

The League was fairly efficient in structure and probably would have worked if there had existed a realization of a community of interest.

Law grows out of public opinion can not operate in disjunction with it. In the case of League law proposed and opinion disposed.

According to Lincoln:

“Public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment nothing can be fail ; without it nothing can be succeed. “

7. Loss Of Faith In League

Small nations lost their faith in the effectiveness of The League to save them from any aggression.

The principle of collective security was not applied in actual practice. Each state decided to follow her own policy , the principle of security weakened and thus there was nothing to check the aggressive policy of Hitler.

8. Constitutional Defect

The League Of Nations failed because of certain constitutional defects. In the cases of disputes brought before the council of the League under Article 11, decisions of the council had to be unanimous in order to adjudge a nation guilty of having violated the covenant by resort to war or unjustifiable aggression, In Article 15. If the decisions were not unanimous verdict under Article 11, the disputing parties were free to resume the hostilities after a period of 3 months. By allowing exceptions , the covenant seemed to assumed that was remained the normal solution of international disputes.

9. Narrow Nationalism

Narrow nationalism was still the dominant among the peoples of the world. France was increasingly concerned with her national security , while Great Britain considered that problem less urgent than promoting commerce by fostering international trade. Japan intoxicated by her emergence as a world power , while Italy was desperate to redress her damage . Germany was indulge to retain her national prestige even at the cost of an aggressive military adventure.

10. Lack Of Mutual Co-Operation

The member of the league lack mutual co-operation which is always essential for the success of an organization.

For France the League was an instrument for providing her security from Germany.

On the other hand Great Britain wanted League protecting her imperialist interest .

Hitler found League a great hurdle on the way of rise of Germany.

11. The general instability of the League

Many of the founding members simply withdrew from it as it became apparent that the League was unstable and that its interests clashed with their own.