League of Nations

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The League of Nations (SDN), League of Nations or League of Nations was a international organization created by the Treaty of Versailles, on June 28, 1919. It was intended to establish the bases for peace and the reorganization of international relations once the First World War ended. Although it failed to resolve the serious international crises that arose in the 1920s and 1930s, it is important because it was the first organization of this type in history and the precedent of the UN.

The League of Nations had some successes in its work, helping to settle some conflicts peacefully in the immediate post-war period, and had its heyday in the period 1924-1929. During this period, the Locarno Treaty was signed in 1925, Germany joined the League in 1926, and the Briand-Kellogg Pact was signed in 1928. However, when the international situation turned sour after the depression of 1929, the League of Nations proved totally incapable of keeping peace.

The SDN was based on the principles of collective security, conflict arbitration and disarmament. The Pact of the SDN (the first 26 articles of the Treaty of Versailles) was drawn up in the first sessions of the Paris Conference, which began on January 18, 1919, at the initiative of the President of the United States, Woodrow Wilson.

On November 15, 1920, the first assembly of the society was held in Geneva, with the participation of 42 countries.

Following the end of World War II in the mid-XX century, the SDN was dissolved on April 18, 1946, being succeeded by the United Nations Organization (UN). In reality it was not a succession of one international organization by another. The experience of the League of Nations is the closest thing to the current UN, but said precedent was not even mentioned by the drafters of the Charter since, wanting to restructure the post-war world of the Second World War, the victorious States opted for doing away with the League of Nations and creating an entirely new international organization.

Reasons for creation

The League of Nations was founded immediately after World War I. It originally consisted of 42 countries, 26 of which were non-European. It reached the maximum number when it had 57 member countries. The Society was created because after the fighting in France, the United Kingdom and the USA, the current of public opinion believed that a world organization of nations could keep the peace and prevent a repetition of the horrors of the war of 1914 to 1918 in Europe, given that the pacts of traditional diplomacy had failed in this endeavor. It was then believed that an effective world body seemed possible because communications had improved and there was greater experience of working together in international organizations. Coordination and cooperation for economic and social progress would become important.

The creation of the League of Nations has its origin in one of Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points to overcome the effects of war and achieve lasting peace. It was a consequence of the reaction of the different nations against the horrors caused by the First World War. Millions of deaths, invalids, displaced civilian population, poverty, war debt, the fall of four empires - the German, the Austro-Hungarian, the Russian and Ottoman—which in turn led to political instability. The League of Nations sought to prevent a repetition of the events that led to the war, such as lack of cooperation, the existence of secret pacts between States or ignorance of international pacts. That is why they wanted to create a body through which nations could resolve their disputes by peaceful means instead of military, avoiding those causes that led to war:

The very explanatory memorandum of the Covenant of the League of Nations proclaims

The High Contracting Parties: Considering that in order to promote cooperation between nations and to ensure peace and security, it matters: to accept certain commitments not to resort to war; to keep in the light of the day international relations, founded on justice and honour; to observe rigorously the requirements of international law, recognized from here on as a rule of effective conduct of Governments; to bring justice and to respect carefully all the obligations organized in the treaties.
Statement of reasons for the Covenant of the League of Nations.
See also: Economic Consequences of World War I

The opening session of the League of Nations Geneva, Switzerland, November 15, 1920.

The Society had two basic objectives. First, it sought to preserve peace through collective action, for which disputes would be referred to the Council of the Society for arbitration and conciliation purposes. If necessary, economic and then military sanctions would be used, whereby members pledged to defend other members against aggression. Second, the Society wished to promote international cooperation in economic and social matters.

Negotiations on "racial equality"

The Japanese delegation supports the inclusion of the principle of "racial equality" in the League of Nations pact, but faces strong opposition from Australia and, to a lesser extent, the United States and the United Kingdom. Throughout the debates, the American and British press harshly criticized Japan, accused of wanting to facilitate the emigration of its citizens.

