Through This Journey We have Concluded...

Ok all in all, the League was a failure. My partner and I sifted through evidence, and even though there were many success, the failures outweigh them.
Thank you for all those who had the patience to read this thing. XD But really. I hope you all god some good information! Be sure to check where we posted our sources, so you can go make historical discoveries for yourself!
See you guyz on the flip flop! ^_~

Quote of the Post:

"The Covenant of the League of Nations had envisaged sponsoring only the protection of certain categories of men: national minorities and populations of territories controlled by other countries." -- Rene Cassin

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Failures of the League!

Before we can reach our goal of seeing whether or not the League was a success or failure, we have to look at what those successes and failures are. Failures will go first.

The Manchuria and Abyssinia Crisis:

In the beginning of the League of Nations, there was a pride that most countries had when they joined the League. There was a positive response because this was the first step towards collective security.

However, this trust did not last forever. The League’s inactivity, and inability to solve major problems. The lack of trust that the league had from the countries’ that they represented in addition to the weak infrastructure that it was founded on was a large contributor to the downfall. The distrust, however, did not really set in until after the Abyssinia Crisis where Italy invaded the north eastern coast of Africa to take over Abyssinia, and the Manchurian Crisis where Japan invaded China, specifically the Manchuria. These Crisis should have been put down immediately, but because the League’s inability to handle the situation, and because of the lack of commitment that the members had to true collective security, these issues caused pretty big problems.

Manchuria:

The Manchuria Crisis, started when Japan’s economy began to decline from the lack of resources, at the hand of The Great Depression. Upon hearing about this, members of the league sent Lytton Commission(Sept. of 1931) to gather information and moderate in order to solve the Crisis. This would have solved the Crisis quickly, but due to in inactivity of this Commission and the League’s apathy, it wasn’t till a year later (Oct. of 1932) that the Commission actually reported back. The only problem was that the report had not much more information than: Japan invaded China, and they should leave. This “revelation” lead to a meeting to vote on whether or not Japan should leave, and the League voted in favor. As a result, Japan stood up and left the meeting.

In the end, the League did not do much to aid the situation. Japan just stayed in Manchuria until 1937.  They places embargoes on Japan to weaken the forces, but the countries that were supposed to participate could not because their economies were crippled by the Great Depression as well.  Overall, this was one of the League’s biggest failures.

Abyssinia:

The Abyssinia Crisis was started when Mussolini, the Italian dictator, began to cause a stir in the “Scramble for Africa.” Mussolini accused the Abyssinians of aggression at an oasis called Wal Wal, and but he had already planned to invade to take over Abyssinia before the accusation even arose. Because of the more advanced weaponry, Abyssinia was easily taken over by mode of machinery and mustard gas. The neighboring regions called to the League for assistance, but like Manchira, the league did not do much.

Quote of the Post:

"I have loved but one flag and I can not share that devotion and give affection to the mongrel banner invented for the league of nations." -- Henry Cabot Lodge

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United States HISTORY. (n.d.). The manchurian crisis. Retrieved from

http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1499.html

gcsehistory.org.uk. (n.d.). The manchurian crisis 1931-1933. Retrieved from

http://www.gcsehistory.org.uk/modernworld/appeasement/manchuriancrisis.htm

History Learning Site. (n.d.). Abyssinia 1935 to 1936. Retrieved from

http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/aby1.htm

The League Did it Right!....Sometimes.

When was the last time you played sports? If you are a sports fanatic then I’m sure you know all about Leagues such as the National Football League, National Hockey League, Major League Baseball, and the National Basketball association (well technically that's not a league but you get my point).  The common theme that exists between all Leagues is opposition. If you are a member of a league your ultimate goal should be to work for the advancement and success of your league. However the entire concept of a League is predicated on the fact that with the formation of different teams comes the rivalries and oppositions that makes sports exciting.  The league of Nations is no different than any other League especially on the topic of opposition. When you have members like France, The U.S, England, and Italy, you are bound to have problems. Which reminds me lets not forget every Leagues has got to have its own motto and the League of Nation does not disappoint in that area: “to develop cooperation among nations and to guarantee them peace and security”. 

