Political work of the League in the 1930s

Background

 Manchuria was a province of Northeast China with part of its southern frontier bordering Korea
 It was a province rich in mineral wealth, agricultural land, and forestry
 Since 1905, Japan had been in control of Korea with additional trading rights extending
northwards into Manchuria
 Because of those rights, Japanese guards were permitted along the route of the South
Manchurian railway, to maintain order in a lawless, chaotic area so as to protect Japanese
business interests


Japan’s invasion of Manchuria (1931)

 As an island trading nation, Japan was hit hard by the Great Depression and lost markets in USA
and China
 Japan was not self-sufficient and so depended on imports
 Imports had to be paid by exports, but the main export was silk which was a luxury item which
could not be bought under an economic slump
 As a result, Japan faced a growing economic crisis
 It targeted the Chinese Province of Manchuria to get wealth and recover. Manchuria was going
to be a source of food, raw materials, a market for exports and land for surplus Japanese
population

The Mukden Railway Incident

 The Japanese staged an incident along the railway line in September 1931
 In 1931, Japan invaded Manchuria on the pretext that the Chinese soldiers had sabotaged their
railway
 China appealed to the League and a commission of inquiry was set up under Lord Lytton

Response of the League

 A commission of inquiry was set up under Lord Lytton

 Lytton spent 6 weeks in the province with a team of 4 men
 Lytton concluded that although Japan had been provoked in various ways by China, the invasion
was not justified.
 Commission’s results condemned Japan as the aggressor
 The League accepted the report, condemned the invasion, and ordered Japan to withdraw but
Japan refused. In 1933, Japan withdrew from the League
 Japan continued with its imperialism against China
 The League failed to stop Japanese aggression
 Reasons for failure

 The League was powerless because Europeans had serious economic problems due to
the Great Depression. They were not ready to face such a strong naval power
 Military action was going to involve European states sending a naval task force to the
other side of the world with very little prospect of success
 USA was not going to support an economic embargo against Japan because it was a
major trading partner
 Both Britain and France had colonies in the Far East including Hong Kong and Singapore
and feared that sanctions might provoke a Japanese attack
 Russia and Germany also refused to support the sanctions
 The League could not agree on banning arms sales of Japan
 Absence of Russia and USA was a major blow
 Japan went unpunished and this encouraged Italian aggression on Abyssinia

Lessons learnt from the Manchurian Crisis

 League can be criticized for not acting quickly enough and by the time Lytton arrived in the Far
east, the invasion was fait accompli
 The Assembly voted for Lytton’s report 18 months after the invasion
 Without USA or the Soviet, the League could not take military action or impose sanctions
 The league’s weaknesses were exposed

Why did the World Disarmament Conference of 1932-4 fail?

Why was disarmament important to the League of Nations

1. It was thought that the arms and naval races between Britain and France had made war most
likely
2. Disarmament was crucial in promoting world peace
3. It was one of Wilson’s 14 points and a prominent feature of the Versailles Settlement although
only the defeated powers were required to disarm
 The Disarmament commission arranged a Disarmament Conference so that issues surrounding
disarmament could be debated and resolutions adopted
 It met in Geneva between 1932 and 1934

Why did the members of the conference fail to agree?

 There were disagreements

1. France, Poland, and Czechoslovakia were worried about their future defensive security if
Germany would attack. They were reluctant to place their faith in a system of collective security
that had already shown weaknesses
2. France was willing to disarm, but only if additional guarantees were granted by Britain and the
USA. However, Britain and USA were not prepared to give the guarantees
 3. Hitler had no intentions to disarm. He was then able to exploit these fears and claimed that
France was not serious about disarmament and used this as an excuse to withdraw from the
conference. Soon after Germany left the League
4. Japan left the League in 1934 after the Manchurian Crisis over the League’s attitude towards the
crisis. If disarmament was going to work, it needed all the major countries to participate. By
1934, it was clear that this was not going to happen. In 1935, Hitler announced his violations of
the disarmament clause and started rearmament. Italian and Japanese rearmament soon
followed

Italian invasion of Abyssinia

Did Italy’s invasion of Abyssinia destroy the League?

 Abyssinia was located between Italy’s other colonies in East Africa; Eritrea and Somaliland
 It was ruled by Emperor Haile Selassie
 It was a border dispute at Walwal
 Italy invaded Ethiopia using heavy arms e.g tanks, planes, and poisonous gas

Reasons for the invasion

 Italy wanted to avenge the defeat of 1896 at Adowa after a failed attempt to colonize Abyssinia
 Search for raw materials
 Search for prestige or glory and to boost Mussolini’s popularity following economic problems
such as unemployment
 Search for a market
 To settle excess Italian population
 To create an empire for Italy
 Mussolini wanted to cover for the past humiliations and failures and disappointments especially
after 1919 when Italy failed to get a significant share of Germany’s and Turkish colonies

The invasion
 Following a border dispute at Walwal in December 1914, Mussolini began building up Italian
forces in Eritrea and Somaliland. Italy poured troops to Italian Somaliland and Eritrea in
preparation to invade Ethiopia
 The attack was launched in October 1935 without any formal declaration of war
 The Italians shocked the world by the ruthless methods used on the primitive villages and small
towns. The Italians used modern guns, planes, and poisonous gas
 Haile Selassie appealed to the League for help
The League’s response