On the contrary, these discussions raise the hopes of populations that suffer from measures of discrimination or racial segregation, particularly African-Americans. African-American intellectual W.E.B. Du Bois saw Japan as a player in the revenge of the colored peoples: "Since the black Africans, the brown Indians, and the yellow Japanese are fighting for France and England, they might come out of this bloody mess with a new idea of equality." men's essentials.

However, Japanese historian Matsunuma Miho notes that "Japan's goal was not to achieve equality for all races. His government feared above all that a lower status assigned to its citizens would harm their position in the future international order." Japanese nationals are subjected to humiliating discriminatory measures in the United States, Canada and Australia. In addition, Japan itself has a policy of discrimination and repression against Chinese and Koreans, whose independence demonstrations in March 1919 were crushed.

The failure of the initiative sparked great popular anger and resentment in Japan towards the West, especially towards the Anglo-Saxons.

Admission of members

During the negotiations at the Paris Peace Conference, Part I of the Versailles Treaty included the creation of the SDN (League of Nations).

The original member countries were the 32 members of the annex to the Pact and the 13 States invited to participate, leaving future entry open to the rest of the world's countries. The exceptions were Germany, Turkey and the USSR. It was also allowed, in the case of the United Kingdom, the entry of its domains and colonies, such as India, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. According to article 1, the organization was also open to the entry of domains or colonies, not included in the final annex of the pact, that had self-government, was accepted by two thirds of the Assembly and complied with the commitments of the Society.

The countries initially excluded were later incorporated: Austria in 1920, Germany —by means of the Locarno Treaty— in October 1925 (which made it possible to become a member in September 1926); Turkey and the Soviet Union in 1934. The United States never joined the Society, due to the refusal of the US Congress to participate in it, although it did belong to its affiliated bodies.

In the case of withdrawal of the Society, the pact, in its first article, indicated that any country should announce its intention to withdraw two years before becoming effective, having to be up to date with all international obligations in addition to the signed in the pact. Among the members that withdrew are the Japanese Empire and Germany in 1933, Italy in 1936 or the Soviet Union, which was expelled in 1939.

Structure

The Palais des Nations was built in Geneva, Switzerland, between 1929 and 1938 as the headquarters of the SDN.

It was organized into three bodies, according to the Treaty of Versailles:

  • The Assembly: composed of SDN member States. He met in September every year in Geneva, Switzerland. Each State had the right to a vote. It was responsible for proposing and voting on resolutions and recommendations unanimously, as well as for electing the non-permanent members of the Council. The nominations of new member countries should obtain the approval of two thirds of the votes of the Assembly. In addition, it should approve the budget of the Society, the work of the Council, the Secretariat, technical organizations and advisory commissions. It had participation in the election of judges to the Permanent Court of International Justice.
  • The Council: originally composed of four permanent members: France, Italy, Japan, United Kingdom and four non-permanent members elected by the Assembly and renewed by thirds every three years. In 1922, the number of non-permanent countries was expanded to a total of six (Uruguay and Sweden) In 1926, upon entry into Germany, the United States post was assigned to it, and the number of non-permanents was increased to nine. The statutes are amended in 1934, providing a Council of six permanent members, one of whose seats is assigned to the USSR — which had just entered — and 11 non-permanent members elected by the Assembly. The Council regularly held three times a year and in special sessions if the occasion deserved it. Its resolutions were taken by a unanimous vote, except in matters of procedure. The council acted as a commission of inquiry and conciliation in any dispute submitted to it. Non-members of the Society could present any subject that directly affected their interests to the Council.
Members of the Council of the League of Nations (1920-1940)
  • The Secretariat: Permanent body responsible for the preparation of meetings of the Assembly and the Council, as well as the preparation of reports and documents. He was in charge of the advisory commissions and the High Commissioner of the Free City of Danzig. They were Secretaries-General:
    • Sir James Eric Drummond (United Kingdom) 1920-1933, previously designated by the Versailles Treaty
    • Joseph Avenol (France) 1933-1940
    • Seán Lester (Ireland) 1940-1946

International Organizations associated or affiliated with the SDN:

  • ILO (1920)
  • Permanent Court of International Justice (1922)

Official languages

The official languages were French and English in 1920. But in the early 1920s a proposal arose to adopt Esperanto as a working language. Ten delegates accepted the proposal and only one rejected it, the French delegate Gabriel Hanotaux. Hanotaux did not want French to lose its position as the lingua franca of diplomacy and saw Esperanto as a serious threat. Two years later the Society recommended to its Member States that they include Esperanto in their educational programs.

