The League of Nations had failed to stop the Second World War. Before the war had even ended, the Allied leaders began planning a new organisation to keep the peace. It was called the United Nations. This lesson looks at how it was set up and what problems it had from the start.
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Unlock This CourseThe planning came in stages, mostly led by the USA, Britain and the USSR.
A conference of the Allied and other countries met in San Francisco from 25 April to 26 June 1945. Fifty countries sent delegates. Roosevelt had died in April, just before it opened, but the work went ahead. On 26 June the delegates signed the UN Charter.
The Charter only took effect once the five permanent members and a majority of the other signers had ratified it. This was done by 24 October 1945, and that is the day the UN officially came into existence.
The USA had never joined the League, and the League had no real power to punish aggressors. This time the planners wanted the USA and the USSR inside the organisation, and they wanted the Great Powers to carry the main responsibility for peace.
After years of war, people everywhere wanted peace. The Charter's opening words speak of saving "succeeding generations from the scourge of war".
The Charter gave the UN several main aims:
The Charter set up the main parts of the UN, such as the General Assembly, where every member has a vote, and the Security Council. These are explained in the lesson How the UN Works: Assembly, Security Council and Peacekeepers.
The planners tried to learn from the League's failures, but some problems were built into the UN itself.
The five permanent members of the Security Council were the USA, the USSR, Britain, France and China. Any of them could block a Security Council decision on action by voting against it. This kept the Great Powers inside the UN, because none could be forced to act against its will. But it meant the UN could not act against a permanent member, or against that member's friends. Once the Cold War began, the USA and the USSR often blocked each other.
The UN had no army of its own. The Charter said members would agree to supply troops when the Security Council asked, but no standing force was ever created in this way. Peacekeepers have to be lent by member states. The UN also depends on its members to pay their dues, so a country that held back its money could weaken it.
The Charter said the UN may not intervene in matters that are "essentially within the domestic jurisdiction" of a state. This protected each country's sovereignty, but it meant the UN could not easily step in when a government treated its own people badly or when a war broke out inside a country.
The UN was a fresh start, but it kept some of the League's weaknesses. Like the League, it had no army of its own and could only act if its strongest members agreed. What changed was that both the USA and the USSR were members from the start, and the Great Powers had a clear, permanent place at the centre of the Security Council.
Explain TWO ways in which the United Nations Security Council of 1945 was similar to the Council of the League of Nations. (In the League Council, set up in 1919, decisions generally needed all members to agree, and the League had no army of its own.) [6 marks]
One similarity is that a single powerful member could block action. In the League Council, decisions generally needed every member to agree, so one Great Power could stop the League acting. In the same way, the UN Charter gave each of the five permanent members of the Security Council a veto, so the USA, the USSR, Britain, France or China could stop a decision by voting against it.
A second similarity is that neither organisation had its own army. The League had to rely on Britain and France to provide the force behind its decisions, and it could not stop Japan in Manchuria. The UN also had no standing army, because troops and money had to be provided by its members, and the Security Council needed member states to lend peacekeepers.
What lifts this to the top level: two different ways, each with a precise fact about both the League and the UN.
In a "similar" question, show the likeness by writing about both sides in every way: "In the League ... In the same way, the UN ...". One way alone scores at most 3 out of 6.