 The League condemned Italy as the aggressor and ordered Mussolini to withdraw his troops
from Italy.
 The League imposed sanctions on Italy to starve Italy
 For a while, the League appeared strong and resolute
 However, the sanctions soon were having no impact.
 Exports of Italy like oil, steel, and coal were not included in the sanctions so they were
halfhearted sanctions and not effective
 Germany and USA were out of the League, so they continued to trade with Italy, thereby
undermining the terms of the sanctions
 The Suez Canal, the passage for the supply of the Italian army was kept open for fear of possible
Italian naval attacks on Gibraltar and Malta (British colonial possessions)
 To avoid embarrassment, Britain and France made a secret deal, the Hoare -Laval Pact where
Italy would receive approximately two thirds of Abyssinia in return for stopping the war
 Mussolini indicated that he would accept this deal, but the news leaked to the French Press and
there was public protest in both Britain and France.
 The plan was abandoned as a result
 War continued and in May 1936, Italy defeated Abyssinia and in July 1936, the League ended
the sanctions
 Haile Selassie was imprisoned, and the king of Italy was proclaimed the new emperor of Ethiopia
 In 1937, Italy moved out of the League
 Mussolini’s success weakened the League
 It prepared the way for German annexation of Austria, Czech and Poland

Why did the League fail to give effective help to Abyssinia

1. Britain and France felt that they were duty bound to support the league of Nations and idea of
collective security so, these 2 nominally applied sanctions to Italy.
2. The sanctions left out important resources such as oil, rubber, and coal
3. Britain and France feared to offend Italy to the extent that it would become an ally to Germany.
The League of Nations received a blow that it never recovered from, and Italy was offended and
became an ally of Germany and left the league in 1937.
4. Britain and France could not close the Suez Canal because feared an attack from Italy on British
colonial possessions

How successful was the League of Nations in dealing with the Abyssinian Crisis?

How did the Abyssinian crisis affect the work of the League after 1936? The League failed to
deal with all the disputes that came after 1936

The Spanish Civil War 1936- 1939

  It was between the Nationalist led by Franco who wanted to establish a dictatorship and the
elected government of the Spanish Republic
 Franco was supported by the army, Leaders of the Catholic Church and landowners
 The government was supported by the socialist, trade unions and Spain’s small communist
party
 Russia also aided the government
 Mussolini sent soldiers to help Franco
 Hitler sent troops and warplanes
 The League of Nations chose not to intervene as it was a domestic or internal dispute
 However, Germany, Italy, Russia violated the policy of non-intervention

The Remilitarization of the Rhineland

 Germany troops entered the demilitarized Rhineland and remilitarized it

 This had been forbidden by the Versailles Treaty
 The League of nations did nothing

The Invasion of Austria ( The Anschluss)

 The Anschluss was a union of Austria and Germany which had been forbidden by the Versailles
 The first attempt by Hitler of the union in 1934 failed
 In March 1938, German troops marched into Austria and the 2 countries reunited
 The League did nothing

The Invasion of Czechoslovakia (1938)

 Hitler demanded Sudetenland which had about 3 million Germans placed under foreign
rule by the Versailles
 3 conferences were held to settle the issue
 In September 1938, Sudetenland was given to Germany
 In May 1939, Hitler invaded the rest of Czechoslovakia and annexed it
 The League did nothing

The invasion of Poland

 Hitler invaded Poland on 1 September 1939

 Britain and France declared war on Germany as a result
 This led to the outbreak of the World War 2

Reasons for the Failure of the League of Nations

 1. Lack of a standing army - League had no army of its own. It depended on member states that
were not always willing to contribute troops to the League forces. League had no army or
mechanism to enforce decisions or rulings. Powerful nations chose not to obey the LON eg
Germany, Italy and Japan in the 1930s were aggressive but could not be punished
2. A club of Victors – The League comprised of mainly victorious powers. Germany joined in 1926.
The Council was comprised of only victorious powers
3. Ineffective sanctions – Sometimes the sanctions were not used. If used, they were halfhearted
and ineffective eg during the Abyssinian Crisis. Sanctions left out vital items such as oil and steel
4. Association with the Versailles Treaty – The defeated powers felt that the League of Nations
was a way to maintain the provisions of the Paris Peace Settlement so did not trust it
5. Absence of Great Powers – USA was the richest and strongest nation, militarily and
economically yet not a member of the League. Absence of USA made the League weak
6. One nation, one vote – Many nations disagreed with this policy. Countries with larger
populations were not happy. Britain that had enormous industrial strength did not find it
sensible to have a same vote as an underdeveloped Ethiopia
7. Failure of disarmament - The League tried to achieve disarmament for all nations but failed
8. Favoritism – Poland and Greece received much favor during the 1920s. They were referred to as
the “Blue eyed boys”
9. A league of European Nations - The South Americans, Africans, and Asians disliked the
dominance of the European powers. Other powers felt like second class members so treated the
league with mistrust
10. Selfishness - most countries were concerned with events affecting themselves. E. g in 1931, no
country was willing or prepared to apply sanctions to Japan because members felt that such
sanctions will destroy their economies. In 1935, the members of the League gave Italy
halfhearted sanctions against Italy because Britain and France wanted to benefit
11. The need for unanimous vote - it was needed in the Assembly and Council. Most decisions
could be delayed because of failure of unanimity
12. The policy of Appeasement – The league members especially Britain and France gave in to
Hitler’s demands hoping that he would stop aggression, instead, Hitler continued with the
aggression
13. The Great Depression – in 1929, there was an economic chaos throughout the world. The
depression for example led to Japanese aggression on China. Because of the depression,
countries could not focus on internationalism
14. The rise of Dictatorships – Dictatorships rose in Italy, Germany, and other countries

NB. Some of the problems or reasons for the failure of the league were constitutional. Identify the
reasons that were constitutional?