League of Nations

1. Solve disputes between countries

1.1. eliminate world wide diseases

1.1.1. eg. leprosy

1.2. The Aaland Islands, 1921: The first dispute to be resolved by the League. Dispute between Finland and Sweden claiming for the Aalands. League investigated the matter and awarded the islands to Finland but they had to be demilitarised. Sweden accepted the judgement

2. Corfu incident, 1923: This exposed the weakness and ineffectiveness of the League when dealing with a major power. There was a murder of an Italian general and some of his staff on Greek soil, so Mussolini, the Italian Prime Minister resorted to direct action when Greece was unable to locate the culprits. Greece then appealed to the League whose initial response was to condemn the invasion, but Mussolini convinced the League to let the Conference of Ambassadors settle it. This body ordered Greece to pay compensation and Italy to withdraw from the Corfu.

3. Occupation of the Rhur, 1923: Germany didn't pay reparations in 1922, this matter should have been referred to the League. But instead France alongside Belgium decided to take matters into their own hands and ordered their troops to occupy the Ruhr in Jan, 1923. This gives the impression that the League was little more than a victors club for the pursuit of the victors' interest

4. World Disarmament Conference of 1932: It was a attractive idea for the 54 states since there was an ongoing economic recession. The problem was the fears of individual states and their reluctance to trust one another.

5. Bulgaria, 1925: Greece made to pay 45,000 compensation to Bulgaria after its invasion of Bulgarian territory

6. Failure to disarm

6.1. France was only willing to disarm if Britain and U.S did. This was something that they were unable to do, especially since the U.S. was not in the League.

7. Succeses of the league

8. Failures of the League of nations

8.1. Failure to resolve conflicts

8.1.1. Manchuria: Japan invaded Manchuria. League could have called for actions but failed to do so

9. The U.S.A. was unable to join the League of Nations due to isolationists in Congress opposing its joining. This led to the League being unable to carry out its duties effectively.