Why did the League of Nations failed in the 1930s?
            
             The break down of the League did not happen overnight but rather progressively. An important reason for this could be because America was not able to loan huge amounts of money the Depression that followed on after the Wall Street Crash in 1929. Without the badly needed money, the Dawes Plan could not be put into effect any longer. Therefore, economically, Europe was spiralling down into deeper depression. America was also a powerful country, if they had became a member, the League would have stood a chance of enforcing economic sanctions on Japan in the Manchuria incident, and Italy in the Abyssinia incident. It is true that other members like France and Britain could have enforced it themselves, but the consequences are that trade would be disrupted and lead to a dropout of international relations. For example, when the issue of activating sanctions on Italy was discussed, France was not willing to co-operate because France saw Italy as a valuable ally that would protect France from Germany. However, one can argue that even if France had agreed, these sanctions were more than possible to be broken soon.
             In fact, to make it worse, the outcomes of the Manchuria and Abyssinia crises caused the League to lose Japan and Italy as important and powerful members. France and Britain were meant to provide firm support in times of crisis like these, but they were both too preoccupied by the self interests of their own nations to tackle the League problems. Their country came first instead. The League did not have an army for them to stop the Italians from invading Abyssinia. Again, Britain and France were meant to help provide the majority of these troops but they were reluctant to. This is due to the fact that at this time, both countries could not risk sacrificing military reinforcements. To them, it was not practical to send their own troops all over the world, leaving their own borde...