Monday, December 30, 2019

1920-1-10 League of Nations

.

Covenant of the League of Nations: The League of Nations was US President Woodrow Wilson's tool for a new and peaceful world after the war of 1914-1918 - and the US should have been their most important member. But the United States never joined and today the League of Nations is often seen as a failure. Was it doomed [by partisanship] from the start?

The League of Nations, abbreviated as LN or LoN, (Société des Nations, abbreviated as "SDN" or "SdN" and meaning "Society of Nations") was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 following the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War; in 1919 U.S. president Woodrow Wilson won the Nobel Peace Prize for his role as the leading architect of the League.

The organisation's primary goals, as stated in its Covenant, included preventing wars through collective security and disarmament and settling international disputes through negotiation and arbitration. Other issues in this and related treaties included labour conditions, just treatment of native inhabitants, human and drug trafficking, the arms trade, global health, prisoners of war, and protection of minorities in Europe. The Covenant of the League of Nations was signed on 28 June 1919 as Part I of the Treaty of Versailles, and it became effective together with the rest of the Treaty on 10 January 1920. The first meeting of the Council of the League took place on 16 January 1920, and the first meeting of Assembly of the League took place on 15 November 1920.

The diplomatic philosophy behind the League represented a fundamental shift from the preceding hundred years. The League lacked its own armed force and depended on the victorious First World War Allies (France, the United Kingdom, Italy and Japan were the permanent members of the Executive Council) to enforce its resolutions, keep to its economic sanctions, or provide an army when needed. The Great Powers were often reluctant to do so. Sanctions could hurt League members, so they were reluctant to comply with them. During the Second Italo-Abyssinian War, when the League accused Italian soldiers of targeting Red Cross medical tents, Benito Mussolini responded that "the League is very well when sparrows shout, but no good at all when eagles fall out."

At its greatest extent from 28 September 1934 to 23 February 1935, it had 58 members. After some notable successes and some early failures in the 1920s, the League ultimately proved incapable of preventing aggression by the Axis powers in the 1930s. The credibility of the organization was weakened by the fact that the United States never joined the League and the Soviet Union joined late and was soon expelled after invading Finland. Germany withdrew from the League, as did Japan, Italy, Spain and others. The onset of the Second World War showed that the League had failed its primary purpose, which was to prevent any future world war. The League lasted for 26 years; the United Nations (UN) replaced it after the end of the Second World War and inherited several agencies and organisations founded by the League.
..........
On 12 November 1933 Germany held a national referendum on withdrawing from the League of Nations.

Germany had joined the League of Nations in 1926 as a result of the Locarno Treaties, which aimed to secure post-war peace and normalize relations between Germany and its European neighbours. 

The Locarno Treaties were seven post-World War I agreements negotiated amongst Germany, France, Great Britain, Belgium, Italy, Poland and Czechoslovakia in late 1925. In the main treaty, the five western European nations pledged to guarantee the inviolability of the borders between Germany and France and Germany and Belgium as defined in the Treaty of Versailles. They also promised to observe the demilitarized zone of the German Rhineland and to resolve differences peacefully under the auspices of the League of Nations. In the additional arbitration treaties with Poland and Czechoslovakia, Germany agreed to the peaceful settlement of disputes, but there was notably no guarantee of its eastern border, leaving the path open for Germany to attempt to revise the Versailles Treaty and regain territory it had lost in the east under its terms.

However the harsh conditions of the Treaty of Versailles, imposed on Germany following its defeat in World War I, included significant territorial losses and military restrictions that continued to be symbolised by the League of Nations.

Believing that the League perpetuated the country’s economic, military, and diplomatic weaknesses, on October 14, 1933, Adolf Hitler announced Germany’s formal withdrawal from the League of Nations and the Geneva Disarmament Conference. The Conference for the Reduction and Limitation of Armaments, generally known as the Geneva Conference or World Disarmament Conference, was an international conference of states held in Geneva, Switzerland, between February 1932 and November 1934 to accomplish disarmament in accordance with the Covenant of the League of Nations. It was attended by 61 states, most of which were members of the League of Nations, but the USSR and the United States also attended.

Hitler cited concerns that other countries, particularly France, were unwilling to engage in disarmament on equal terms with Germany while arguing that Germany needed to rearm in order to protect itself and regain its standing as a major power. By leaving the League, Hitler aimed to pursue an independent foreign policy that would allow Germany to rebuild its military and overturn the Treaty of Versailles.

The referendum held on November 12, 1933, was intended to provide a show of public support for the government's decision. Voters were asked whether they approved of the government’s withdrawal from the League of Nations. Official results indicated overwhelming support, with approximately 95% of voters casting ballots in favour of the withdrawal. Having quit the League, Hitler was able to pursue his broader objective of reasserting Germany’s dominance in Europe through military rearmament and expansion.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.

sī vīs pācem, parā bellum

igitur quī dēsīderat pācem praeparet bellum    therefore, he who desires peace, let him prepare for war sī vīs pācem, parā bellum if you wan...