Establishment of the League of Nations

-The League of Nations was created according to Woodrow Wilson's 14 points.

It had four main aims:

-To discourage aggresion between nations

-To encourage co-operation between nations

-To encourage disarmemant between nations

-To improve living and working conditions throughout the world

When established in 1919, the League had 42 members.

When it fell apart, the League had 59 members.

The League was comprised of the Treaty of Versailles.

All members had to agree to the terms of the Covenant to join.

The main members of the League were:

Britain

France

Japan

Italy

(Eventually Germany and the USSR)-As they had been forbidden from joining the League.

The League lacked a critical member, however.

That of America. Although it was the brainchild of Woodrow Wilson, Congress voted against membership.

The following factors were the cause of the absence of the USA:

-Isolationism. The USA had become powerful by this method.

-Colonies. The USA detested Colonies. They saw no reasoning in safeguarding the Colonies belonging to the members.

-Economy. America believed that joining the League would be as though they were signing a blank cheque.

-Carnage. The USA had been appalled at the number of American soldiers killed during the Great War, and were not prepared for History to repeat itself.

-Germany. Some of the USA's population included German immigrants, who had fled Germany during the Great War. They were completely against the Versailles Treaty, thus they did not approve of the League.