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Home , League of Nations

The League in the 1920s

Was the League of a success or a failure in the 1920s?

Interleaving - Low Stakes Test

1. What happened to ’s armed forces because of the of Versailles? P35

2. What did Germany call the and why? P35

3. What is the and when was it signed? P38

4. What were the main aims of the League of Nations and what methods were to be used to achieve these aims? P66

Extension What was the biggest problem that the League of Nations had to overcome and why? Interleaving - Low Stakes Test

1. What happened to Germany’s armed forces because of the Treaty of Versailles? P35 Reduced to 100 000 men, no armoured vehicles, no aircraft, no submarines, only six warships.

2. What did Germany call the Treaty of Versailles and why? P35 A ‘dictated ’, ToV forced on Germany, they were not allowed to be present at the negotiations.

3. What is the Dawes Plan and when was it signed? P38 Renegotiated the reparation payments. USA lent Germany money (£40 million) to help rebuild its economy and pay off debts.

4. What were the main aims of the League of Nations and what methods were to be used to achieve these aims? P66 A) maintain peace - , talking about disputes, B) encourage cooperation - try to solve economic and social problems eg disease, , poor working and living conditions.

Extension What was the biggest problem that the League of Nations had to overcome and why? Failure of USA to join - meant LoN lost power, had to rely on GB and who were not the powers of old, most wealthy in the world etc. How did you get on last week?

Source A opposes the League of Nations. How do you know? 4 marks • One reason that Source A opposes the League of Nations is . . . This is because/shows that/ illustrates that/ demonstrates that . . .

• Another reason that Source A opposes the League of Nations is . . . This is because . . . How successful was the LoN in the 1920s?

Before 1914, the dominant countries in Europe had built huge and powerful empires. After the , Germany and Hungary had their Empire's taken away and the newly independent people were encouraged to create their own nations ('s idea of self determination, ToV). In the 1920s, there were lots of arguments about where the boundaries of each country should be. Some nations even threatened going to war over the disputes. When these arguments happened, people turned to the League of Nations.

Aaland Islands 1921

The Aaland islands were Baltic islands in the sea between and .; both Sweden and Finland threatened to go to war with each other over them.The League stepped in to help and investigated the claim of both countries. It was decided that the islands should belong to Finland.

However, Finland could not build forts on the islands so they could not be used as a base to attack Sweden. Vilna 1920 Sweden accepted this decision and there was no violence. Poland and were two new countries created in 1919 (they Upper 1921 had been part of the Austro- Hungarian Empire) was an industrial region on the border between Germany and Poland. Both German and Polish people lived there Vilna was made the capital of and both Germany and Poland wanted to Lithuania but its population control it mainly because of the rich iron wanted to be Polish. In 1920, a and steel industry there. Polish army took control of Vilna. 1920, a plebscite () was Lithuania asked the League for organised so the people in Upper Silesia help. The League asked Poland to could vote for which country they wanted withdraw its army from Vilna. to belong to. Poland said “no.” Germany got about 60% of the vote but The League now could have sent in Poland complained that this had been fixed. the British and French armies to The League divided Upper Silesia push the Polish out of Vilna but according to how it had voted but Germany they didn’t. The French saw complained that Poland got most of the Poland as a potential ally against industrial areas and Poland complained that Germany and so refused to help. they had about half of the population but The British would not act without only a third of the land. The League of the support of other countries. Nations put protection in place so that railway lines could go through both sides and made sure that all areas would always In the end, the League did nothing have power and water. and Poland kept control of Vilna. This was the first time that the Poland and Germany accepted the decision LoN had been asked to help. 1923 Bulgaria 1925

The border between and Albania was still to In 1925, Greek troops invaded Bulgaria. This happened after Greek troops, stationed on be agreed upon. An Italian General called Tellini was the Greece/Bulgaria border were murdered. investigating the border between Albania and Greece in 1923. Whilst on the Greek side of the Bulgaria asked for help from the League but also readied it’s army for war. border, he was killed along with his colleagues (5 in total). The League ordered Greece to withdraw its troops from Bulgaria and to pay compensation. The Greeks obeyed but complained that it seemed to be one rule for them The Italian leader, Mussolini was furious and blamed and another rule for i.e. the LoN was being hypocritical because they had allowed the Greek for the murder. He Mussolini to get away with something similar. They obeyed because they were a small demanded that Greece pay compensation to Italy country and did not want to risk poor relations with powerful members of the LoN like GB and that the murderers be executed. But Greece and France. said they had no idea who the murderers were!

So, to get revenge, Mussolini bombed and invaded the island of Corfu and killed 15 people. The League Greece asked the League to help. The League acted quickly and condemned Mussolini’s actions. It also of Nations: said that Greece should pay compensation but the money should be held by the League, not given to success or Italy straight away. It would be given to Italy once the attackers were found. failure in

Officially, Mussolini accepted this decision but the 1920s? secretly he persuaded the League to get Greece to pay the compensation directly to Italy. Mussolini boasted of his triumph! The LoN had been undermined

Economic collapse in Austria and Hungary 1922-23

The LoN arranged loans and took over the economic affairs of the countries. These countries continued to struggle economically. A better world…

The League did lots of work with and helped to get them back to their homeland after the First World War. It's thought that about 400 000 prisoners were returned to their homeland by the LoN in the first few years after the war. When a crisis hit in 1922, hundreds of people were housed in camps where diseases (e.g. , , ) spread quickly. The League helped to stop diseases spreading.

