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The League of Nations was founded as a result of the Treaty of Versailles that ended World War I (1914–1918).The League’s primary goal, to prevent war, would be accomplished through collective security, the peaceful settlement of disputes between nations, and ensuring good behavior of nations through the application of sanctions against those that violated international law or threatened world peace. While initially successful, the League could not halt the aggression that culminated with World War II (1939–1945), and the organization officially ceased to exist in April 1946.

Origin Of The Organization

The League of Nations emerged from the carnage of World War I. The first truly “total war” in Europe, more than 8.5 million soldiers were killed in action and 21 million more were wounded, with another 10 million deaths among Europe’s civilians. Called “the war to end all wars,” many political leaders turned to the question of how to avoid a future catastrophe. The idea of a League of Nations was raised by American president Woodrow Wilson in his Fourteen Points for Peace, which were proposed before a joint session of Congress on January 8, 1918: “A general association of nations must be formed under specific covenants for the purpose of affording mutual guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity to great and small states alike.”

Following the armistice ending World War I, Wilson attended the Paris Peace Conference where the Treaty of Versailles was negotiated. The proposal to create a League of Nations was agreed to, and the organization was established by Part I of the Treaty. On June 28, 1919, forty-four nationstates signed the covenant creating the League of Nations. The League would have three objectives: pursue collective security, facilitate international cooperation, and execute the mandates of the peace treaties.

The United States And The League

President Wilson, who received the Nobel Peace Pize for his work at the Peace Conference, attempted to secure American approval of the Treaty and entry into the League. However, he was opposed by Republicans in the U.S. Senate (notably Henry Cabot Lodge of Massachusetts and William E. Borah of Idaho), who believed that joining the League would threaten American sovereignty. Facing opposition in the Senate, Wilson attempted to rally public opinion by going on a national speaking tour, traveling eight thousand miles (12,900 kilometers) in twenty-two days and giving thirty-eight speeches. He experienced bad headaches and collapsed in Pueblo, Colorado. His train took him back to Washington, where he suffered a stroke that left the left side of his face and body paralyzed.

Senator Lodge proposed ratification of the Treaty but demanded the inclusion of reservations that he believed would preserve American sovereignty. Wilson refused, claiming that ratification by the Senate with conditions would be repudiating what each nation had signed. If the United States demanded changes, then why could not the Germans also? Wilson asked his supporters to vote against ratification with reservations, and the Treaty was never ratified by the United States.

On January 16, 1920, President Wilson formally convened the Council of the League in Paris in accordance with the League provision for the summoning of the first council and assembly by the president of the United States. It would be the last official participation by the United States in the League of Nations. The League, which the United States was expected to lead, lost much of its credibility without the American power.

History Of The League

In November 1920, the League established its headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. The first meeting of the General Assembly convened in the Palais Wilson on November 15, 1920, with forty-one nations taking part. Eventually, assembly meetings would be held in the Batiment Electoral in Geneva, with meetings of the council being held at Palais Wilson. In 1936, the League moved into the Palais des Nations.

Membership in the League fluctuated, with the high point reached between September 28, 1934, and February 23, 1935, when fifty-eight nations participated in the organization. Germany was originally barred from the League because it had been deemed, by the Versailles Treaty, as the aggressor in World War I; it was allowed to join in 1926. Costa Rica (1920–1925), Brazil (1920–1926), Japan (1920–1933), Germany (1926–1933), Haiti (1920–1942), and Luxembourg (1920–1942) all withdrew from the League. The Soviet Union, which had been prohibited from joining the League because of the Bolshevik takeover, was admitted in 1934. In December 1939, the Soviet Union was expelled for aggression against Finland. This was one of the League’s last acts as it stopped functioning due to World War II.

In its early years, the League successfully mediated a number of border disputes that had not been settled by the Treaty of Versailles or by the San Remo Conference of April 1920.The settlement of the dispute between Sweden and Finland over the Aland Islands (1921) was the first international agreement made through the League. The League also intervened in an armed conflict between Greece and Bulgaria in October 1925, with Greece accepting the League’s resolution that it withdraw from Bulgaria and provide compensation.

