The League of Nations; Why Did it Fail?

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In the First World War approximately 16,543,185 people were killed within the four year span (World War I Casualties 4). After this devastation countries from all over the world gathered in France for Peace Conferences. Their goal; to prevent anything reminiscent of what had happened during the Great War from ever occurring again. It was during these conferences that the League of Nations (LON) came into existence. Their first meeting was held on the sixteenth of January 1920, six days after the Versailles Conferences had come into effect (MacMillan 94). The League showed a serious attempt by many countries throughout the world at international cooperation, and offered the idea of a collective, global, security. The LON was to act as a governing body in the post WWI landscape for all states, offering them security and the hope of peace continued world peace. The League’s aspirations were outlined in its covenant, which was divided into twenty six different articles. All of the member counties had to agree the articles outlined in the Covenant, “in order to promote international co-operation and to achieve international peace and security” (The Covenant of the League of Nations 1). However, the League failed in this goal, as only twenty years after its creation World War Two broke out. By this point the League was an absolute and utter failure, and considered to be irrelevant by the majority of the world’s powers. Despite the fact that it had been created to prevent another World War, a much worse one broke barely two decades after its creation. One of the many problems with the League, and a reason for its breakdown, was with the countries themselves, and how it was run internally. The failure of the League of Nation... ... middle of paper ... ...010. gcov.asp>. MacMillan, Margaret. “Paris 1919: Six Months that Changed the World.” Random House: New York, 2001. Print. McAleavy, Tony. Twentieth Century History: International Relations since 1919. Cambridge [u.a.: Cambridge Univ., 2002. Print. Peters, Harold A. "Germany Withdraws from League of Nations, Disarmament Pact." UPI's 20th Century Top Stories Oct. 14 1933: n.p. SIRS Researcher. Web. 01 June 2010. Shimbun, Yomiuri. "War Responsibility - Delving into the past - Who Should Bear the Most Blame for the Showa War?" Daily Yomiuri Online. 13 Aug. 2006. Web. 28 May 2010. . "World War I Casualties." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. 17 May 2010. Web. 30 May 2010. .

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