The League of Nations Was a Failure? How Far Do You Agree?

The League of Nations was a failure? How far do you agree?

In my opinion the League was more of a failure overall. The League certainly has a number of failures.

 First of all, the League didn't command its own army, meaning it had to rely on the countries that were members to contribute troops. In cases where the member countries were reluctant to send troops, the League would helpless; for example, at Vilna in 1920, the League was not able to stop the takeover of Vilna by the Poles, as the French didn't want to upset Poland because they saw Poland as a potential ally and a buffer to communism and the British were not prepared to act alone.

Another failure that the league had was that in 1931, the Japanese claimed that Chinese soldiers had sabotaged the Manchurian railway in Korea, which Japan controlled. Japan attacked and by February 1932, had conquered Manchuria. Also at this time Japan had attacked and taken control of Shanghai in China itself. In March 1932, China appealed to the League of Nations.

However it took a very long time to acknowledge China's pleas for help. Eventually the League delegation led by Lord Lytton arrived in Manchuria to see what was happening, and in October 1932 it declared that Japan should leave the League. In February 1933 the League voted against Japans control and this led to Japan leaving the League. This meant the League had lost a major power that was also part of the council. The League struggled to reach a conclusion on sanctions and Britain and France were not willing to send in troops and eventually Japan took control of Manchuria

On the other hand a success that the League has was in 1921 when Sweden and Finland disputed over the Aaland Islands. These islands an equal distance between Finland and Sweden. They had previously belonged to Finland but most of the islanders wanted to be governed by Sweden. Neither Sweden nor Finland could come to a decision as to who owned the islands and in 1921 they asked the League to step in. The League’s decision was that they should remain with Finland but that no weapons should ever be kept there. Both countries accepted the decision and it remains in force to this day. This shows that the league was trusted by some countries to decide what happened to them