In the 1920s the League of Nations settled several disputes between small countries. In the 1930s it faced something harder: powerful countries that wanted to get their way by force. This lesson explains why the League was so weak when that test came. It covers two themes of this breadth study: the strengths and weaknesses of the organisation, and Great Power involvement in the League.
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Unlock This CourseThe League had no army of its own. Its power came from its members, so it needed strong members who were willing to act. Britain and France were its two leading members. They were permanent members of the Council, and their governments did most to decide what the League did.
Britain still had the largest empire in the world and relied on trade. Its leaders wanted to protect that trade and the empire, and they were wary of promises that might drag the country into another war. The British people were deeply tired of war after 1918.
France had suffered terribly in the First World War and above all feared Germany. Its leaders wanted the League to protect France, and they cared most about their own security. They did not want to risk their forces for problems far from Europe.
This was the heart of the problem. Both countries said they supported collective security, but each put its own interests first when a crisis came. They also did not trust each other's plans, so they often could not agree on a joint response. If the two strongest members would not lead, the League could not act.
The USA was the world's richest country, but it never joined the League. Without the USA, the League lacked its economic strength. This mattered because the League's main way of punishing an aggressor was economic sanctions. A trade ban on a country is much less powerful if the world's biggest trading nation carries on trading with it.
The Great Depression made things worse. After the Wall Street Crash of 1929, world trade fell sharply and unemployment rose. Governments, including Britain's and France's, put fixing their own economies first. They were far less willing to cut off trade with other countries by using sanctions, because that would hurt their own businesses and workers. They were also reluctant to spend money on armed forces to defend the Covenant. In some countries the Depression also helped extreme leaders gain support. In Germany it helped Adolf Hitler become Chancellor in January 1933.
Remember that the Council needed a unanimous vote for most decisions. That gave every member a veto: any one member could block action. In the 1930s this meant that a Great Power with its own interests could stop the Council from taking a strong stand, and it was very hard to get agreement on anything that cost money, trade or risk. The result was often delay, compromise or a weak statement. A League that moved slowly was a poor match for dictators who moved fast.
The Disarmament Conference. The Covenant promised to reduce weapons, and the Treaty of Versailles had forced Germany to disarm as a first step. The League organised a Disarmament Conference that opened at Geneva in February 1932. It failed to reach a lasting agreement. Germany demanded equality with other countries in weapons. France refused, because it feared a rearmed Germany above everything else. Britain tried to find a compromise but did not want to promise to defend France. Then Hitler came to power in January 1933. In October 1933 he announced that Germany was leaving both the conference and the League. The conference limped on and was over by 1934, and Germany went on to rearm openly. In March 1935 Hitler announced conscription (compulsory military service), which the Treaty of Versailles had banned.
Leaving the League. Germany was not the only Great Power to walk away. Japan announced it was leaving in March 1933, after the League criticised its invasion of Manchuria (the next lesson, The League Fails in Manchuria, 1931-33, explains how). Italy followed in 1937. So by the late 1930s, three of the strongest aggressive states were outside the League. It could not influence them, and members who stayed had no wish to fight them.
In the 1920s the League dealt with disputes involving smaller states, such as the Aaland Islands, and Great Powers were willing to work through it. In the 1930s the dictators were strong states that ignored the League and left it. What stayed the same was the League's basic weakness: it had no army and relied on its members, especially Britain and France, to act.
Explain TWO causes of the failure of the Disarmament Conference of 1932-34. [8 marks]
One cause was the clash between Germany and France. Germany, which the Treaty of Versailles had disarmed, demanded equality with other countries in weapons. France refused, because it feared Germany above everything else and wanted its own security first. Neither side would give way, and the conference could not agree on how many weapons each country should have. This meant that the League's main attempt to reduce arms ended without a result.
A second cause was the arrival of Hitler as Chancellor in January 1933. He wanted to rebuild Germany's forces, not limit them. In October 1933 he announced that Germany was leaving both the conference and the League. Without Germany, the conference had little purpose, and France felt even less willing to cut its own forces. The conference was over by 1934, and Germany went on to rearm openly, announcing conscription in 1935. The League had failed to curb the dictator.
What lifts this to the top level: two different causes, each supported by precise facts and each explained as to how it led to the failure.
In a "two causes" question, one cause alone cannot score more than half marks (4 out of 8). Write one paragraph per cause: name it, add dates and facts, then explain how it led to the outcome.