The reasons for the formation of the League of Nations

During World War I, some bourgeois peace groups in the United States actively advocated the establishment of an institution to mediate international disputes. U.S. President Wilson strongly agreed with this idea and incorporated it into his "Fourteen Points" and advocated the establishment of an organization like the League of Nations. On January 18, 1919, after the Paris Peace Conference, Wilson insisted on discussing the establishment of the League of Nations first and advocated including the "Covenant of the League of Nations" as a necessary component of the "Peace Treaty with Germany". However, under the control of Britain and France, the Paris Peace Conference decided to set up a League of Nations Covenant Drafting Committee, with Wilson as the chairman. In this way, Wilson's request to establish the League of Nations first was not adopted. The Drafting Committee of the Covenant of the League of Nations received drafts and statements submitted by many countries and groups, and also discussed issues such as the implementation of mandates on the colonies and dependencies of defeated countries, the inclusion of the "Monroe Doctrine" in the Covenant, and opposition to immigration There was a heated debate on the issue of racial discrimination. After being revised 26 times, the Covenant of the League of Nations was adopted at the Paris Peace Conference on April 28, 1919. The first part of the Treaty of Versailles was the Covenant of the League of Nations. The Covenant defines the organizational structure, functions, principles and obligations of member states of the League of Nations. On January 10, 1920, the day when the peace treaty officially came into effect, the League of Nations was formally established under the chairmanship of Wilson. All countries that declared war on the German-Austrian bloc during the war and newly formed countries were founding members of the League of Nations. In this way, the League of Nations has 44 member states, and later gradually increased to 63 countries. The main institutions of the League of Nations include the General Assembly, the Council, the Secretariat, and the International Court of Justice, the International Labor Office, etc. The most important institution is the Director meeting. Headquartered in Geneva. China joined the League of Nations on June 29, 1920. 63 countries have joined the League of Nations. From 1937 to 1938, the number of member states of the League of Nations reached a maximum of 58.

Significance:

The League of Nations was the product of World War I. It was the first worldwide international organization that vowed to jointly defend against aggression and resolve disputes through non-violent means. It has a prominent position in world history.

①The League of Nations is the product of world historical development. The capitalist world system was finally formed, providing a social basis for the establishment of the League of Nations. In the "Fourteen Points of Peace", US President Wilson clearly proposed the establishment of a universal international organization with political binding force.

②The nature is the first political international organization. In essence, the League of Nations was a tool for Britain and France to maintain the Versailles System. It has two major tasks: first, to maintain world peace and stop acts of aggression; second, to care for and deal with health, economic, social and other issues on an international scale. Due to the inherent shortcomings of the Treaty of Versailles and the fundamental flaws of the League of Nations itself, it lacked universality and authority.

③ Played an important role in the development of world history. First of all, the League of Nations advocates democratic consultation to resolve international disputes, which conforms to the trend of democratization and integration in world development and objectively promotes the development of this trend. Secondly, it has made some achievements in maintaining world peace, but the results are not great. Did not prevent or delay the outbreak of World War II. Finally, it has achieved remarkable results in promoting and dealing with health, social, economic and humanitarian issues on an international scale.

But in fact it is a tool of the imperialist powers, first and foremost Britain and France. The "Covenant of the League of Nations" (Article 22) stipulates the mandate system and confirms that the victorious powers-Britain and its Dominions, France, Belgium and Japan occupy the colonies originally belonging to Germany and Turkey. The so-called mandate system is nothing but a variant of colonial rule.

Due to the conflict of interests between imperialists, the League of Nations had little effect in hearing and settling international disputes. On October 2, 1924, the League of Nations General Assembly passed the Geneva Protocol, which stipulated that member states should abide by the peaceful settlement of disputes and establish arbitration, disarmament and security systems. In fact, it was just a dead letter. The protracted disarmament negotiations within the League of Nations were a sham. The League of Nations adopted a policy of appeasement against Japan's invasion of China, Italy's invasion of Ethiopia, Germany's and Italy's intervention in Spain, and Germany's invasion of Austria.

Disbanded:

Due to the need to launch aggressive wars, Japan, Germany and Italy were dissolved on March 27, 1933, October 19 and December 12, 1937 respectively. Withdrew from the League of Nations. Then 17 countries successively withdrew from the League of Nations.

After the outbreak of World War II, the League of Nations existed in name only. After the end of World War II, at the 21st "League of Nations" Conference from April 8 to 18, 1946, the League of Nations was officially disbanded. Property and archives are transferred to the United Nations.

Reasons for the failure of the League of Nations:

No armed forces

Resolutions required unanimous consent

Some powerful countries did not join:

< p> Although U.S. President Woodrow Wilson worked hard to promote the establishment of the League of Nations, the United States never joined the League of Nations. On January 19, 1919, the U.S. Senate refused to accept the Treaty of Versailles and vetoed joining the League of Nations.

Germany joined in 1926 after the war and withdrew in 1933.

Although Japan and Italy were both permanent members, they withdrew in 1932 and 1937 respectively.

The Soviet Union joined in 1934 and was expelled from membership on December 14, 1939 for invading Finland.

Unable to prevent international aggression, such as Italy's invasion of Ethiopia in the 1930s and Japan's invasion of Northeast China in 1932, establishing the "Puppet Manchukuo".

Lack of permanent organizations and slow response to international affairs

Important member states tend to protect their own interests