Members

Main article: Countries affiliated with the League of Nations
SDN member countries throughout their existence.

Founding countries. They were the following:

  • 32 countries signing the Versailles Treaty (1920) as belligerent nations during the First World War: Australia, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Czechoslovakia, Republic of China, Cuba, France, Kingdom of Greece, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, British India, Kingdom of Italy, Japanese Empire, Liberia, Nicaragua, New Zealand, Panama, Peru, Poland, Portugal, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, United Kingdom of Great Britain and South Africa
  • 13 neutral countries during the Great War included in Annex I to the Treaty of Versailles (1920): Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Denmark, El Salvador, Spain, Netherlands, Norway, Paraguay, Sublime State of Persia, Sweden, Switzerland and Venezuela.

Countries integrated later. They joined after the Treaty of Versailles:

  • 1920: Austria, Kingdom of Bulgaria, Costa Rica, Finland, Luxembourg and Kingdom of Albania.
  • 1921: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania.
  • 1922: Kingdom of Hungary
  • 1923: Ethiopian Empire, Ireland and the Dominican Republic.
  • 1926: Germany.
  • 1931: Mexico.
  • 1932: Kingdom of Iraq and Turkey.
  • 1934: Soviet Union, Kingdom of Afghanistan and Ecuador,
  • 1937: Kingdom of Egypt.

ACTIONS AND CONFLICTS

The main actions were focused on promoting a world policy of disarmament and collective security. The reform carried out by the Geneva Protocol (Pacific Resolution of International Conflicts 1924) made arbitration mandatory in case of conflict. The rejection of arbitration by one of the parties in conflict made him recognize the character of aggressor. For this, military sanctions could be applied automatically. Another novelty of the company's pact was the obligation of member states to publish their treaties and register them in the SDN.

achieved a peaceful solution of the following conflicts:

  • 1920: Sweden and Finland disputed the sovereignty of the Åland Islands. The Society decides for Finland.
  • 1921: Dispute between Germany and Poland by the High Silesia, especially the industrial area. The Society decides the distribution between Germany and Poland of the High Silesia.
  • 1925: Border conflict in which Greek troops invade Bulgarian territory after border incidents. The Society intervenes quickly with the withdrawal of Greek troops and the payment of compensation to Bulgaria.
  • Turkey demands the sovereignty of the province of Mosul, which was part of the British mandate of Iraq. The Society resolves for the United Kingdom.
  • 1932: Arbitration in the Chaco War between Bolivia and Paraguay.
  • 1938: Border arbitration between Peru and Colombia during the Collombo-Peruvian War in the area of Leticia.

However, these were of less importance against conflicts in which the great powers or groups of countries had already declared interests, which occurred in the following decisive cases:

