The League of Nations

The Alliance system was the first action to take place to create security among the European nations however was also one of the main causes of World War One. The secret alliance systems transformed into the League of Nation after the First World War. The League of Nations main purpose was to make, according to Woodrow Wilson, Ð''the world safe for democracy' and also to prevent the turmoil which was caused in WWI from reoccurring. The League of Nations had various triumphs however for the most part failed causing many members to lose their trust in League. Overall the League did not achieve their goals, and overall not preventing the outbreak of another war.

By the 1930's the League of Nations had 60 members compared to the 42 it had started off with. The main powers, also known as Ð''the big 4' were Britain, France, Italy and Japan. The League was sought to become a Ð''World Parliament' which is similar to today's United Nations. The League was a place where countries were supposed to sort out their arguments and discuss rising issues. The League also wanted to improve people's lives and jobs all while enforcing the Treaty of Versailles. The league however could not work without three major nations; The United States, Germany and Russia. America was not part of the League because they did not want to be included in other nations affairs; Article X of the covenant of the League of Nations. America never joined. Germany was only a member from 1926 to 1933 and Russia didn't join until 1934. These nations not joining; or having a big impact on the League was ultimately the start of the League's collapse along with the League not having an army. The League was a disaster from the start, with no real organization, no one could agree on any major problems.

Although the League of Nations did have a basic structure of organization which included: The Assembly, The Council, Agencies and the Secretariat. On the Outside the organizational structure may seem well thought out however it is like varnish if you scratch there is nothing beneath the surface. In the Assembly-or general meeting of the League once a year- decisions could not be made because decisions had to be unanimous. The secretariat was supposed to keep the League in order; this failed thus making the League weak. The Agencies which consisted of an International Court of Justice, a health organization, and committees for labour, slavery and refugees were the only decent committees to come out of the league. This was proven in 1922 the refugee agency committee set up camps and fed Turkish refugees and again in 1926 when the League approved the slavery convention and freed 200,000slaves. Another success of the league was the signed international convention to combat the drugs trade in 1936 and this is still in place! The Agencies were not enough for the League to remain strong though, because their failures proved to outweigh their triumphs.

The League seemed promising with the Treaty of Versailles as their base and their victory in Bulgaria in 1925. There was a dispute on the border between Greece and Bulgaria and Greek soldiers had been killed, which caused the Greeks to vigorously attack Bulgaria. The Council of the League met and came to the agreement to tell the Greeks to leave Bulgaria. This proved successful when the Greeks left Bulgaria after orders from the Bulgarian government commanding its army to not fight back. This was a success however one must not forget the incident in Corfu just two years prior. In 1923 and Italian general was murdered while in Greece. Furious, Mussolini acted by invading the Greek island Corfu. The Council met and had given