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The Wall Street Crisis occurred in New York in 1929 extremely depressed the state of the world. People lost their jobs and businesses went bankrupt. Many countries became selfish in order to recover their economies. The world was losing its order; fascism grew and a crisis ensued. The Manchurian crisis and Abyssinian crisis were the two of the most important crises happened during those ages, which consequently made the League of Nations to lose the power.
Manchuria crisis, happened in 1931, was about China invaded by Japan. Japanese sent the army to China in order to get out of the depression. They took Manchuria, which was in the northeast of China, and renamed it as Manchukou. The League of Nations sent Lytton Commission, trying to make sure what was happening between Japan and China. However this took almost a year to finish investigating. After the League of Nations received Lytton Report, the League finally started to condemn Japan, asking it to give Manchuria back to China. But Japan refused this and left the League in 1933.
This apparently showed the how weak the League of Nations was. The League tried to take sanction against Japan. But it was useless. Japan's major trading partner was the U.S., which was not belonged to the League. In addition, Some European countries, such as Britain, didn't want to charge sanction to Japan because they wanted to sell their goods. Economic sanction was the harshest punishment that the League of Nations had. Furthermore, Britain and France didn't want to fight a war against Japan. Eventually the League of Nations lost its honor because they even couldn't stop a small Asian country invading the other.
Another famous crisis that humiliated the League of Nations was Abyssinian crisis. In 1935 Italy let by Mussolini sent 400,000 troops to Abyssinia, trying to take it over. Italy harshly used modern weapons, such as poison gas to invade Abyssinia with poor army. Apparently, the League of Nations should stop Italy, but what they did was just talking with Mussolini. Furthermore the League just decided to give a part of Abyssinia to Italy. This act disappointed the world. How come the one who should stop the war helped the one who invaded the other?
Unfortunately, Italy wasn't satisfied with what the League told it, so they invaded Abyssinia. Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie asked the League for help. The League, however seemed not to take it seriously. For example, it imposed sanctions on Italy, but they still kept selling petrol to Italy. In addition, Britain owned the Suez Canal, so actually it could have easily stopped Italy from invading Abyssinia had it so wished. What is more, Britain and France secretly signed the Hoare-Laval Pact, the aim of which was to end the war between Italy and Abyssinia by actually giving most of Abyssinia to Italy. So, eventually, the League of Nations helped Italy to conquer Abyssinia. After this crisis the League lost all of its trust.
Both Manchurian Crisis and Abyssinian Crisis were fatal incidents for the League of Nations. Manchurian one shamed the League by showing that the League couldn't act swiftly and effectively against a small country. But in my opinion the Abyssinian crisis was more important. The League betrayed Abyssinia by give it to Italy. This showed people that the League was after all self-centered, and didn't keep its promises. Thus, it made people unable to trust the League any more. In contrast, the Manchurian crisis made people belittle the League by comparing loss of trust and being belittled, I think the Abyssinian crisis hurt the League of Nations more.
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