I. Failure of the League of Nations
1. United States Refused to Join
A. In 1918, Woodrow Wilson, the president at the time, wrote an open letter suggesting that if the Republicans were to gain control of congress they would give ease to Germany. This accusation was false as the Republicans had backed World War I and because of this they won the 1918 elections and gained control of the Senate and the House. Lodge became the majority leader and demanded compromise on the League of Nations charter before having it passed. Wilson refused any compromise and eventually had a stroke in 1919 that incapacitated him for the remainder of his life. Warren Harding then became president in 1920, pledged opposition to the League of Nations, and it was ultimately rejected. Without the United States in the League, it suffered a major blow to the power it had as the United States was a burgeoning power.
2. Unable to Stop Aggression
A. In 1931, a civil war between communists and nationalists in China was waging with Stalin backing the communists. Japan, obviously nervous at this, desired to establish a buffer state in Manchuria and promptly sent its armies in to do so. The League of Nations investigated the incident and found that Japan was guilty of aggression. In the League, the only two members that had the power to intervene were France and Britain, and they had little interest in challenging Japan. So, Japan was given a verbal punishment by the League. Naturally, Japan was angry at this,
In addition, Hitler learnt that the League of Nations, itself a creation of the Treaty of Versailles failed to ensure collective security, and could possibly do nothing to impede his actions. The most crucial factor is that Woodrow Wilson himself, the creator of the League of Nations, was not allowed to join it by the Congress. Also, it proved to be ineffective at various occasions. It was first unsuccessful in 1931 during the Manchurian Crisis. The League of Nations sent a committee to investigate the situation and concluded that Japan had violated China’s security. Although they condemned Japan’s actions, there was not much Britain or
In the aftermath of World War I, during the years 1917-1921, President Wilson advocated the Treaty of Versailles, which called for the principle of self-determination, the formation of a League of Nations, and general amnesty towards Germany, as the solution for peace. However, his unwillingness to compromise led to widespread disagreement. The opposition forces in the U.S. senate consisted of the reservationists, who were willing to ratify the Treaty of Versailles with amendments, and the irreconcilables, who refused to join the League of Nations under any circumstances. If President Wilson was only willing to modify the language of the treaty, ratification may have occurred.
The end of World War I left much of America confused on the country’s role in world affairs. Many people believed that the United States should primarily worry about its own issues and problems, and let the world handle their own problems. But President Woodrow Wilson was not one of those people. He believed that the United States should be directly involved in the issues affecting all of the countries of the world. He also wanted the United States to be the country to make a push for a League of Nations. “The people of the United States could act upon no other principle; and to the vindication of this principle they are ready to devote their lives, their honor, and everything that they possess. The normal climax of this the culminating and final war for human liberty has come, and they are ready to put their own strength, their own highest purpose, their own integrity and devotion to the test.” Wilson believed that if the United States needed to be a part of a League of Nations in charge of keeping peace around the world, this would keep America
He took no Republican Senators with him to the peace conference; therefore, there was no Republican input. Wilson was unwilling to compromise on the League of Nations. He was determined to have it his way or not have it at all. In a speech on September 5,1919, regarding the League of Nations, Wilson said “I stand by it absolutely. ”(Document C
The League of Nations was an organization created following the year after the concession of World War I in 1918. The purpose of this union was to maintain world stability and peace. The League of Nations was proposed by President Woodrow Wilson in his Fourteen Points and was considered relatively controversial. Congress had to vote upon whether the United States would join or not. Two of the Senators gave speeches, Senator Gilbert Hitchcock and Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, advocating their parties’ views.
The United states should not have joined the league of nations in 1919. The United States shouldn’t have joined the league of nations because we would be supplying the troops and food a lot and not getting anything out of it, and we were in no danger of an attack.
