Reasons for the Failure of the League of Nations Essay

The League of Nations was established in 1919 after the deadly and devastating conflict of World War I. The nations of the world needed a way to rebuild and regain trust in one another after this worldwide atrocity. President Woodrow Wilson believed that an international peacekeeping organization, such as the League of Nations, could achieve this monumental goal. President Wilson was convinced that the League could prevent another wWorld wWar, preserve peace, and promote total disarmament among nations. Wilson went to the Treaty of Versailles negotiations with a Fourteen Point Plan for peace, but he sacrificed almost all of his plans so that the League of Nations could be established. This organization, however, would never live up to the President’s dreams for its success. Despite Woodrow Wilson’s support for the League of Nations, it failed as a peace keeping organization because the United States did not participate, its decision making process was ineffective, and it lacked an armed force to impose its decisions.

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

The league of nations was created by the winners of WWI and was intended to prevent future world wars. The idea was created by the US president Woodrow Wilson. The League of Nations was supposed to be a council that included all the world nations to discuss topics and keep peace. This organization failed in stopping WWII. The League had multiple opportunities to stop the second world war, but failed miserably. The League of Nations had very limited authority on countries such as Japan, Italy, Germany and the USSR. “The main weapon of the League was to ask member countries to stop trading with aggressive countries”(Wheeler). The League of Nations was treated as a joke and could not enforce any of the rules that they set. The League had no authority because they had no army to threaten the aggressive countries. Additionally, countries such as Italy and Germany were not part of the League and therefore had no obligation to listen to them or make peace talks. If the League was set up in a better format and way to work it would not have failed and they could have been able to stop the second world

The Articles of Confederation, ratified March 1, 1781, were the first attempt at organized government in America. The individual states were given too much power, while the power of the central government was very minimal, leading to the near demise of the young country. An anonymous writer in the Norwich Packet proclaimed in 1786, “Each State at present possesses powers so totally independent of the others, that no

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.

During the Imperial Conference of December 1, 1941, Prime Minister Tojo announced that “The United States not only refused to make even one concession” but that “At the same time, the United States, Great Britain, the Netherlands, and China increased their economic and military pressure against us” (87). This gave Japan no choice but to begin a war with the U.S., Japan, and the Netherlands. Additionally, Foreign Minister Togo emphasized that Japan could not accept the proposal made by the U.S. because the conditions would hinder and put at risk the success of the Japanese Empire. In order for Japan to not only continue working towards establishing a New Order for East Asia, but to also maintain their position on an international level, war was the necessary step to take because if they continued to try to negotiate then they would most definitely have regressed.

Sick Man of Europe: In the early 20th century, the Ottoman Empire was referred to as the “sick man of Europe”, a name implying that the once great power was falling. This term was first used by Nicholas I of Russia and has since been used to describe many European countries during financial difficulties or poverty. It was applied to the Ottoman Empire as it was progressively deteriorating under the financial control of the European powers and had lost territory in a sequence of devastating wars.

Britain was therefore forced to rely on the United States to deal with the threat of Japan and, in 1940, following similar actions to the United States, Britain froze Japanese assets and imposed an oil embargo. Both the American and British embargo’s lead to the destruction of between 50 and 75 percent of Japan’s foreign trade7.

The failure of the League of Nations was one of the main reasons for the outbreak of war. It exposed weaknesses which encouraged Hitler to invade. The League had failed to resolve the major political disputes. There were a number of such incidents but the most important ones were the Manchurian Crisis, 1931 and the Abyssinian Crisis, 1935. In 1931, the members of the League

The Treaty of Versailles was created at the Paris Peace Conference as “the treaty to end all wars”, and the treaty that ended World War I. However, unfortunately for Europe and the rest of the world, it only led to the Second World War. The Treaty of Versailles went horribly wrong for the European countries because it did not satisfy the European countries at all, especially Germany, the United States, France, and Britain. The United States was not happy because the U.S. Congress felt that the Treaty took away their constitutional power to declare war, and they disliked the League of Nations. Germany was not happy for a number of reasons, which includes that they were not allowed to participate in the creation of the Treaty, and most of all, the “War Guilt Clause” embarrassed Germans to extensive levels. France was not happy because the French wanted the Treaty to be more harsh on the German people, and they wanted to enforce the treaty even harsher. The British also were not happy because they were not in agreement with the French that the Treaty should be harsh on the Germans. Because so many powerful countries in Europe were dissatisfied with the Treaty of Versailles, they all tried in their own ways to fix it in their countries, which led to the Second World War.

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

The League failed when attempting at worldwide disarmament. This barely even got started as the ‘Big 4’ only reduced their armed forces by a miniscule amount before worrying about self-defence. Britain’s excuse was it had to ‘protect’ other weaker nations. Only the Germans ended up disarming. This did not go down well, as these few selfish nations had put their own interests ahead of world peace, which was supposed to be their mission and purpose. The League lost respect for this, but this is their only large failure in the department of agreements and treaties.

World War I ended with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles on June 28th, 1919. After strict enforcement for five years, the French assented to the modification of important provisions. Since the Germans lost the war, their consequences were very harsh. They were forced to accept the responsibility of the war damages suffered by the Allies, which led to them having to accept the reparations (Causes of WW2, n/d). The negotiations revealed a split between the French, who wanted to dismember Germany to make it impossible for it to renew war in France, and the British and Americans, who did not want to create pretexts for a new war. Later on, the German government signed the treaty under protest, which led to German parties attacking it as a betrayal and assassinating several politicians whom they considered responsible (Treaty of Versailles, n/d). Germany was unable to pay off the enormous debt and left them in economic ruins; as a result, there was political instability and this allowed the Nazi Party to rise because the socialist party seemed to have had the solution to hunger and economic problems. After having to face their humiliating loss, the Nazi Party gained more support from the proud Germans. The Treaty ended up helping the Nazi party gain more support. By allowing the Nazi Party to rise, the Treaty had planted the roots of the Second World War (Causes of WWII— Treaty of Versailles, Failure of the League of Nations, and Policy of Appeasement,

Finally, one of the most crucial contributing factors in causing World War II is the failure of the League of Nations. The League of Nations was established in 1919 by Woodrow Wilson in hopes of maintaining peace and talking the issues out rather than by force. However, the League turned a course for the worst when the Great Depression hit in the 1920s. Not only did the United States suffer from the horrible travesty, but so did Japan. They decided to invade China and take their resources for their own use. China asked leaded to get some help from the League of Nations, and due to their policy the only ways they could stop an aggressive country was to; either ask them to stop whatever they were doing or ask other countries to refuse to trade with them. Unfortunately,

"The League of Nations was doomed To failure from the start" Adam Jenner Many may believe that the League of Nations was doomed to failure as soon as the doors of their Geneva headquarters were opened; many may say that it was built on unstable foundations; that the very idea of it was a grave misjudgment by the powers that were. Indeed it is true that the League of Nations, when it was set up was marred with many fundamental flaws. The League of Nations was formed after the end of the First World War. It was an idea that President Wilson introduced as an international police force to maintain peace and to ensure the devastating atrocities like the First World War ever happening again. The principle mission of the League of Nations was to maintain World Peace. Their failure as the international peacekeeping organization to maintain world peace brought the outbreak of Second World War. Their failure in policing and preventing peace in settling disputes throughout Europe, erupted into the most devastating war ever. Through my analysis of the failures of the League of Nations to maintain world peace, my arguments will demonstrate the understandings of the reasons and events that created the most devastating environment for the Second World War.