The League of Nations

Origins of the League of Nations

“war to end all wars.”

Organization of the League
the structure of the League was a compromise.
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Membership

Membership
What do you think the cartoonist is trying to say about the League of Nations?

Membership
the League as a “winners’ club”.
As part of the League’s job was to uphold the peace treaties, it often appeared to be acting against Germany and the defeated nations.

A league for all nations?
As you can see, the League of Nations was quite fluid in terms of who joined and who left (or was removed!).
The effect of this was to make the League seem less binding. If a nation was at odds with what the League did or said, they could simply leave and face few, or no, consequences.
If the League was going to bring effective pressure to bear on offending nations through warnings and economic sanctions, then membership of the League needed to be as wide as possible.
If membership was too limited, ‘outcast’ nations could simply trade or deal with each other and ignore the League.

The Covenant of the League had
formed part of all of the treaties that
were signed with the defeated powers.
This meant that the League was, to
some extent, bound to defend these
treaties.
The treaties
The problem was that as time went on, the treaties came under more and more criticism. Many people began to think that they were too harsh.