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Causes of its Failure:

The League of Nations was the first major attempt as an international organization of state to

maintain peace and promote international co-operation. But it failed. Some of the causes of its

failure are briefly mentioned as follows:

!. The political bac"ground of #urope at the time of the birth of the League was not $ery

conduci$e to a peace organization. %orld %ar & had been fought ostensibly to ma"e the world

safe for democracy' to end all future wars' etc. But essentially it was an imperialist war for the

di$ision and re-di$ision of colonies.

The major powers namely the allied and the associated powers were' no doubt' $ictorious but

peace as it emerged was an imperialist peace. The secret treaties among major powers were

concluded at the $ery outset.

The League of Nations was a part of the (ersailles peace treaty. But men li"e )lemenceau *+rench,.. and Lloyd /eorge ne$er wanted its success. )lemenceau actually ridiculed the idea and said

to %ilson' 0& li"e your League of Nations. & li"e it $ery much but & do not belie$e in it'0 Thus the

imperialist character of the peace handicapped the League throughout its history.

1. 2t no stage of its history did the League represent the world balance of forces. The 3.S.2. ne$er

became its member and 4ussia stepped in only in !567. Thus its effecti$eness as an instrument of

the world peace suffered.

6. &n absence of 4ussia and 2merica' it was actually dominated by the 2nglo-+rench powers and

became an instrument of their policy in #urope and since these powers were not interested inpeace so much as in maintenance of their imperialist domination and destruction of So$iet

3nion' the League of Nations ne$er had a chance to succeed.

7. The League of Nations was founded on the principle of unani of all the members e8cept those

who were party to a dispute. Thus e$ery single member including the smallest had the right to

$eto. This system had two $ery important conse9uences.

*i 2 small power could $ery irresponsibly hamstring the League in its action against an

aggressor. +or instance aid to 4epublican Spain and condemnation of +ascist attac" against

Spain was pre$ented by a hostile $ote of ,ortugal. The small powers who could not ha$e theresponsibility of maintaining world peace' could yet wrec" it.

*ii The big powers $ery often used small powers as stal"ing horses from behind the $eto of a

small member and thus escaped responsibility for a particular decision before their own people

and world public opinion.

. The world was di$ided into two social systems-the capitalistic and socialistic. The absence of

4ussia created a $ery real danger that the League might be used against the new socialist state.

3nfortunately this danger pro$ed to be real. The League which condoned fascist aggressions one

after the other' wasted no time in $iolating its $ery principles by e8pelling So$iet 3nion on the9uestion of +inland.

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;. The spheres of acti$ity of the )ouncil and the 2ssembly were not clearly

http://www.preservearticles.com/201106258589/what-are-the-causes-for-the-

failure-of-league-of-nations.html

https://www.foreignaairs.com/articles/1932-10-01/league-nations-successes-

an-failures

1. !"nter-#ar %iplomac&.' (nline."nternet. http://www.rpfuller.com/gcse/histor&/).html *ccesse (cto+er )-13 2003.

2. !,eague of ations.' (nline. "nternet.http://www.histor&learningsite.co.u/leaugeofnations.htm *ccesse (cto+er )-13 2003.

3. ! ,earning an esearch: ,eague of ations.' (nline. "nternet.http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/refpages/ef*rticle.asp4re761560118*ccesse (cto+er )-13 2003.

). !he ,eague of ations.' (nline. "nternet.http://www.russiannewsnetwor.com/leaguenations.html *ccesse (cto+er )-13 2003

he ise of the "nternational (rganisation. * hort istor& +& %avi *rmstrong

;

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position to the traditional great powers through the UN 'e-urity oun-il2 the !ost

signifi-ant thing about its -reation, perhaps, is that this ti!e the U'" did not ba-k away.

The UN may have almost stumbled sideways into its peacekeeping role.

" signifi-ant nu!ber of the old League3s ai!s and !ethods were trans!itted into the

new organisation in 194. "!ong these were not only su-h low5key but effe-tive

institutions as the 6nternational ourt and the 6nternational Labour 7rganisation, but

also the working assu!ptions of the se-retariat, and so!e key operations 5 in-luding

those that would soon -o!e to be -alled 3pea-ekeeping3 operations.

*he UN !ay have al!ost stu!bled sideways into its pea-ekeeping role, but the !otive

and sustaining for-e in the pro-ess was the survival 5 and the strengthening 5 of the

e&pe-tation of international involve!ent in the preservation of global se-urity. #radually

this -a!e to in-lude the defen-e of hu!an rights as well as the resolution of territorial

-onfli-t. *he UN3s first atte!pt to resolve a serious -onfli-t, in /alestine in 19485%, was

unsu--essful, even disastrous it failed to i!ple!ent its own partition plan, and its

spe-ial !ediator was assassinated.

Dealing with such internal conflict was a far more ambitious...task

None5the5less, UN*'7 +the UN *ru-e 'upervision 7rganisation opened the gates to a

wave of 5 often bafflingly labelled 5 su--essors UN7#6/, UN:;, UN7#6L, UN;6Y/,

UN67#, 7NU7