League of Nations (Society of Nations)It was the first intergovernmental organization created in the world. Created in 1919, the League officially entered into activity in 1920 with the main objective of maintaining peace and security among its member countries. This organization was created in a post-World War I context as an alternative to prevent new conflicts of such magnitude from happening. We know, however, that the League was not successful in this aspect.
It is said that the League of Nations failed due to the absence of a strong structure like that of the UN, its replacement, and the non-association of the United States and the removal of the Soviet Union from the bloc. Brazil was one of the founding members of the League of Nations, but asked to withdraw in 1926. The League officially ended on April 18, 1946.
Read too: UN Security Council — what is it?
Topics in this article
- 1 - Summary of the League of Nations
- 2 - What was the League of Nations?
- 3 - Origin of the League of Nations
- 4 - Objectives of the League of Nations
- 5 - Member countries of the League of Nations
- 6 - Structure of the League of Nations
- 7 - Differences between the League of Nations and the UN
- 8 - Brazil in the League of Nations
- 9 - Failure of the League of Nations
- 10 - Consequences of the end of the League of Nations
- 11 - Solved exercises on the League of Nations
Summary about League of Nations
The League of Nations (Society of Nations) was the first intergovernmental organization created in the world.
It was created in 1919, and began its activities on January 10, 1920.
It was composed of 63 members, including Brazil between 1920 and 1926.
It emerged in a post-World War I context with the main objective of maintaining peace between nations and preventing new conflicts of this magnitude.
Three main bodies formed the structure of the League of Nations: Assembly, Council and Secretariat.
It was different from the UN because it did not house the greatest geopolitical powers of the period, nor all the territories in the world.
The occurrence of new territorial invasions and direct conflicts, in addition to the rise of fascism and Nazism in Europe, declared the failure of the League of Nations.
The League of Nations officially ended its activities on April 18, 1946, when its replacement, the UN, already existed.
What was the League of Nations?
Also known as the Society of Nations, the League of Nations was the first intergovernmental organization to bring together a series of countries and territories to à international cooperation for promote peace and security in member countries. The activities of the League of Nations extended from 1920 to 1946, and the entity is often referred to as the predecessor of the League of Nations. United Nations (UN).
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Origin of the League of Nations
The League of Nations appeared shortly after the end of the First World War (1914-1918). The crimes committed during the battles of the war, the amount of death and destruction that this conflict caused awakened a sense of urgency in creating an international mechanism that would prevent the repetition of an event similar.
The first formal meeting that took place after the war was used as a means to discuss various issues, among which was the creation of the League of Nations. This meeting was the Paris Peace Conference, which took place in the French capital between January 18, 1919 and January 20, 1920. During the conference, the then president of the United States, Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924), was one of the main enthusiasts for the formation of an international entity to guarantee peace between nations.
Woodrow Wilson's defense was made during his speech known as “14 Points for Peace”. Despite the need demonstrated by the North American president, his country ended up not joining the League of Nations for reasons related to maintaining national sovereignty. Before the implementation of the League of Nations, several meeting committees were formed during the Wonference of Peace of Paris for in-depth discussion on the topic.
The League of Nations Covenant formalized the creation of this organization on June 28, 1919. The document was integrated into the Treaty of Versailles, which decreed peace between the countries that were involved in the conflict. The League of Nations officially began its activities on January 10, 1920.
Objectives of the League of Nations
The League of Nations Its objectives were international cooperation between its member countries and maintaining the security of each of them.. Furthermore, the League of Nations aimed at peace between the participating territories, acting to mediate possible conflicts and diplomatic impasses in an attempt to avoid new wars.
League of Nations member countries
The League of Nations had 63 member countries. However, it is important to note that many of them joined the organization after its foundation, and others withdrew or were removed from the League over time.
The founding members of the League of Nations, which are those whose membership occurred when the organization officially began its activities, are described below. Those who requested later departure or who were removed have the date this happened next to their name.
