Success of The League In The 1920's

Success of The League In The 1920's

To determine whether the League of Nations was a success we need to

know what it aimed to achieve and to what extent were they achieved.

Their main aims were:

-To discourage aggression between nations

-To improve living and working conditions

-To encourage nations to disarm

-To encourage countries to cooperate, especially in business and trade

The first main aim of the L.O.N was to discourage aggression between

countries or to preserve peace. In 1920, both Sweden and Finland

wanted control of the Aaland Islands, which were midway between the

two countries. Both countries were threatening to fight for them. They

appealed to the League. After studying the matter closely the League

decided that the islands should go to Finland. Sweden accepted the

L.O.N ruling and war was avoided. The L.O.N was successful in sorting

out small border disputes like Finland and Sweden because they had

powerful leaders in with large armies leading the League so a small

and less powerful country would not consider retaliating. They also

could enforce economic sanctions, which for a small country could have

devastating effects on their economy. However not all disputes were

ended peacefully. The League Of Nations was much better at sorting out

small border disputes than compared with larger, more powerful

countries.

In 1923, the L.O.N failed to avert war between Greece and Italy. One

of the boundaries, which had to be sorted out after the war, was the

border between Greece and Albania. The job was given to an Italian

official to organise it. On August 27th while surveying the Greek

side, the part...

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...the resources to resist them or cope with

them but on a larger country such as Italy, these would have needed

military support to back them up. The League did not have its own army

and so would have had to rely on member's armies to provide this

military back up. It would have been very unlikely that any nation

would be willing give their army to fight. The League was a definite

success in its second aim, to improve living and working conditions.

It almost eradicated some major diseases and gave valuable advice to

countries on health issues. It made some great successes in abolishing

slavery and the illegal drug trade and helped many people to return to

their countries. They achieved this because it was in the interests of

all of Europe to rebuild and repair their countries and it did not

create any threat or problems.