✅ Strength
Smaller than the Assembly, it could meet quickly. Britain and France, the two strongest members, sat on it for good, so important decisions had their backing.
The Creation and Successes of the League, 1919-29 » How the League Worked: Assembly, Council and Secretariat
What you'll learn this session
Study time: 30 minutes
Edexcel spec: Paper 2 Section B, Breadth study B5, Key topic 1
- How the Assembly, the Council and the Secretariat were organised and how they made decisions
- What the League's agencies and commissions did, in outline
- The League's powers to deal with an aggressor, and why it had no army
Key terms:
- Assembly: the meeting of all League members, with one vote each.
- Council: a smaller body, with permanent and non-permanent members, that dealt with disputes and emergencies.
- Secretariat: the League's team of permanent officials, or civil service, based in Geneva.
- Unanimous: agreed by everyone. A unanimous vote means no member votes against.
- Veto: the power of one member to block a decision.
- Sanctions: punishments aimed at a country that breaks the rules, such as stopping trade with it.
- Mandate: a territory taken from a defeated country after the First World War and run by a League member on the League's behalf.
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Unlock This CourseThe Assembly
The Assembly was the League's parliament. Every member state sent representatives, and each state had one vote, big or small. It met once a year in Geneva, usually in September. It could discuss any matter that affected world peace. It also admitted new members, chose the non-permanent members of the Council and agreed the League's budget.
The Assembly had a big weakness. On most important matters its decisions had to be unanimous. A single member voting against could stop a decision. That made it hard to agree on strong action, and a meeting held only once a year could not react quickly to a crisis.
The Council
The Council was meant to be the League's small, quick-acting group. It met several times a year, and more often in an emergency. At the start it had four permanent members: Britain, France, Italy and Japan. These were winning powers in the First World War. There were also four non-permanent members, elected by the Assembly (at first Belgium, Brazil, Greece and Spain). A fifth permanent seat was meant for the USA, but the USA never joined, so it stayed empty.
The Council grew over time. The number of non-permanent members rose to six in 1922 and to nine in 1926. In 1926 Germany joined and was given a permanent seat.
❌ Weakness
Council decisions also needed a unanimous vote. Every Council member therefore had a veto. Any one of them could block action, usually when it did not want to risk its own interests.
The Secretariat
The Secretariat was the League's civil service, based in Geneva. It was led by the Secretary-General, who was Sir Eric Drummond of Britain from 1920 to 1933. Its staff came from many countries. They prepared the meetings of the Assembly and the Council, kept the records, wrote reports and made sure that decisions were carried out. It did not make policy itself, but the League could not run without it.
Agencies and commissions
The League also set up other bodies to improve people's lives. The spec asks you to know these in outline.
- International Labour Organisation (ILO). Set up in 1919. It brought together governments, employers and workers to improve working conditions, such as hours of work and the safety of workers.
- Health Organisation. It worked to control the spread of disease and to share medical knowledge between countries.
- Permanent Court of International Justice. It opened in 1922 at The Hague in the Netherlands. Countries could bring a legal dispute to it and it gave rulings. It had no power to force anyone to obey.
- Mandates Commission. It checked how Britain, France and other members ran the mandates taken from Germany and the Ottoman Empire after the war.
The League also had committees on other problems. The Refugee and Drugs Committees are covered in a later lesson, The Refugee and Drugs Committees in the 1920s.
What could the League do?
If a member broke the rules or attacked another country, the League had three stages of action. Remember that members had also promised, in Article 10, to protect each other's borders.
- Condemnation. The League could bring the quarrel to the Council or the Assembly, listen to both sides and announce who was in the wrong. This relied on world opinion.
- Sanctions. Under Article 16, members could stop trade and financial dealings with the aggressor. This only worked if the main trading countries joined in. The USA, the world's biggest economy, was outside the League, so it could keep trading with the country being punished.
- Force. The Council could ask members to send armed forces. But the League had no army of its own, and members were not forced to provide one. Each government decided for itself.
Change and continuity
The UN, set up in 1945, also has an Assembly, a Council and a Secretariat, so the basic design stayed. A later lesson shows what changed. For now, note the League's key problem: its powers on paper were much bigger than its power in practice.
Common mistakes
Common mistakes
- Saying the League had an army. It did not. Force depended on members choosing to send troops.
- Mixing up the Assembly and the Council. The Assembly had all members and met yearly; the Council was smaller and met more often.
- Saying the Secretariat made the big decisions. It ran the League's day-to-day work.
- Forgetting that unanimous votes gave every Council member a veto.
Exam-style question
Explain TWO causes of the League of Nations' weakness in dealing with aggressor countries. [8 marks]
Model answer
One cause was that the League had no army of its own. The Council could ask members to send armed forces against an aggressor, but no member had to do so, and each government decided for itself. The League therefore depended on Britain and France, the two strongest members, being willing to act. If they did not want to risk their soldiers, the League could do nothing more than condemn the aggressor.
A second cause was the unanimous voting rule. Decisions of the Council and Assembly on important matters needed every member to agree, so each Council member had a veto. Any one member could block action when it did not want to risk its own interests. Together with the Assembly meeting only once a year, this made the League slow and hard to move to firm action. As a result, sanctions were difficult to agree, and even then the absence of the USA weakened them.
What lifts this to the top level: two different causes, each with precise knowledge (no army, the Council's request for forces, unanimity, veto, yearly Assembly) and a clear explanation of how each one led to weakness.
Exam tip
Give two separate causes in two paragraphs. One cause alone cannot score more than half marks. Use precise facts, such as the unanimous vote, and end each paragraph by linking the cause back to the weakness in the question.
Recap
- The Assembly (all members, one vote each, met yearly) and the Council (permanent and non-permanent members) needed unanimous votes on most important matters.
- The Secretariat, led by the Secretary-General in Geneva, did the League's day-to-day work.
- Agencies and commissions included the ILO, the Health Organisation, the Permanent Court of International Justice and the Mandates Commission.
- The League's powers were condemnation, sanctions and force, but it had no army of its own.