The first main reason why the League was founded in 1920 was to prevent war, which they who? thought was a significant method to achieve international peace. The League of Nations intervened in several disputes to prevent war and give resolutions. For example in 1921, the League solved a dispute between Finland and Sweden over Åaland Islands. Almost all of the citizens were Swedish-speakers, so they wanted the islands to belong to Sweden but as Finland was the one to have its sovereignty, it did not want to give the islands to Sweden. The League of Nations, asked for helping Sweden, finally decided to let Finland still have the islands but guaranteed its autonomy to satisfy both countries, Finland by maintaining its territory and Sweden by protecting the Swedish culture in Åaland Islands. Source??? This case was one of the successful decisions that the League made to prevent war but on the other hand, it was not successful in the Corfu Incident (August 27 – September, 1923). In 1923, an Italian General, Enrico Tellini, was killed by the Greeks in Corfu, and Mussolini, who took the power of government, sent an ultimatum to Greece on August 29[2], requiring the reparation and the execution of the assassins. As the Greek government could not find out the assassins, it provided a good excuse for Mussolini to invade and Greece appealed to the League. As the League blamed Italy and told Mussolini to leave, the Greeks had to pay for it but due to Mussolini’s refusal, so the Conference of Ambassadors made Greece to pay reparation and apologize to Italy, then Mussolini left Corfu. Source??? Although the dispute between two countries did not develop into a war, the resolution was quite condemnable because it did not protect a small country but rather supported a powerful country which acted on the offensive and could trigger a war, showing injustice of the decision. The League of Nations was formed to prevent wars and it was achieving this aim by intervening in disputes between countries before it enters the stage of poignancy. However, the decisions made by the League were not always considered to be justified or satisfy all the people involved in the conflicts.
Self-determination, the right of people to rule themselves or to choose their own government, which was the 10th point of Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points Speech, acted as another incentive of the foundation of the League of Nations. The Treaty of Versailles had gave the rights for people in Upper Silesia to decide whether the country should belong to Germany or Poland by ordering them a referendum on 20 March 1921[3] and with close result, in which Germany was chosen with approximately 56.9%[4] of the votes, it led to a series of uprisings in Upper Silesia, the Silesian Uprisings (1919-1921). In 1922, the League of Nations had a six-week investigation[5], after which it came up with the partition of the district between Germany and Poland. This satisfied Germany and Poland as they both could have territorial gains and the citizens of Upper Silesia, who could choose their own government, showing an aspect of self-determination in the League’s decision. Furthermore, as there was a minority of Germans in the area gained by Poland and minority of Polish and the area gained by Germany in Upper Silesia, the delegates from both countries were to have an economic regulation and protection of these minorities for 15 years.[6] Memel, a port in Lithuania, was one of the “territories of international concern” like Åaland Islands above. Memel was created by the Treaty of Versailles in 1920 and though was controlled by the Council of Ambassadors[7], it was occupied by French troops on 2 February 1920[8]. As it was in Lithuania, the government thought Memel should be ruled by Lithuania and its troop invaded the port on January 10th 1923, a day after the leaders claimed to take control of Lithuania, using the opportunity from the Ruhr Crisis which had agitated the French[9]. The League gave Lithuania the rights to govern Memel, by making Lithuania sign the Memel Statue in December 1923 with France, Britain, Italy and Japan[10] but still was to be an “international zone”[11]. This has shown the League’s attempt to create self-determination of the small countries, such as Lithuania in this case, and it was also successful as the intervention of the League not only helped the Lithuanians to rule the port in their country but also solved the issue without producing a war between the French and Lithuanians. However, it also seemed to be a failure because Memel firstly was taken by Lithuania due to its offensive on the French in the Memel Revolt in January 1923 and the League listened to the country which took an aggressive attitude in taking power, in contradiction to the covenant of the League pledged to ‘take action against any member regarded as an aggressor.’[12] As self-determination was what the League aimed for, it made conclusions on the basis of self-determination but in some cases, like the Memel Crisis, it produced a failure as it could not achieve another aim, opposing against any aggressor using force, though succeeded in creating self-determination. Perfect use of facts, organisation and explanation to argue the topic sentence statement
