Appeasement and the Road to War The League of Nations

Learning Outcomes: By the end of this presentation you will: Understand the aims of the League of Nations Be able to explain to describe the structure of the League Be able to explain the powers of the League. Understand the what each of the main powers thought of the League. Have an understanding of the League’s ‘golden age’ in the 1920s. Be able to explain the Leagues attempts at disarming the major powers. Be capable of explaining the importance of the Manchurian Crisis.

League of Nations Aims: To settle quarrels between countries by peaceful means. To support member countries, if attacked, through collective security. To bring about general disarmament of all member countries Countries would try to work together to solve social and economic problems. Making the world a better place to live. The league was to act as an international peace keeping body, to ensure lasting peace. A league’s Covenant of 26 Articles set out the rules for the working of the League. Membership increased to over 60 countries. Russia and Germany were initially not allowed to join. America refused to become involved.

The AssemblyThe Council The International Court of Justice The Secretariat Commissions The League of Nations USE PAGE 8 OF CAMERON TEXTBOOK

The Assembly Met once a year. Each member country sent 1 delegate and had 1 vote. It debated and decided on general policy The Council Britain, France, Italy, Japan and Germany (1926) had a permanent seat. Met regularly to make decisions about peace keeping. The Assembly elected 4 other temporary members each year The International Court of Justice Sat at the Hague in Holland. Settled legal disputes over boundaries. Gave advice on matters of international law The Secretariat Carried out various administrative duties Recorded decisions of the Assembly and council. Commissions On disarmament, slavery,refugees, minorities, mandates, working conditions and health. Met regularly The League of Nations

Powers of the League The powers of the league consisted of economic and military sanctions with the added possibility of expulsion from the League. The members of the League agreed to work together to ensure their collective peace and security This was called Collective Security

Reactions to the League France FranceFelt that the league needed to be strengthened and were unwilling to disarm because of fear for their own security. They embarked on a series of alliances with the ‘Little Entente’ (Czechoslovakia, Romania and Yugoslavia) in addition to Poland and Belgium. Italy Italy They saw the league as a brake on their expansionist aims and followed a policy to suit themselves, especially over Abyssinia. USSR USSRInitially hostile to the League and suspicious of it because they thought it was anti-Soviet, but they did eventually join in 1934.

USA USARefused to join the League and retreated into isolation. They did not want to be dragged into another European war. Britain BritainReluctant to make League action compulsory and feared a requirement to take sanctions. They were never wholehearted in their support of the League. Germany Germany Saw the League as nothing more than a winners’ club. However they came to see the League as a way of removing the ‘unfair’ restrictions placed upon them at Versailles. Finally Hitler simply ignored the League as did most powers by the 1930’s.

The League in Action The Golden Years? This period is often referred to as the “Golden Years” of the League. It had success in settling a number of international disputes and was praised for it’s humanitarian work. However this period also saw the League fail to deal properly with several incidents. In addition to this a number of key agreements were made outside the League; showing that member countries perhaps didn’t have complete confidence in the League to maintain security.

The League’s Successes The League’s Failures Diplomatic Moves out with the League

Disarmament Article 8 of the Covenant: National armaments be reduced to the lowest point consistent with national safety The arms race was a critical factor in causing the First World War. Therefore, it was hoped, disarmament would reduce the threat of war. The World Disarmament Conference was organised in 1932, it was attended by Britain, France, Germany and Italy among others.

“…Germany would be perfectly ready to disband her entire military establishment and destroy the small amount of arms remaining to her, if the neighbouring countries will do the same thing with equal thoroughness….” Adolf Hitler, 1933 However, the French did not trust Hitler and refused to discuss his offer to limit his army to any size applied equally to the French, Polish and Italian armies. They believed that regardless of what he said Hitler had every intention of rearming anyway.

The Germans as the only country forcibly disarmed by the treaty of Versailles refused to return to the Disarmament Conference until the other countries agreed to reduce their arms. Collective security had failed to solve the problem therefore a new approach was needed, that of appeasement. In 1934 the German Budget was published with a substantial increase in military spending.

Manchuria During the Disarmament conference an incident occurred in the Far East. Japan was suffering from severe economic problems and the perception of being treated as a second class nation. Their solution to these problems was expansion into Manchuria, China. The incident began with an explosion which did minor damage to the Japanese railway at Mukden in Manchuria.

The Japanese blamed the Chinese and used it as an excuse to occupy the entire province of Manchuria. It was then announced that Manchuria had become the independent Republic of Manchukuo. Clearly this was a dispute involving aggression which needed to be resolved by the League The League did send a commission to investigate and a report was produced one year after the incident.

The League stated that while it recognised provocation, Japan could not be said to have acted in self-defence and therefore refused to recognise Manchukuo. The great powers were unwilling to use sanctions against Japan, because of the economic problems caused by the Depression, and also because of the difficulty of fighting a war so far from Europe without US involvement. The Japanese withdrew from the League in 1933, but had shown that a strong power could attack a weak one without fear of the League. These lessons were learned by others who saw the League as slow to act and willing to go to any lengths to avoid applying sanctions.

Manchuria Questions 1. Where is Manchuria? 2. Why did Japan want to expand into Manchuria? 3. Explain what happened in Sep Was China really to blame? 5. How did Japan react to the incident? 6. How did the League deal with the incident? 7. How did Japan react to the League’s report? 8. What message did this give to other nations about the League?

Conclusion: Why did the League fail to stop the drift to war? The main members put self-interest before collective security Politicians worried about the cost of action and its impact on votes. Would the British public accept British soldiers fighting and dying in the cause of ‘peace’ if it was not a vital British interest? By 1935 ‘League action’ really meant what Britain and France would do. Germany, Italy and Japan had left, the USSR remained suspicious of League intentions and the US had never joined. The League of Nations was not a League of ALL Nations It was too idealistic The League was “fatally flawed from the outset”. It believed all countries would be peace- loving and democratic. It was never prepared to face war-loving dictatorships.