  • 1922: Claims for the possession of Vilnius between Poland and Lithuania. The Conference of Ambassadors in Paris resolved the conflict, urging itself to resolve problems involving or originating in the Versailles Treaty.
  • 1923: The Corfu incident. During the solution of a border conflict between Greece and Albania, the Italian General Enrico Tellini was murdered, who had been ordered to investigate in Greece. Benito Mussolini ordered the bombing of the island of Corfu and the payment of a strong compensation. The Society offered a solution, but the Conference of Ambassadors rejected it and proposed a favorable one to Italy, due to the pressures of Mussolini.
  • 1931: The Japanese invasion of Manchuria. Japan owned the mines, railways, factories and ports in Manchuria and maintained a military garrison in the city of Kwantung. Through an incident promoted by Japanese soldiers on September 18, 1931, a section of the Japanese railway is flying. From this incident the Chinese were blamed, and Japan took the opportunity to occupy the city of Shenyang. China asks for help from the Society, which orders the withdrawal of Japanese troops, but the Japanese government does not admit that request. The Japanese army continues its advance by Manchuria. By the end of 1931, Japan had control of the entire province of Manchuria, which they call Manchukuo. In October 1933, the Lytton Commission proposed the withdrawal of Japanese troops and the semi-autonomy of Manchuria from China. The proposals are approved by the Society, but Japan withdraws from it in 1933, after which Japan fully organizes Manchuria as a satellite state.
  • 1935: An Italian invasion of Abisinia. In an attempt to expand its African colonies, Italy invades Abisinia in October 1935. The emperor of Abisinia Haile Selassie, who led the resistance, described in a session of the Assembly the terrible methods of the Italian invasion and requested the intervention of the Society. The Society condemns such action and imposes economic sanctions, but does not include exports of coal, oil and steel to Italy. These sanctions, which did not affect Italy's productive capacity, did not prevent the complete conquest of Abisinia in May 1936. Weeks later such sanctions were lifted by the Society and Italy soon abandoned the Society.
  • 1936: During the Spanish civil war, at the request of the Government of the Spanish Republic, it was entrusted with the custody of the heritage of the Museo del Prado (the so-called boxes of the Prado) which were held in Geneva until in 1939 they were reinstated to the Spanish Government.

The Covenant of the League of Nations was annexed to all other treaties. Its great objective was to make possible a collective security that guaranteed the integrity of all States, strong and weak, the arbitration of international conflicts and disarmament. It was the key element of President Wilson's proposal. But the refusal of the isolationist US Senate to admit the US and the exclusion of Germany and the USSR, which did not enter respectively until 1926 and 1934, limited its potential from the beginning.

The thirties marked its definitive failure. The aggressions of the fascist and militarist powers showed their ineffectiveness. Germany and Japan left the Society in 1933, and Italy in 1937. The USSR was expelled in 1939. The start of the Second World War certified the death of the first universal organization of nations.

Territories under SDN administration

Flag of the Territory of the Sarre Basin during the administration of the League of Nations.
Main article: Mandate of the League of Nations
Flag of Danzig during the administration of the League of Nations.

The Treaty of Versailles gave the SDN the direct and temporary administration of various territories grouped according to their two different modes of administration:

Former territories of Germany in Europe, administered by the Secretariat

  • Territory of the Sarre Basin: through a Commission of 5 members (26 February 1919) for 15 years, after which a plebiscite was made to determine whether the Sarre was joining France or Germany, or was maintained under international administration. On March 1 it is incorporated again into Germany after the results of the consultation, where more than 90% of the electorate voted for reinstatement to Germany.
  • The Free City of Danzig: through a High Commissioner (15 November 1920-1 September 1939). After the invasion of Poland by the Wehrmacht, Danzig is directly incorporated into the territory of Nazi Germany.

Territories outside of Europe belonging to the German Empire and Ottoman Empire through SDN mandates

Supervised by the Permanent Commission of Mandates, an international organization originally made up of 45 countries, created by the Paris Conference on April 24, 1919. These territories were divided into three categories based on their degree of development and were ceded to the allied powers:

  • Mandate A: Territories that had belonged to the Ottoman Empire and were handed over to the United Kingdom and France. The British corresponded to Palestine (1920), Transjordania (1922) and Mesopotamia (1920), for their part, the French obtained the mandate of Syria (1920).
  • Mandate B: African territories that had belonged to the German Empire. Tanganica assigned to the British, Rwanda-Urundi to Belgium, and the colonies of Kamerun and Togoland that were divided between French and British.
  • Mandates C: German territories that given their small population or remoteness were assigned to countries as mandates. Africa of the German Southwest yielded to South Africa; New Guinea, Samoa and Nauru to the British who then transferred it to Australia, the first two and to New Zealand the island of Nauru. Finally, the Pacific islands were ceded to the Japanese Empire in the South Pacific Mandate.

