preview

The League of Nations Was a Great Source for Peace in the 1920's

Good Essays

The League Of Nations Was A Great Force For Peace In The 1920’s In this essay, I am going to look at the successes and failures of the League of Nations (LofN) in its struggle for peace throughout the 1920’s. The LofN was the ‘brain child’ of American president Woodrow Wilson. The four other main powers (Britain, France, Japan and Italy) joined along with approximately 60 other countries from around the world. The U.S.A then abandoned its ‘child’ as to social and economic unrest led to a more isolationist foreign policy. Yet the other four main countries continued to support the LofN and formed the council, consisting to the ‘most powerful countries’. The LofN was set up to enforce peace in Europe and the world. It created various …show more content…

It also helped Germany pay their reparations. This, in the long term, would have prevented war. Yet as the American stock market crashed, it could no longer lend nearly as much, grounding the whole plan to a halt. This sent many other countries such as Japan into a deep depression. The League failed when attempting at worldwide disarmament. This barely even got started as the ‘Big 4’ only reduced their armed forces by a miniscule amount before worrying about self-defence. Britain’s excuse was it had to ‘protect’ other weaker nations. Only the Germans ended up disarming. This did not go down well, as these few selfish nations had put their own interests ahead of world peace, which was supposed to be their mission and purpose. The League lost respect for this, but this is their only large failure in the department of agreements and treaties. Finally, the League worked for a better world. The LofN had itself a wider task than simply waiting for disputes to arise and hoping to solve them. Through its commissions and committees, the LofN aimed to fight poverty, disease and injustice all over the globe. The ILO (International Labour Organization) was successful in banning poisonous white lead from paint, which prevented many deaths, and also limited the hours that small children were allowed to work. They introduced a 48-hour week, and an 8-hour day. Yet only a few members used this as many

Get Access