Wilson believed that the League of Nations would be able to deal with any issues as they arose. He also hoped the League would be able to make changes to the treaties later if there were any injustices; this meant the League was the most vital element of the peace settlement as far as the Americans were concerned. However, the Senate voted against USA membership of both the League of Nations and the Treaty of Versailles, and Henry Cabot Lodge spoke out against the League on the grounds that membership might endanger the existence of the USA by involving it in unnecessary wars. This demonstrated a lack of appreciation at home for Wilson’s peace-making efforts, which was enhanced by economic problems such as high inflation and issues in the job market caused by the rapid demobilisation of the armed forces. There was a sense of war weariness and many people began to feel that the rewards of the war had not been worth the costs; 117,000 Americans were killed. His ideals and policies were decisively rejected in 1920 and the Democratic Party suffered a catastrophic defeat in the presidential election. Wilson had become seriously ill after suffering a stroke but would not allow anyone else to take over, so it was difficult for them to focus on choosing a new presidential candidate. By then Most of the country supported isolationism.
The bombing of a U.S. Naval base in Hawaii left many people questioning it. The U.S. had been practicing isolationism. The U.S. created the Immigration Quota Act of 1924. This may have been the start of the U.S. upsetting Japan. Japan attacked Pearl Harbor the morning of December 7, 1941.
From the mid 1920s onward there was talk of forming a formal European Union but rising nationalism and a world wide depression stopped any concrete advancement. The League of Nations had failed, economies had collapsed and radical right wing solutions seemed the only viable alternative after governments collapsed one after another. England remained in isolation, Germany was rearming and France was still in shock after horrible loses in WWI. After the inevitable WWII all was in ruin and the lesson finally struck home, No more! Peace and prosperity through unity and common understanding finally allowed the formation off the EEU. Europe could not survive as a polyglot of waring tribes. They need a counter balance to world domination by two superpowers
In 1918 the US senate got together and consulted on the idea of the League of Nations. The League of Nations was brought the Senate and was not passed because the majority voted against the League of Nations. The leader of the republican, henry Cabot Lodge saw some flaws in the League of Nations. One part of the league of nations rules said ”the united states must respect the territorial integrity
2. League of Nations – Woodrow Wilson wanted the United States to join the League of Nations as it was “the only hope of mankind…Dare we reject it and break the heart of the world?” Wilson wanted to prevent another WW1 like war from happening. He wanted to keep peace among all nations. Roosevelt distrusted Wilson
The Failure of the League of Nations and the Outbreak of War in 1939 There are many causes for the outbreak of the Second World War. These include the failure of the League of Nations, the Treaty of Versailles, Hitler's actions and so on. Some of them are more important then others and are mostly linked with another cause.
In December of 1918, The Allies of Europe met in Versailles to Sign possibly one of the most changing documents in history. The document they signed nearly turned Europe upside down, broke down and put up many new social barriers, and definitely made history. The Document that the allied forces all gathered to sign was known as the Treaty of Versailles. Initially, the treaty intended to keep peace between the nations, however, forcing Germany to sign the treaty ended up as one of the worst decisions anybody could have made. The forced signing created tensions between Germany and other countries, let Germany rise back up to Power, Created an optimal situation for Germany to wage war, and ultimately caused World War II, resulting in one of
When the United States failed to join the League of Nations, it became one of the great miscalculations of the United State foreign policy in the twentieth century. Despite Woodrow Wilson’s “whistle – stop” tour to rally public support for the League treaty, the president was unable to muster enough backing to pressure the Senate to pass that piece of legislation. Over the years, scholars have attempted to explain how and why the treaty failed by looking at the Senate’s and President Wilson’s discourse.
In this essay, I am going to look at the successes and failures of the League of Nations (LofN) in its struggle for peace throughout the 1920’s. The LofN was the ‘brain child’ of American president Woodrow Wilson. The four other main powers (Britain, France, Japan and Italy) joined along with approximately 60 other countries from around the world. The U.S.A then abandoned its ‘child’ as to social and economic unrest led to a more isolationist foreign policy. Yet the other four main countries continued to support the LofN and formed the council, consisting to the ‘most powerful countries’. The LofN was set up to enforce peace in Europe and the world. It created various