League of Nations
On several occasions during the period between 1919 and 1936, the League ofNations failed to deliver international peace between nations. This is one of thefactors that ultimately led to its demise.Firstly the role and influence of the League itself will be looked at. Next, The directimpact of the Great Depression upon international peace and the power of the Leagueis examined. Lastly, the major reasons for the failure of the League of Nations thatlead to its abandonment in the late 1930's will be discussed.The League had been a major contributor to world peace in the period after WorldWar I and its concept of international co-operation to avoid further wars was aThe Leagues Covenant found its origins in Woodrow Wilson's 14 points for peaceafter the end of World War I. This Covenant contained several articles pledging allmember nations to preserve the independence and territory of all nations againstaggression. Any disputes between nations were expected to be submitted to theLeague for either arbitration by a third party or a investigation by the League Council.Other main objectives of the league included; to encourage members to reduce their
However this attitude was often not successful asshown in the source "the present situation is as such that it has become necessary toresort to other methods. For these nations, the 1930s was a time of both political andeconomic disruption. Sparked by the Wall Street crash of 1929, the Great Depression was hard felt by allcapitalist nations during the 1930's. A conferencewas called by Mussolini to sort out the crisis. The Refugee Organization solved the problem of the thousands ofprisoners of war marooned in Russia at the end of the war; about half a million werereturned home. This economic crisis demanded internationalco-operartion, however reparations and other war-debt payments relating to the treatyof Versailles were yet to be resolved. In 1935, Italy had already held parts of eastern Africa including Eritrea (now part ofmodern Ethiopia) and Italian Somaliland (now part of modern Somalia). By 1937, the League of Nations had almost ceased to exist. Oil was not included in the sanctions. An example was the Aaland Boundary dispute between theScandinavian states of Sweden and Finland over the Aaland Islands. More demands were made by Hitler for more parts of Czechoslovakia. In 1938 he requested the return of the Sudetenland, a area in Czechoslovakia that helda large population of German nationals and which had been held by Germany prior toWWI. Britain and France tookcontrol of most of European affairs, using their main policy of appeasement ofaggressive powers in an attempt to prevent further war. One of the main ideologies of the League was the concept of collective security. The nextstage in Italy's conquest of North Africa was Abyssinia (now Ethiopia), which at thetime was one of the few African areas not already under the control of a Europeanpower.
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