How successful was the LoN in dealing with disputes during the 1920’s? Explain your answer.
The League of Nations was set up by the ToV, yet even during its early years in the 1920’s they faced several disputes. In this essay I will try to assess how successful the LoN actually was in dealing with disputes in the 1920’s.
As early as 1921, the first dispute reached the League. Finland and Sweden were having a dispute over the Aaland islands, as they weren’t sure who they should actually belong to. The LoN was asked to arbitrate and ended up deciding that the islands should belong to Finland, but no weapons should be kept there. Since both countries accepted this decision, this is clearly a success of the League. A similar outcome came in Mosul, Iraq, few years later. Mosul had been made into a LoN mandate by the ToV and in 1924 Turkey was demanding ownership of the area. The LoN decided to do support Iraq. Turkey agreed with the decision. Another success came in Upper Silesia, which had been granted to Poland by the ToV, but had a large German population living there. After the results of a plebiscite brought demonstrations back to the streets, the LoN decided to split up the town, giving a part to Poland and the other part to Germany. Both countries accepted the decision. A dispute between Bulgaria and Greece later on can also be deemed a success. Greece ended up invading Bulgaria, but pulled out when the Bulgarians appealed to the League. Peace had been maintained. Finally, even though they failed to stop a bloody civil war
in Turkey, the LoN did respond very successfully to the humanitarian crisis caused by the war,
as hundreds of thousands of job were made, hunger was gotten rid of and diseases were kept
from spreading.
Still, there are always two sides to a coin. For example the port of Memel, in Lithuania. It had been made into a LoN zone by the ToV and a French general put to govern in. However, the Lithuanians wanted it back and invaded. After...