Achievements of the League of Nations

The primary function of the League was to prevent the outbreak of war by setting international quarrels and solving the disputes between States which might result in a war between them. During the first ten years of its existence, the League had several achievements to its credit. It settled several international disputes between States and nations and thus prevented the outbreak of war between them. During its twenty years of existence, the League settled thirteen political disputes.

Among them the first important dispute was a quarrel between Italy and Greece over the Island of Corfu in 1923. The quarrel was amicably settled by the intervention of the League. The second serious, dispute was between Greece and Bulgaria over their boundaries in 1924. Both countries were about to fight. But the dispute was settled by the League peacefully.

It may, however, be remarked that the international disputes which the League settled successfully were between weak and small countries and were of minor nature. When the Great Powers again began to conquer other lands, and exploit other nations, the League was proved to be absolutely incapable of preventing them. Japan conquered Manchuria, a province of China. Both were the members of the League, but it could do nothing to prevent Japan from invading and conquering Chinese territories during 1931-33.

Afterwards, Japan left the League and continued her invasion and conquest of China till she was defeated in the Second World War Similarly; Fascist Italy invaded and conquered another member of the League, namely, Abyssinia. The League imposed sanctions against Italy. The sanctions failed to restrain Italy from the war path. Italy also left the League. This proved to the world that the League failed when an international dispute involved a Great Power.

The League tried to prevent the outbreak of war, by outlawing war as an instrument of national policy of the sovereign State. An agreement not to resort to war by all Great Powers of the world was entered into, called the Locarno Pact. But it proved to be a dead letter. Similarly, the Disarmament Conferences ended in failure.

The League of Nations had several social and humanitarian achievements to its credit. Its Health Committee endeavoured to fight against such cruel diseases .all over the world, as malaria, cancer, syphilis, T.B. and others. Further, the League had also controlled the trade and sale of such injurious things as opium. The Geneva Agreement of 1925 proved that the retail, sale, import and distribution of opium shall be the monopoly of the States. Another Committee of the League, called the Permanent Committee on Arts and Letters, performed two services, namely, it conserved the masterpieces of Arts and Letters, and promoted intellectual co-operation. The League dealt with the important questions of labour and of the relations between the workers and employers. These functions were performed by the International Labour Organisation (T.L.O.). It is one of the bodies which have survived the League.

Its limitations.

We have noted the achievements of the League and have seen where it had failed to achieve anything. This brings us to an important question: Why did the League fail in its supreme purpose of preventing the outbreak of a world war? The answer lies in the limitations in the organisation of the League of Nations. These limitations were the causes of its failure. They were the following:

The League was a non-sovereign, non-coercive organisation, while its members who were to obey it and were sovereign and independent States. It means the League had no army, no police and no coercive power, while its members were armed with authority and sovereignty. When the Great Powers considered that its decisions were against their own national or imperialist interests, they refused to accept its resolutions and flouted it its authority. Japan, Italy and Germany left the League and refused to recognise it at all. England and France turned the League into an instrument of their own national and imperialist policies.

  1. Even with the best of intentions, the League could not succeed, unless it had the power and authority to remove injustices all over the world. There were national oppressions, colonial enslavement, political domination and such other evils all over the world. But the League had no power to do justice to the oppressed and enslaved- peoples and nations. It had no authority to set subject nations free. It”could not remove the colonial domination by Great Powers over the weak and enslaved nations. It could not change unjust frontiers.
    In short, it could not remove any one of the causes which troubled the world. It was created to maintain the status quo. But the new imperialist powers, like Germany, Italy and Japan, could not be satisfied without conquering the possessions of their rival imperialist powers, Great Britain, France and U.S.A. Hence the League of Nations failed, because it could not maintain a balance of power among the Great Powers, and redistribute conquered and enslaved lands among them. So, war between them became inevitable.
  2. The League had no power to halt rearmament. An arms race of preparation for war started between Germany, Japan and Italy on the one side, and England, France, U S A., etc., on the other. This arms race led straight to the World War II.
  3. The principle of sanctions was defective. A small country could be frightened or deterred by the international boycott or blockade. But a Great Power cannot be so deterred. Only an agreement among all the States of the world, big or small to maintain world peace could preserve peace and strengthen the League. World peace should be indivisible. But it was not so at that time. That is why the League failed in its purpose.
    1. Tushabe

    Add Your Comment

    This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.