Wow that is ambitious don't you think? This idealistic and somewhat grandiose pursuit of peace proved to be a failure on many occasions. But despite the many failures the League had altruistic intentions and as a result the League also had many successes. The League was successful in the Aaland Islands in 1921. These islands were between Finland and Sweden. The islands traditionally belonged to Finland but the islanders wanted to be governed by Sweden (probably because of their meatballs). The League stepped in and proclaimed that the Aalands would stay with Finland but it had to be a weapon free zone. The League was also successful in upper Silesia. The Treaty of Versailles gave Upper Silesia the choice between joining the German Weimar government or the Polish government. The people chose Germany but there were many who wanted to join Poland and so this caused great opposition and animosity within upper Silesia. The league split the region between Germany and Poland (sharing is caring). The League also made an attempt to right one of its wrongs. After letting a bloody war break out in Turkey they sent doctors and Health Organizations to help the nearly 1.5 million refugees and to heal those with Typhoid and Cholera. The invested over 10 million dollars in Turkey and by 1926 over half a million people found jobs.

Quote of the Post:

"I had come to regard the U.S. Senate's rejection of the league of nations as a tragic mistake." -- Elliot Richardson

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What is the League?

If we are going to do this the right way, we first have to understand what the League of Nations is! The League was proposed by Woodrow Wilson in his 14 Points Speech. The reason that the League was so important to Woodrow was because he believed that one of the only ways to ensure collective security.* It was Woodrow's strong belief that communication was the only way to bring about true collective security, and so it became the main issue that he pushed for at the Paris Peace Conference for the Treaty of Versailles. The Covenant for the League consists of Articles 1-26 of the Treaty of Versailles. ("Versailles Treaty June 28, 1919 : Part I" 2008)


The most common view of the League of nations is a negative one. It had had many failures in this time. For now, we're only going to go into the basics:issues did the League have that lead to major problems. In the next few posts, I'll show you the League's failures. 


The league stated that an attack on one country, or any threat of war on one country was a threat or attack on all countries in the league. This was not upheld by it's members. In fact throughout the existence of the league, there were many times where the League's participants did not move to help a fellow participant. However, this was caused by many factors during the 1920s and 1930s.; the biggest of these factors being the *Great Depression. Because the majority of the word's powers were in economic turmoil, they lacked the initiative to help any other country. 


The second big issue that the league faced was the lack of America's Presence! Wait? Did I not just say that it was Woodrow Wilson's idea to push for the League?  "The League was proposed by Woodrow Wilson in his 14 Points Speech." Huh. I guess I did. So, why was America not present? That's because the United States Congress voted against joining the League.


Now that we have an idea of what the League is about, we can begin our Journey!!

Quote of the Post:

"History is philosophy teaching by example and also by warning." --Lord Bolingbroke 

Vocabulary:

*Collective Security- Under a collective security arrangement, an aggressor against any one state is considered an aggressor against all other states, which act together to repel the aggressor. (Encyclopædia Britannica)
*Great Depression- The Great Depression (1929-39) was the deepest and longest-lasting economic downturn in the history of the Western industrialized world. ("Great Depression" 2013)

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Sources:

MacMillan, Margaret. Paris 1919: Six Months That Changed the World. Random House Inc., 2003. (accessed December 12, 2013).

Encyclopædia Britannica Online, s. v. "collective security," accessed December 12, 2013, http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/125567/collective-security.


"MILESTONES: 1914–1920." US Department of State: Office of the Historian . http://history.state.gov/milestones/1914-1920/league (accessed December 12, 2013).


Yale Law School Lillian Goldman Law Library , "The Versailles Treaty June 28, 1919 : Part I." Last modified 2008. Accessed December 16, 2013. http://avalon.law.yale.edu/imt/parti.asp.


History Learning Site, "League of Nations Failures." Last modified 2013. Accessed December 16, 2013. http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/league_nations_failures.htm.


History, "The Great Depression." Last modified 2013. Accessed December 16, 2013. http://www.history.com/topics/great-depression.

In The Beginning, There was the League!

This Blog is dedicated to those who love history!  Specifically those who are studying the League of Nations. In the result of this journey, hopefully, we will come to the conclusion as to whether or not the League of Nations was an overall success or a failure. The 2 writers of this blog (myself and a classmate of mine) will pose 2 positions, and come to a final consensus. But how are we going to define failure? We consider it how well did they take on the rights and responsibility of the issues they were presented.
This will be interesting. I pray that you all will enjoy taking this journey with me! ^_^

Quote of the Post: 

“If you don't know history, then you don't know anything. You are a leaf that doesn't know it is part of a tree. ”--Michael Crichton

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