The League Of Nations Essay, Research Paper
The League of Nations and It & # 8217 ; s Impact on World Peace Through my surveies and research I have come to the
following decision about the League of Nations: despite
all of President Woodrow Wilson & # 8217 ; s attempts, the League was
doomed to neglect. I feel this was so for many grounds, some
of which I hope to convey in the undermentioned study. From the
twenty-four hours when Congress voted on the Fourteen Points, it was
obvious that the League had a really slender opportunity of being
passed in Congress, and without all of the World powers, the
League had small opportunity of lasting.
On November 11, 1918 an cease-fire was declared in
Europe. Wilson saw the chance to organize an international
organisation of peace to be formed. He acted rapidly. On
January 18, 1919 he released his 14 points. The
Fourteen Points consisted of many things, but the most
of import was the fourteenth-the constitution of a conference
of states to settle international differences and to maintain the
peace. After Congress had voted, merely three of Wilson & # 8217 ; s
14 points were accepted without via media. Six of
the others were rejected all together. Fortunately the
League was compromised.
Wilson so went to Europe to discourse the Treaty of
Versailles. Representatives from Italy, France, and Britain
didn & # 8217 ; t want to work with the states they had defeated.
They wanted to ache them. After much combat and
negotiating, Wilson managed to convert them that a conference
of states was non merely executable, it was necessary. The Senate supported most of the Treaty of Versailles
but non the League. They thought it would do the U.S.A.
excessively involved in foreign personal businesss. Wilson saw that the League
may non do it through Congress, so he went on the route and
gave addresss to rock the public sentiment. Unfortunately,
Wilson & # 8217 ; s wellness, which was already depleted from the
dialogues in France, continued to withdraw. Wilson & # 8217 ; s conflict
with his wellness reached its flood tide when Wilson had a shot
on his train between addresss.
After Wison & # 8217 ; s stroke, support of the League weakened,
both in Congress and in the public & # 8217 ; s sentiment. In 1920 G.
Harding, who opposed the League, was elected as president.
The League formed but the U.S. ne’er joined.
The first meeting of the League was held in Geneva,
Switzerland on November 15, 1920 with fourty two states
represented. During 26 old ages the League lived, a
sum of 63 states were represented at one clip or
another. Thirty-one states were represented all 26
old ages.
The League had an assembly, a council, and a
secretariat. Before World War II, the assembly convened
on a regular basis at Geneva in September. There were three
representatives for every member province each province holding one
ballot. The council met at least three times a twelvemonth to
see political differences and decrease of armaments. The council had several lasting members, France,
Great Britan, Italy, Japan, and subsequently Germany and the Soviet
Union. It besides had several nonpermanent members which were
elected by the assembly. The council & # 8217 ; s determinations had to be
consentaneous.
The secretariat was the administrative subdivision of the
League and consisted of a secretary, general, and a staff of
five 100 people. Several other organisations were
associated with the League- the Permanent Court of
International Justice, besides called the World Court, and the
International Labor Organization.
One of import activity of the League was the
temperament of certain districts that had been settlements of
Germany and Turkey before World War I. Districts were
awarded to the League members in the signifier of authorizations. The
mandated districts were given different grades of
independency in conformity with their geographic state of affairs,
their phase of development, and their economic position.
The League, unluckily, seldom implemented its
available resources, limited through the were, to accomplish
their end, to stop war. The League can be credited with
certain societal accomplishments. these accomplishments include
colony of differences between Finland and Sweden over the
Aland Islands in 1921 and between Greece and Bulgaria over
their common boundary line in 1925.
Great powers preferred to manage their personal businesss on their
ain ; Gallic business of the Ruhr and Italian business of
Corfu, both in 1923, went on in malice of the League. The
League failed to stop the war between Bolivia and Paraguary
over the Gand Chaco between 1932 and 1935. The League besides
failed to halt Italy & # 8217 ; s invasion of Ethiopia, which began in
1935.
Although Germany joined in 1926, the National Socialist
authorities withdrew in 1933 as did Japan, after their
onslaughts on China were condemned by the League. The League
was now powerless to forestall the events in Europe that lead
to World War 2. In 1940 the secretariat in Geneva was
reduced to a skeleton staff and moved to the U.S. and
Canada.
In 1946 the League voted to consequence its ain disintegration,
whereupon much of its belongings and organisation were
transferred to the United Nations which had resently been
founded. Never genuinely effectual as a peace maintaining
organisation, the permanent importance of the League of
States lies in the fact that it provided the basis for
the United Nations. This international confederation, formed
after World War 2, non merely profited by the errors of the
League but borrowed much of the organisational machinics of
the League of Nations. The League of Nations and its impact on universe peace
John James
Mrs. Hippe
History
March 7, 1996
Mothner, Ira. Woodrow Wilson, Champion of Peace. New York
Watts Inc. , 1969 Mason, Lorna ; Garcia, Jesus ; Powell, Frances ; Risinger,
Fredrick. America & # 8217 ; s Past and Promise. Boston
McDougal Littell, 1995 Albright, Madeleine. & # 8220 ; America and the League of Nations,
Lessons for Today & # 8221 ; Speech
United States Department of State 1994 McNally, Rand. Atlas of World History. New York
Reed International Books Limited, 1992
Microsoft. & # 8220 ; The League of Nations. & # 8221 ;
Excarta 95. 1995