The League of Nations Flashcards

The set of rules and aims all members promised to obey, including collective security — acting together against any country that attacked another.

President Wilson created the idea, but the US Senate voted against joining because it did not want to send more soldiers to future disputes in Europe.

Once a year, and decisions needed a unanimous vote of all members, which made them slow.

False. It had no army of its own; it could only use moral condemnation and economic sanctions, or ask members to provide forces.

True. This undermined the League's power to punish an aggressive nation by sanctions.

Worked to improve working conditions, for example campaigning against child labour and for shorter working hours, though many members ignored its recommendations.

Worked to stop the spread of diseases such as malaria, collecting information and running campaigns.

Helped refugees and prisoners of war return to their homes after the First World War.

Sweden and Finland both claimed the islands; the League found a compromise both accepted (the islands went to Finland), avoiding war — a clear success.

After a plebiscite, the League divided the industrial region between Germany and Poland; both sides accepted the decision.

Poland seized Vilna from Lithuania; the League ordered Poland to leave, Poland refused, and no action was taken — a failure.

Mussolini occupied Corfu after an Italian general was murdered in Greece; Greece appealed to the League, but the Conference of Ambassadors made Greece apologise and pay compensation to Italy.

Greek troops invaded Bulgaria; the League ordered Greece to withdraw and pay compensation, and Greece obeyed — though Greece complained it was treated more harshly than Italy had been over Corfu.

Agreements in which Germany accepted its western borders with France and Belgium as permanent, and Britain and Italy guaranteed them.

Germany, as a permanent member of the Council, following the goodwill created by the Locarno treaties.

An agreement signed by 65 nations to renounce war as a way of settling disputes — but with no way of enforcing it.

False. Both were agreed outside the League by the powers themselves, which suggested nations did not rely on the League.

Member countries put their own economies first, so they were unwilling to use trade sanctions or risk war to uphold the Covenant.

Japan invaded Manchuria in China; the League had neither the military nor the economic power to stop it.

A League report (1932) condemning Japan's invasion of Manchuria; Japan ignored it and left the League in 1933.

Mussolini invaded Abyssinia; the League issued moral condemnation and limited economic sanctions, which Mussolini ignored.

False. Oil and coal were not banned, so Mussolini's military capability was not compromised.

A secret plan by the British and French foreign ministers to give Mussolini much of Abyssinia; when it leaked it showed Britain and France put self-interest and keeping Mussolini as an ally above the Covenant.

Japan and Germany (both 1933) and Italy (1937).

Its leading members, Britain and France, acted in their own interests rather than enforcing the Covenant, and the League had no army to stop aggressors.

To prevent future wars by settling disputes peacefully and acting together against aggressors, and to get nations working together on international problems such as health, refugees and working conditions.

A smaller body meeting several times a year to settle disputes. Its permanent members were Britain, France, Italy and Japan, joined by Germany (1926) and the USSR (1934); its decisions had to be unanimous, so any member could block them.

The League's court of judges at The Hague, which ruled on legal disputes between countries but could not force them to obey.

The USA, Germany and the USSR (Soviet Russia).

Worked to end slavery worldwide; its work led to the 1926 Slavery Convention, in which member countries agreed to abolish slavery and the slave trade.

It did not intervene, partly because France was a leading Council member; the crisis was eased instead by the US-backed Dawes Plan (1924).

Germany's eastern borders with Poland and Czechoslovakia were not guaranteed, suggesting Germany might one day try to change them.

Gustav Stresemann, who hoped cooperating with Britain and France would restore Germany's standing and win changes to the Versailles terms.

Frank Kellogg, the US Secretary of State, and Aristide Briand, the French Foreign Minister, who drew up the 1928 pact renouncing war, so the USA took part even though it never joined the League.

The collapse of share prices on the New York stock market, which began the Great Depression.

An explosion on the Japanese-run South Manchurian Railway near Mukden, staged by Japanese army officers, who blamed China and used it as an excuse to invade Manchuria.

The puppet state Japan created in Manchuria in 1932, officially ruled by the last Chinese emperor, Puyi, but really controlled by Japan.

Many members, including Britain, traded heavily with Japan, and during the Depression they would not risk losing that trade.

Japan kept expanding unchecked: it took Jehol province in 1933 and launched a full invasion of China in 1937.

Revenge: Italy had been defeated by Abyssinia at Adowa in 1896.

Britain and France let Italian ships keep using it, so Italy's troops and supplies still reached East Africa.

The Emperor of Abyssinia, who appealed to the League for help against Italy and spoke to it in person in June 1936 after his country was conquered.

PS: Germany

PS: America, 1920–1973

WDS: First World War

WDS: Inter-War Years

WDS: Cold War

TS: Health & the People

TS: Power & the People

BDS: Norman England

BDS: Elizabethan England

PS: America, 1840–1895

PS: Russia

WDS: Korea & Vietnam

WDS: Gulf & Afghanistan

TS: Migration, Empires & the People

BDS: Edward I

BDS: Restoration England