The twentieth-century world, Year 10: the League of Nations in the 1920s (Inter-war years option)

Collective security

HintSafety in numbers.

The whyIt was written into the League's founding document, the Covenant. It could only work if the strongest members were willing to act, including when their own interests were not at stake.

The Assembly

HintA kind of parliament of all the members.

The whyA smaller Council met more often to deal with crises. In both, important decisions had to be unanimous, so a single country could block action.

Italy; Japan

HintOne in southern Europe, one in East Asia.

The whyThe Council dealt with emergencies, and the permanent members were meant to give a lead. In the 1930s these two were the very countries that broke the Covenant, in Abyssinia and in Manchuria.

Economic sanctions

HintIt hits a country's imports and exports.

The whyThe first step, sometimes called moral condemnation, relied on world opinion. The third was a last resort, and the League had to ask its members to supply the soldiers.

An army of its own

HintIt had to borrow what it needed from its members.

The whyBritain and France, the strongest members, were worn out by the war and unwilling to send troops to distant disputes. An aggressor could gamble that the League would not fight.

USA; Germany; Russia

HintOne chose to stay out; the other two had not been invited.

The whyGermany was admitted in 1926 and left in 1933. The Soviet Union joined in 1934 and was expelled in 1939. Japan left in 1933 and Italy in 1937. The League never included all the great powers at once.

It ruled that the islands should stay with Finland, and Sweden accepted

HintBoth countries respected the ruling.

The whyThe islanders, who mostly spoke Swedish, were given self-government and their language was protected. It is usually counted as an early success for the League.

Poland kept it: the League failed to make Poland withdraw

HintThe French wanted a strong ally on Germany's eastern side.

The whyThe League called on the Polish forces to withdraw and tried to arrange a settlement, but its proposals were ignored. It was an early sign that the League struggled when a larger power, backed by a leading member, used force.

After a plebiscite, the region was divided between Germany and Poland

HintThe League confirmed the result in the end.

The whyThe vote was followed by fighting between the two sides before the League confirmed a border. Poland received about a third of the area, including most of its industry, and Germany kept the rest.

Italy, under Mussolini

HintOne of its generals, Tellini, had been killed on the Greek border.

The whyGreece appealed to the League. Mussolini insisted the matter go instead to the Conference of Ambassadors, which made Greece pay Italy compensation. Italy then withdrew. A great power had got its way by force.

Withdraw and pay compensation

HintGreece complained that Italy had been treated very differently two years earlier.

The whyGreece obeyed. The League had stopped a war, but it looked as if there was one rule for small countries and another for great powers.

Fridtjof Nansen

HintA passport for stateless refugees was later named after him.

The whyHundreds of thousands of prisoners were brought home. The League's commissions and committees also worked on epidemics, slavery, child labour, refugees and working conditions.

1925

HintThe year before Germany joined the League of Nations.

The whyThey were negotiated in a Swiss lakeside town in October and signed in London in December. For a few years people spoke hopefully of the 'spirit of Locarno'.

Its western borders, with France and Belgium

HintNothing was guaranteed on the other side of the country.

The whyBritain and Italy joined Germany, France and Belgium in pledging to uphold these borders. Germany's eastern borders, with Poland and Czechoslovakia, were left without any such guarantee, which suggested they might one day be changed.

Gustav Stresemann

HintHe had been Chancellor for a few months in 1923.

The whyHe shared the prize with the French foreign minister, Aristide Briand. Both wanted to end the hostility between their countries that had followed the occupation of the Ruhr.

Not to use war to settle their disputes

HintThey renounced it 'as an instrument of national policy'.

The whyThe pact was named after the American Secretary of State and the French foreign minister. Most of the world's countries signed in the end, 57 of them by 1929, including Germany, Italy and Japan.

It had no means of enforcement

HintAsk what would happen to a country that broke it.

The whyIt laid down no penalty and set up no body to act against a country that went to war. Japan signed it and invaded Manchuria three years later.