Founding members of the League of Nations | ||
Argentina |
Greece |
Persia (present-day Iran) |
Australia |
Guatemala (1936) |
Peru (1939) |
Belgium |
Haiti (1942) |
Poland |
Bolivia |
Honduras (1936) |
Portugal |
Brazil (1926) |
India |
Romania (1940) |
Canada |
Italy (1937) |
Siam (present-day Thailand) |
Chile |
Japan (1933) |
Spain (1939) |
China |
Liberia |
Sweden |
Colombia |
Netherlands |
Switzerland |
Cuba |
New Zealand |
South Africa |
Czechoslovakia |
Nicaragua (1936) |
Soviet Union (withdrawn in 1939) |
Denmark |
Norway |
UK |
El Salvador (1937) |
Panama |
Uruguay |
France |
Paraguay (1935) |
Yugoslavia |
The countries that joined later and those that were withdrawn or asked to leave the League of Nations are described below. Next to it is the entry and, if applicable, exit date of members who were dismissed for one of the two reasons previously described.
Countries that later joined, were withdrawn from, or asked to leave the League of Nations | ||
Afghanistan (1934) |
Ecuador (1934) |
Hungary (1922-1939) |
Albania (1920-1939) |
Egypt (1937) |
Iraq (1932) |
Austria (1920-1938) |
Estonia (1921) |
Ireland (1923) |
Bulgaria (Dec. 1920) |
Ethiopia (1923) |
Latvia (1921) |
Costa Rica (Dec. 1920) |
Finland (Dec. 1920) |
Lithuania (1921) |
Dominican Republic (1934) |
Germany (1926-1933) |
Luxembourg (Dec. 1920) |
Mexico (1931) |
Türkiye (1932) |
Venezuela (1934) |
Structure of the League of Nations
The structure of the League of Nations was made up of three main bodies, each formed by its own subdivisions and internal hierarchy. Broadly speaking, therefore, the League of Nations operated through the following subdivisions:
Assembly: main representative body of the League of Nations, formed by delegates from each of the organization's member countries. Participation and voting power within the Assembly was equitable.
Advice: In addition to acting together with the Assembly, the Council had separate functions, such as drafting strategies for territories that were under the mandate of member countries and, also, for reducing disarmament. It was made up of permanent and non-permanent members.
Secretariat: responsible for bureaucratic issues and daily work at the headquarters of the League of Nations, which was located in Geneva (Switzerland).
Differences between the League of Nations and the UN
The main difference between the UN and the League of Nations lies in the fact that The Organization of United Nations (UN) is made up of practically all countries and territories in the world, with the current intergovernmental organization aiming to achieve peace and development among its members. Even states not unanimously recognized by the international community, such as Palestine, make up the UN membership. This broad participation of countries includes, of course, the greatest powers of the modern world, such as the United States and China.
As we saw in the membership of the League of Nations, Americans did not join the organization. Furthermore, the Soviet Union, which competed for geopolitical power with the United States at that time, was removed from the League of Nations at the end of the 1930s. Therefore, the two greatest geopolitical and military powers of the period were outside the League of Nations, unlike what happens today in the UN.
Another important point to highlight is the fact that the UN has a military force to implement peacekeeping missions in countries that present armed conflicts or who need support to cease or mediate the disputes. This military force is called the United Nations Peacekeeping Force and is made up of soldiers from its member countries. The League of Nations did not have a body of this type to deal directly with the diplomatic and territorial problems that countries at the time faced.
Brazil in the League of Nations
Brazil was one of the countries what isiveram gifts at the Paris Peace Conference, thus becoming one of the founding members of the League of Nations in 1919. As soon as it became part of this organization, Brazil obtained a temporary seat on the Council, which meant a gain in importance on the international geopolitical scene. The objective, after that, was to win a permanent place in this body of the League of Nations. Due to internal differences, however, Brazil announced his departure from the organization in 1926.
Failure of the League of Nations
The League of Nations was established with the main objective of preventing the occurrence of a conflict as serious or more serious than the First World War. We know, however, that the organization was not successful in this purpose. The failure of the League of Nations is credited not only to the fact that new wars were not avoided, but also because it did not have in its membership of the main powers in the world at the time: the United States, which did not join, and the Soviet Union, which was removed in 1939.
Several factors are attributed to the failure of the League of Nations, not just the absence of the two world powers of the period. Are they:
the territorial invasions carried out in the regions of Manchuria (East Asia) and Abyssinia (current Ethiopia), respectively by Japan and Italy, which were not prevented by the League;
the rise of the fascist and Nazi regimes in Italy and Germany, respectively;
the occurrence of new territorial conflicts, such as the Spanish Civil War;
the advent of a Second World War (1939-1945);
the expulsion of the Soviet Union from the League of Nations.
