League of nations notes

The League of Nations:

The aims of the league of nations where:

A ggression discouraged

C ooperate in business and trade

I mprove living and working conditions

D isarmament

Who joined the league of nations?

Britain and Frace lead the league of nations:

Strengths > powerful countries, both have strong armies, allies, world leaders

Weaknesses > blinded by their own opinions, they had been heavily effected by the war, weakened army

USA didn't join:

The league of nations did not have much money as the USA didn't join as all the other countries had been heavily effected.

Showed weakness as a powerful country didn't agree with it

USA troop not involved

USA had come up with it in the first place > made the league look silly

Germany not allowed to join:

Makes them bitter for not being included

Already goes againt the idea of the league (world peace)

Cause resentment and revenge

Why the league of nations failed:

F rench and British self interest

A bsent powers - USA

I neffective sanctions

L ack of armed force

U nfair treaty

RE aching decisions too slowly

The leagues structure itself went far in making it a failure from the very begining.  

Although unbiased, decisions had to be unanimous which meant a decision may never actually be made > and if it did, it was extremely slow.

The council made it undiplomatic as the 4 leaders had more power (Britain, France Japan and Italy)

The assembly only met once a year

The Manchurian and Abyssinian crisis also caused the league to fail.

Machuria (1931)-Japan invades Manchuria and the league proves itself to be useless in stopping agressive countries without an army. It took too long to make a decision

Why did Japan invade?
Japan had been badly hit by the Depression. Her industrial strength depended on exports. These fell by 50% between 1929 and 1931. Without exports she could not buy the exports she needed. The country was also overcrowded. The military leaders believed that Japan should expand for more living space and raw materials. Japan chose Manchuria because:

• It belonged to China which was very weak at this time. It was spilt in two by civil war between Nationalists and Communists.
• Japan…