However, the League would suffer a number of failures that would eventually lead to its demise. When the League condemned Japan for its 1932 invasion of Manchuria, Japan withdrew from the League. The League could not halt Mussolini’s invasion of Abyssinia (Ethiopia) in 1935. Notwithstanding the League’s efforts to encourage disarmament (including the 1932 World Disarmament Conference convened in Geneva by the League), Germany, Italy, and Japan continued their arms buildups. The collective security functions of the League, which should have been mobilized during the Manchurian and Abyssinian crises, were not because the United Kingdom and France were unwilling to go to war.

World War II began on September 1, 1939, and the last significant action of the League was to expel the Soviet Union after it invaded Finland in December 1939. At the 1943 Tehran Conference, Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin agreed that the League would be replaced by a new organization at the conclusion of the war, the United Nations. The final meeting of the League Assembly was held in April 1946 in Geneva for the purpose of dissolving the organization and liquidating its assets. The Palace of Peace (the headquarters of the Permanent Court of International Justice), located in the Hague, and the League’s Archives were transferred to the United Nations. The League ceased to exist on April 20, 1946.

Organizational Structure

The League of Nations had four principal organs: a secretariat, a council, an assembly, and the Permanent Court of International Justice. The League secretariat was the administrative arm of the organization, responsible for preparing the agendas for the council and assembly and publishing reports of meetings. The secretary-general headed the secretariat, and the British diplomat James Eric Drummond was the first secretary, serving until June 1933. He was replaced by Joseph Louis Anne Avenol, a French diplomat who had served as under-secretary-general (at the Paris Peace Conference it had been agreed that the first secretary-general would be British and that he would be succeeded by a French national). Sean Lester, an Irish diplomat, succeeded Avenol and served as the last secretary-general from August 31, 1940, to April 18, 1946.

The assembly, which met annually in Geneva each September, was composed of three delegates from each member-state. The League council was to consist of the five Allied powers that won the war, but without the United States this became Britain, France, Italy, and Japan. Four other nations were elected by the assembly for a three-year term on the council. Initially, Belgium, Brazil, Spain, and Greece were selected. In later years, the number of nonpermanent members would vary. In 1922, the number was increased from four to six. In 1926 the number was increased to nine. When Germany joined the League in 1926 it became a fifth permanent member of the council (giving the body a total of fourteen members). After Japan and Germany withdrew in 1933, the number of nonpermanent members of the council was increased to eleven.

Any member could go to the council with a concern and was allowed a vote at the council on that issue. League decisions were recommendations for the states to follow, but no state could be legally bound against its consent and thus maintained sovereignty over its own decisions. The council held 107 public sessions between 1920 and 1939. In September 1921 the Permanent Court of International Justice with nine judges was established at the Hague, as the League covenant was amended.

Other League Entities

The League also had responsibility for a number of other bodies created to deal with international issues. These included the Disarmament Commission, the Health Organization, the International Labor Organization, the Mandates Commission, the International Commission on Intellectual Cooperation, the Permanent Central Opium Board, the Commission for Refugees, the Committee for the Study of the Legal Status of Women, and the Slavery Commission. The Permanent Mandates Commission, established in February 1921, supervised the nation-states that were given the authority to govern the territories of the German and Ottoman empires that were determined to be incapable of ruling themselves. Belgium, France, and Great Britain were responsible for governing the territories, subject to oversight by the Mandates Commission.

The Governing Commission was established to supervise the Saar Territory for a fifteen-year period. A plebiscite would be held to determine the region’s sovereignty. On January 13, 1935, 90 percent of the residents voted for Saar to be reintegrated into Germany; that took place on March 1, 1935.

Bibliography:

Archer, Clive. International Organizations. London: Unwin Hyman, 1983.
Bell, Philip M. H. The Origins of the Second World War in Europe. New York: Longman, 1986.
Mukherjee, Sakti Pada. Reflections on League Covenant, United Nations and International Court of Justice. Calcutta: Alpha, 1967.
United Nations. The League of Nations, 1920–1946: Organization and Accomplishments: A Retrospective on the First Organization for the Establishment of World Peace. New York: United Nations, 1996.

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