The International Labour Organisation (part of the League) limited the hours that small children were allowed to work and introduced a maximum 48 hour working week and a maximum 8 hour day. Unfortunately, only a few countries adopted this new rule because they thought it would be expensive. The ILO also banned white lead in paint because it was poisonous.

The Health Committee part of the League took action to try and reduce and gave health advice to member countries. Even the USSR took advice about how to prevent plague in Siberia.

The League blacklisted 4 large companies which were involved in the illegal drugs trade and brought about the freedom of 200,000 slaves in Sierra Leone. The railway in Africa was using forced labour (this means people were forced to work in poor conditions). The League challenged this and brought the death rate of workers down to 4% from 50%.

Even where the LoN could not remove social injustice, it kept careful records of what was going on and provided valuable information on problems like prostitution, drug trafficking and slavery. Date Event Verdict? Was the League successful or did it fail in What happened? dealing with this issue? Explain your thoughts. 1920 Vilna Failure because it did not have its own army and was too reliant on the British and the French to help - they were not as powerful as they once had been.

Corfu

A better world Refugees

International Labour Organisation

Health Committee

Drugs Extension The League of Nations: success or failure in the 1920s?

1. Explain which, in your opinion, was the biggest success of the League of Nations in the 1920s. 2. Why was the League of Nations able to enjoy some success in the 1920s? Stuck? Use the writing frame to help.

Overall, I think that the biggest success of the League in the 1920s was ______(use detail from your table to describe it).

It was a big success for the League because…

This was a bigger success than ______. The ______was a smaller success because… The Protocol

The Corfu incident showed that the LoN could be undermined by its own members and so GB and France drew up the in 1924. It said that if 2 members of the LoN were arguing, they would have ask the LoN to sort out the problem and accept the decision reached. The aim of this was to strengthen the LoN. But, before the plan could be put into effect, a new Conservative government took over in GB and they refused to sign it.

Task Explain what the aim of the Geneva Protocol was. What happened to the Geneva Protocol? Why did the LoN have some success in the 1920s? It was a new organisation Not tested, no one knew what would happen if they did test it. The members were powerful e.g. GB and France and other countries did not want to get on the wrong side of them eg Greece in 1925. The successes that it did have enhanced its reputation. The LoN was only dealing with minor problems between minor countries and was not properly tested until more important countries got involved.

Task Explain why the LoN had some success in the 1920s? The LoN had some success in the 1920s because . . . The League of Nations was set up to encourage cooperation between countries and to stop breaking out. Therefore, you would expect it to be at the forefront of all major international discussions, conferences and agreements. However, this was not always the case. Relations between the French and the Germans continued to be very bad until, in 1925, the German foreign minister and the French foreign minister agreed to meet to discuss how things could improve between the two countries. The result was the Locarno Treaty.

There were other agreements made at this time too that the League of Nations had nothing to do with eg at the Washington Arms Conference, the Rapallo Treaty and the Kellogg-Briand Pact Read p69 of the revision guide

1.Complete the table showing the international agreements that were made without the League of Nations in the 1920s.

Extension 1. Why do you think that the Locarno were agreed in ? 2. Which treaty do you think did the most damage to the League of Nations? 3. How can the Kellogg Briand Pact be seen as a success for ? 4. How can the Kellogg Briand Pact be seen as a problem for world peace? Agreement What did it say? Why was it important? Was the League of Nations damaged by not being involved?

Locarno Treaties 1925

Kellogg Briand Pact 1928

Washington Arms Conference 1921-22

The Rapallo Treaty 1922 Agreed between Germany and the As the first agreement I , signed at Rapallo, Italy. concluded by Germany as It reestablished normal relations between the two nations. The nations an independent agent agreed to cancel all financial claims since , it against each other, and the treaty angered the Western Allies strengthened their economic and military ties. Key marking Write an account of the successes of the LoN in the 1920s. (8 marks). You need to . . . * select 2 areas of success for the LoN in the 1920’s and in chronological (date) order explain what happened * use connectives like ‘this led to’, ‘this resulted in’, etc * use the sentence starters below to help.

The League of Nations had some successes during the 1920s. For example, there was some success in the Aaland Islands . . .

Another area of success for the LoN in the 1920s was in Upper Silesia . . .

However, it can be argued that these successes came about because . . .

Email your answer to your History teacher . . . [email protected] [email protected] Plenary-true or false? 1. Vilna was the capital of the Aaland Islands. 2. The LoN has some success in the 1920s. 3. Upper Silesia was on the border between Germany and Poland.

Extension 4. Give an example of where the LoN used the following to solve problems: a) Plebiscite b) The power of leading members like GB and France . . .? Plenary-true or false? 1. Vilna was the capital of the Aaland Islands. F 2. The LoN has some success in the 1920s. T 3. Upper Silesia was one the border between Germany and Poland. T

Extension 4. Give an example of where the LoN used the following to solve problems: Plebiscite Upper Silesia 1921 The power of leading members like GB and France in Bulgaria 1925 . . . ? Possible threat of GB and France in Bulgaria 1925