Reasons for failure

SDN had a number of problems from its inception. The first was the United States Senate's refusal to approve the Treaty, which meant that the US government never adhered to the SDN, leaving a world power of the time out of reach. The second was the systematic exclusion of Germany and Turkey (part of the Ottoman Empire until the contemporary partition of the Ottoman Empire), due to their status as defeated countries in World War I, in addition to having officially determined "sole responsibility" 3. 4; of Germany for the outbreak of said contention, for which excluding Germany from the SDN was decided as a "punishment" to be imposed by the victors. The Soviet Union was also excluded for many years, given the communist nature of its government (which encouraged the creation of a cordon sanitaire of anti-communist states to prevent the spread of the Bolshevik revolution) and the belated diplomatic recognition of the victors of the First World War towards the government of Moscow (recognition that only arrived shortly before 1930), with the consequent loss of prestige of the SDN.

Already in 1923 the weakness of the organization was evident before its own promoters when France occupied the German region of the Ruhr to demand war reparations, without this fact being able to even be condemned by the SDN despite having been officially prohibited from collecting debts of war through this kind of military operations. The fact that France was precisely a winner of the Great War served to legitimize and justify this occupation, damaging the prestige of the SDN.

Japan's invasion of Manchuria in 1931 was the second major blow to the SDN. Condemned for the aggression, Japan left the organization in 1933 but without having received effective sanctions from the members of the SDN and without having restored the territory of Manchuria to China. Germany had been admitted as a peace-loving state to the SDN in 1926, but in 1933 the Nazi regime followed the same path as Japan and withdrew from the SDN.

The League of Nations never gained sufficient authority to force its resolutions on its members. This was repeated in 1934 when the General Assembly issued a resolution regarding the Chaco War, which took place between 1932 and 1935, with the Republic of Paraguay and the Republic of Bolivia as belligerent states. The final ruling of the General Assembly established a position in the territorial dispute favoring Bolivia, but the Republic of Paraguay challenged the authority of this body and withdrew from the League of Nations, to later win the aforementioned dispute.

The invasion of Abyssinia by Fascist Italy in 1935 revealed that the SDN lacked effective authority to guide international action against state-to-state aggression, being completely powerless to ensure a modicum of respect for world peace. Despite the fact that the SDN approved economic sanctions against Fascist Italy in 1935, these were not supported by many countries, and they did not deprive Italy of obtaining essential raw materials for its military campaign, for which reason the sanctions were useless and further discredited Italy. the SDN.

Mapmundi showing the member countries of the League of Nations (green and red) on April 18, 1946, when the League of Nations ceased to exist.

In the end, the two main members of the SDN (France and Great Britain) preferred to pursue a policy of "appeasement" towards the aggressive fascist powers, and thus refused to take harsher action in trying (in vain) to prevent Mussolini from withdrawing Italy from the SDN and allying with Hitler. As a result of this Franco-British policy, issues such as the German reoccupation of the Rhineland could not be dealt with before the SDN, leaving this entity increasingly marginalized from the great issues of international politics. A case of special importance was that of foreign intervention in the Spanish civil war, which led to the creation of the Non-Intervention Committee to somewhat replace the SDN, although in the end the Spanish conflict monopolized the meetings of the organization, given the complaints from the Spanish government and the involvement of other governments of States represented, some in favor of the Spanish Republic and others in favor of the rebel faction led by General Franco. The Spanish crisis thus opened the way for the Second World War, consummating the failure of the SDN.

After the end of the Spanish conflict and the German invasion of Poland, with the consequent declaration of war by the United Kingdom and France, it showed the final failure of the SDN when the main event that they wanted to prevent with the creation of the SDN occurred. the Society: a new full-scale war in Europe. With this, the SDN lost almost all its reason for existing. The last major official act of the SDN was to expel the USSR from its midst when Soviet troops invaded Finland in December 1939.

The League of Nations only maintained some refugee relief and labor regulation services, in a reduced form, during the World War II years; for these purposes it continued to use its headquarters in neutral Switzerland and having the Irish Seán Lester as its last general secretary, with a team of a hundred servers. The SDN was officially dissolved in April 1946, although its last Assembly was held after the end of the War, between April 8 and 18, 1946, and its legal dissolution did not take place until July 17 of the following year, its archives and assets were then transferred to the newly created UN. In recent years, the SDN has been the subject of various studies, after having remained for decades far from the historian's attention.

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