‘The League of Nations failed completely to achieve its aims.’
How far do you agree with this judgment?
The League of Nations was an International Organization established in Geneva, formed on the same day that the Treaty of Versailles came into operation (January 10, 1920). The League was created because a number of people in France, South Africa, the UK and the US believed that a world organization of nations could keep the world at peace and prevent a repetition of the horrors of WW1 in Europe. This League of Nations had two main aims. The first was to maintain peace through collective security, which meant that if one state attacked another, all member states would collectively restrain the aggressor, either by economic or military sanctions. The second of its major aims was to encourage international co-operation in order to solve economic and social problems.
The League of Nations was ultimately a failure when it dissolved in 1946 but it cannot be said that the League failed completely to achieve its aims, as there were some successes in its earlier years of operation. This essay will examine and analyze the aims of the League and how they were successful when faced with relatively minor problems. It will be argued that the League of Nations did not fail completely to achieve its aims.
The League of Nations was not a complete failure in terms of its second main aim, which was to encourage international co-operation in order to solve economic and social problems. The League’s Financial Committee was put in charge of rebuilding first the Austrian and then the Hungarian economy in 1922 as both countries were suffering after WW1 and had to pay large reparation sums. The League arranged loans for the countries and effectively took over economic management of them, as a result of this both the Austrian and Hungarian economy managed to recover.1 This shows that when faced with economic problems, the League of Nations did indeed respond and managed to...