Envisioned as an assembly with seats for all nations and a council to be controlled by the “Great Powers,” the League of Nations was established in 1919 by the Treaty of Versailles. It was the brainchild of President Woodrow Wilson, who sought to safeguard the self-determination of nations with the league and use it as a means of preventing another world conflict. Presented to Congress in 1918 as one of Wilson’s Fourteen Points, the league was envisioned as a general association of nations. Wilson’s plan formed the basis of the Covenant of the League of Nations, which centered on 26 articles and served as operating rules for the organization. The covenant was then formulated as part of the Treaty of Versailles, which ended World War I.
The League of Nations was the predecessor of the United Nations. The purpose for its establishment was to maintain peace. Members agreed not to go to war and to submit disputes to World Court arbitration. The league existed from 1920 to 1946. The first meeting was held in Geneva on November 15, 1920, with 42 nations represented. The last meeting was held April 8, 1946.
Prior to the First World War, there were movements that pointed toward the establishment of a world association for peace. From the close of the Napoleonic Wars and the Congress of Vienna in 1815, popular support for peace societies and a concern for international law enabled national leaders to solve differences through arbitration. In 1899, and again in 1907, Russia’s Czar Nicholas called a conference at The Hague to discuss the limitation of arms and peaceful settlement of international issues. A Permanent Court of Arbitration was set up to resolve issues. Three conflicts between the Great Powers of Europe were settled this way before war broke out in 1914.
In the spring of 1914, President Wilson sent his friend and adviser, Colonel Edward House, to Europe as an unofficial ambassador for peace. House met with German officials and outlined concerns of Britain that Germany’s navy was growing. Then he met with officials from France and Britain. House’s mediation did not prevent the escalation of tensions that led to war.
In England, a League of Nations Society was founded in May 1915. In the United States, several branches sprang up. Senator Henry Cabot Lodge early emerged as a great opponent of the idea, and he warned America not to get “entangled” with Europe. Wilson answered that “the nations of the world must in some way band themselves together to see that right prevails as against selfish aggression.” He promoted three principles to govern such a league: one, sovereignty over self; two, right to territorial integrity; and three, that the world and its people should be protected against aggression. Wilson proposed that the United States start a movement for a universal association of nations. While speaking at West Point, he contrasted the “spirit of militarism” to the “citizen spirit.” He contended that the civilian spirit was meant to dominate the military, which was why he was commander in chief of the armed forces.
The United States entered World War I in April 1917, but it was a year before many soldiers were fighting in France. That summer Wilson appointed a committee to study Europe and its laws, peoples, and economies. Utilizing this research, Wilson formulated a list of war aims and peace suggestions, and he presented them to Congress as the “Fourteen Points.” The Fourteen Points argued specifically for a safer world run by self-governing nations. Wilson declared that the United States would be willing to fight for principles of international justice, which it adopted as the basis for peace. On October 6, 1918, the German government requested peace negotiations. The Germans agreed to disarm and relinquish their monarchical military leadership. They wanted a peace according to the points made in President Wilson’s speeches. After the Armistice, the Paris Peace Conference was held, out of which came the Treaty of Versailles.
The idealist Wilson faced a serious challenge from European diplomats, who were determined to gain all they could for their national interests. Lloyd George of England had just been reelected with the slogan, “be tough on Germany.” Clemenceau of France also wanted a weak Germany. The Italians and Japanese wanted specific territories. President Wilson introduced the League of Nations draft to the Peace Conference with an address on February 14, 1919. The day after the draft was accepted by the plenary session, the president departed for the United States, where he set to work on gaining public support for the league treaty and the League of Nations.
Political conflict kept the United States out of the league. The United States, Germany, and, initially, the new Soviet Union did not join the League of Nations. United States isolationists were against involvement. The United States, consequently, never ratified the Treaty of Versailles. As a consequence of the war, supervision of territories that had been colonies and possessions of Germany and Turkey before the war was awarded to league members in the form of mandates. These territories were issued varying degrees of independence depending on their stage of development. The Soviet Union and Germany both joined the league years after its inception.
As established, the league gave each nation one vote. Either party to a dispute could submit an issue to the league’s executive committee. The debate could then be drawn out of the executive committee to the larger body of delegates, which ensured the moral force of international public opinion. If moral force failed, physical force remained in reserve. The helpless people of the world, it was thought, could expect a new light and a new hope.
The League of Nations achieved some of its goals in stemming the tide of international traffic in narcotics and prostitution, aiding war refugees, and surveying and improving on health and labor conditions in the world. During the 1920s, the league assisted in settling some minor disputes, but it was hampered by the nonmembership of the United States. Ultimately, the failure of the league to prevent Japanese military ambitions in Manchuria and China, Italy’s takeover of Ethiopia, and, finally, Hitler’s renunciation of the Treaty of Versailles, discredited it as an international authority. Although it was not effective as a peacekeeping body, the League of Nations did lay the groundwork for international cooperation in its successor, the United Nations, which was founded in 1946.
See also foreign policy.
Further reading: Thomas J. Knock, To End All Wars: Woodrow Wilson and the Quest for a New World Order (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992); F. S. Northedge, The League of Nations: Its Life and Times (New York: Holmes and Meier, 1986).
—Annamarie Edelen
World History