The last reason for founding the League of Nations was to improve living conditions of people in the world. The Refugees Committee, Health Committee, and Slavery Commission in its agencies and commissions were all created to improve people’s lives by solving social crises that were being obstacles in their living environment. When the League of Nations failed to stop the Greco-Turkish War (1919-22), which resulted in Greece returning to its pre-war borders with a great loss of territories, Greece and Turkey had a period of time of national reconstruction with their population exchange, having a number of refugees from both sides, 80% of whom were women and children, suffering from such diseases like typhoid and cholera. Source??? The Refugees Committee in the League therefore set up refugee camps in Turkey in 1922 to provide food supplies for the refugees and spent £10,000,000 for building farms and houses[13]. Not only was the Refugees Committee engaged in the aids of these homeless refugees but also the Health Committee intervened to investigate and help eradicate diseases. The League of Nations also tried to ameliorate the world by abolishing the slavery. It signed the Slavery Convention on 25 September 1926, revealing its rooted antipathy to the slave trade in article 2, “To prevent and suppress the slave trade; to bring about, progressively and as soon as possible, the complete abolition of slavery in all its forms.”[14] The League freed 200,000 slaves in Sierra Leone and Burma, and it helped African countries such as Liberia and Ethiopia to exterminate slavery in the 1930s[15] and the Slavery Commission even reduced the death rate of workers from 55% to $4 by building the Tanganyika railway.[16] Also it did investigations periodically on the slavery. However, the countries that did not get any help from the League were still suffering with the slavery. For instance, Korea though had abolished its slavery in Gap-o Reform (1894) still had a forced prostitution and slavery in 1930s under the Japanese Arm? Source??? and Saudi Arabia still had a legality of slavery until 1960s.[17] Despite the League’s several failures on political aspect, it was prominently succeeded in social aspect by improving people’s lives by helping the refugees and slaves who were the human sacrifice? at that time. The League’s active investigations on refugees and the slavery improved its quality of assistance to other countries as it showed the fact that the League is taking it as its obligations, not a reluctant help. Though the League of Nations could help many European countries and some African countries, still it had limit in its extension of aid, as it’s shown in Korea and Saudi Arabia, which probably could be seen unfair to some countries that were not able to get any help.
Prevention of wars, creation of self-determination and the improvement of the living environment of people were the three main factors required for the achievement of international peace and thus motivated the other countries to form the League of Nations. Disputes between countries were solved to avert the inflammation of further wars, self-determination was fortified by giving nationals of the countries to have rights to choose their governments, and the assistance to refugees and the abrogation of slavery made the League to succeed in improving the society of the world. Although many countries joined the League of Nations with the expectation of extreme successes by achieving its main aims, the League’s intervention in international affairs could not always result in successes nor satisfy all the countries.
Evidence- 5/5
Research-4.5/5 (often I couldn’t see where your facts came from)
Writing 5/5
Organisation 5/5
19.5/20
[1] http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9B06E2DC1039E13ABC4E51DFB7668382609EDE
[2] http://anonymouse.org/cgi-bin/anon-www.cgi/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corfu_incident
[3] http://www.indiana.edu/~league/1921.htm
[4] http://anonymouse.org/cgi-bin/anon-www.cgi/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/League_of_Nations#Upper_Silesia
[5] http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/leagueofnations.htm
[6] http://anonymouse.org/cgi-bin/anon-www.cgi/http:/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silesian_Uprisings
[7] http://anonymouse.org/cgi-bin/anon-www.cgi/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klaip%C4%97da_Region
[8] www.brainyhistory.com/events/1920/february_2_1920_80518.html
[9] http://worldatwar.net/nations/other/memel/
[10] http://worldatwar.net/nations/other/memel/
[11] http://anonymouse.org/cgi-bin/anon-www.cgi/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/League_of_Nations#Memel
[12] Frank McDonough, Conflict, Communism and Fascism,
[13] http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/leagueofnations.htm
[14] http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/league/lea001.htm
[15] http://search.eb.com/blackhistory/article-24160
[16] http://anonymouse.org/cgi-bin/anon-www.cgi/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanganyika
[17] http://search.eb.com/blackhistory/article-24160
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