Consequences of the end of the League of Nations
When the League of Nations officially came to an end, on April 18, 1946, the United Nations (UN), considered its replacement, had already been in activity for approximately six months. Therefore, the end of the League of Nations only determined the end of a historical and geopolitical period in the world, initiating a new international order marked by Cold War (1947-1981) and due to disputes in the political-ideological field and the space race.
Armed conflicts between peoples or between territories continued to exist with the end of the League of Nations, although the UN has different ways of controlling and dealing with this type of occurrence.
See too: From direct (participatory) democracy to indirect (representative) democracy
Solved exercises on the League of Nations
Question 1
(PUC)
At the turn of the 20th century, the world was practically as we know it. Optimism, the expansion of European conquests, and confidence in progress seemed to have reached their highest point. And then, in an unexpected suddenness, came the plunge into the void, the chaotic and destructive spasm, horror engulfed history: the outbreak of the Great War revealed a scenario that no one could imagine. predicted.(...) This unprecedented destructive escalation would only be surpassed by its historical outcome, the Second World War, whose climax was the sweeping aerial bombings and the bomb atomic. After the war, there was a resumption of scientific and technological development, but it was already clear to everyone that it was taking place in the shadow of the War. Cold, the arms race, the conflicts located on the outskirts of the developed world, the coups and military dictatorships in the so-called Third World. Whatever the advances, what prevailed was the feeling of an imminent apocalypse.
(SEVCENKO, Nicolau. The Race to the 21st Century. On the roller coaster loop. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 2001, p. 15-16)
The League of Nations, created after the First World War, was the realization of one of Woodrow Wilson's 14 points which, for:
A) minimize the growing imbalance between production and consumption caused by the war, it was proposed to establish principles of international coexistence and regulate the self-determination of peoples underdeveloped.
B) promote cooperation between nations and achieve international peace and security, it was proposed to arbitrate conflicts and ensure respect for the borders and political independence of each member country.
C) preserve world peace, proposed to expand commercial and maritime freedom between nations, to maintain the defense of human rights and promote the improvement of the quality of life throughout the planet.
D) encourage discussions that would make peace lasting, proposed creating a new body international organization of a peaceful nature, responsible for ensuring human rights and security worldwide.
E) rebuild the main international capitalist economies, proposed to offer economic, political and military support to Western countries in order to create containment forces against communism.
Resolution:
Alternative C.
Maintaining peace and security among its founding members was the main objective of the League of Nations and the reason the organization was created.
Question 2
(EsPCEx) Shortly after the First World War, on April 28, 1919, the members of the Versailles Peace Conference approved the creation of the League of Nations, following a proposal from the President of the United States, Woodrow Wilson. Choose, in the alternatives below, the country that did not participate in the League of Nations, with the respective reason.
A) United States, because its participation was vetoed by the American Senate.
B) England, because, being an island, it saw no need to participate in the League.
C) France, because it was Germany's enemy and wanted its destruction, not an agreement.
D) Italy, which did not have the right to participate because it was initially part of the Triple Alliance.
E) Brazil, because, being a South American country, it was very far from the war.
Resolution:
Alternative A.
The United States Senate voted for the country not to join the League of Nations with the justification of protecting its territorial sovereignty.
Image credits
[1]Martin Grandjean / League of Nations / Wikimedia Commons (reproduction)
[2]Christina Desitriviantie / Shutterstock
Sources
RAMME, Oliver. 1946: End of the League of Nations. D.W., c2023. Available in: https://www.dw.com/pt-br/1946-fim-da-liga-das-na%C3%A7%C3%B5es/a-306975.
ESSAY. League of Nations. Britannica Encyclopaedia, [n.d.]. Available in: https://www.britannica.com/topic/League-of-Nations.
UNITED NATIONS. The League of Nations. United Nations, [n.d.]. Available in: https://www.ungeneva.org/en/about/league-of-nations/.
Would you like to reference this text in a school or academic work? Look:
GUITARRARA, Paloma. "League of Nations (Society of Nations)"; Brazil School. Available in: https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/geografia/liga-das-nacoes-sociedade-das-nacoes.htm. Accessed September 21, 2023.
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