Failure+and+Collapse+of+the+League+of+Nations

Caroline Stechison IB History December 1, 2009
 * 20: To what extent was the failure and collapse of the League of Nations a cause of the Second World War?**

Although the failure and collapse of the League of Nations was a cause of the Second World War, it was considered minor compared to other causes like the Treaty of Versailles and Adolf Hitler.

The League of Nations was created by the United States President, Woodrow Wilson, after WWI and was designed to prevent and control any conflict between nations [1]. In the years following the war, this goal of no war and endless peace was not exactly what the League of Nations achieved. In 1923, an Italian general and three of his assistants were murdered on Greek territory known as Corfu. After an Italian ultimatum to identify the killers went unanswered by Greece, Mussolini bombarded Corfu and killed fifteen civilians [2]. The League of Nations did not do their job of ensuring peace and controlling world conflict. However, this was not the only incident that wasn’t controlled or prevented by the League of Nations. As a result of endless disagreement between two member states, Britain and France, it was nearly impossible to settle disputes and form solutions. This played a major role in the Ruhr Crisis. The Ruhr Crisis began when Germany was having problems paying back reparations from WWI. France punished the struggling nation by occupying their territory of Ruhr. However, Britain wanted to help Germany in their efforts to pay back for the damages of the First World War. As they continued to argue over solutions, Germany had decided to go ahead and sign the Rapallo Treaty with the USSR, and set up the Dawes Plan with the USA [3]. These three countries played an interesting role in the League of Nations by not joining, which proved catastrophic in later years.

The League of Nations failure was very much connected to the member states, those included and not included. The League was missing three very important countries, the USA, USSR, and Germany [4]. Their absence gave the League of Nations absolutely no control over their actions. During post WWI, Germany was stripped of their military weapons, ships, and men; however with Germany absent from the League of Nations this could no longer be enforced. The League had no forced action or army, and they did not act against aggressors. Not only were these three extremely powerful and influential countries not included, other smaller countries felt absolutely no need to even have this League if everyone wasn’t included or cooperating, therefore they left the League, further weakening its purpose [5]. As you can see, the League of Nations had many complications throughout their existence and more or less failed in the attempt to ensure peace and end all wars. Although their goal was never achieved and some uncontrolled conflict led to the outbreak of the Second World War, the effect the League’s failure had was not nearly as influential or dangerous compared to other causes.

The Treaty of Versailles is known as one of the most controversial treaties in history and had a huge effect on Germany, the World, and the Second World War. It was created in May of 1919 at the Paris Peace Conference. The German public expected a fair agreement however they were presented with an unbelievable “solution” that led to national shock and outrage [6]. During the making of the treaty, the “Big Three” emerged, which consisted of Woodrow Wilson (President of USA), Georges Clemenceau (Prime Minister of France), and Lloyd George (Prime Minister of Great Britain). They became the leading nations and began making the majority of these important decisions after WWI. The argument of who started the war was settled, leaving all the blame to Germany. They were forced to sign the War Guilt Clause accepting the responsibility for all losses and damage caused during the First World War [7]. This greatly effected the German reputation across the world.

After accepting responsibility for the First World War, Germany was faced with a series of problems that greatly affected them socially, politically and economically. Germany lost a lot of their territory as a result of the Treaty of Versailles. They had to return Alsace-Lorraine to France. They no longer controlled the North Schleswig, West Prussia, Posen, Danzig, the port of Memel, the Saar area and Rhineland [8]. All this German owned territory was made into free states or was controlled by the League of Nations. Along with the loss of territory, they were forced to pay major reparations for the damage caused during the war. The Inter-Allied Reparations Commission or, IARC, fixed a sum of 132 billion marks to be paid for the damage [9]. This outrageous sum pushed the German economy into serious debt and unemployment until they experienced hyper-inflation [10]. As they struggled to pay their reparations, France took over Ruhr, as previously mentioned, which only increased German anger and disgust for the world’s leading nations like France, USA, and Britain. The Treaty of Versailles also called for the German army to be reduced to only 10,000 men with absolutely no big guns or tanks. Only six battleships, six cruisers, 12 destroyers, 12 torpedo boats and zero submarines were approved by the Treaty’s agreement [11]. Overall their losses were remarkable. They lost 13% of their territory, 12% of their population, 15% of their agricultural production, 48% of their iron-ore, and 15% of their coal [12]. Although Germany responded with criticizing the Treaty as a //Diktat,// it did not stop the Allied forces from threatening Germany even more until they agreed to sign the treaty. Germany’s anger and disgust for the Allies increased upon reading Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points that were remarkably hypocritical of the Treaty of Versailles itself [13].

Although the Treaty of Versailles was very much responsible for the cause of the Second World War, so was a very famous, influential and dangerous German leader, Adolf Hitler, who led his country down the path to extreme nationalism and war. In the years following the war, Germany experienced a major down fall. With a spiraling economy and unstable leadership, Germany needed a strong leader who could not only fix the damage done to the nation, but rebuild them to be one of the strongest and influential nations in the world. Not only did Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party gain unbelievable support during the inter-war period, they regained the trust of the German people and saw an increase in nationalism in the country [14]. As we look back at World War I, the main causes were Militarism, Imperialism, Alliances, and Nationalism, making the increase in German nationalism an obvious red flag for the world. However, like World War I, this went unnoticed and eventually contributed to the cause of the Second World War [15]. Hitler also inspired his people to believe in him through his incredible speeches. He was known as a truly remarkable speaker and through his words he influenced many Germans to follow him [16].

Hitler was a very different kind of leader in that he had a very precise way of leading and was in no way interested in what any other leader had to contribute. It was Hitler’s way or nothing at all. He proved he was capable of great violence and destruction after the notorious Night of the Long Knives in which many Nazi’s who challenged Hitler’s policies and opinions were murdered [17]. On July 13, 1934, just weeks after the murders he addressed the Reichstag and said “If anyone criticizes me and asks me why I did not resort to the regular courts of justice for conviction of the offenders, all I can say to him is this: in this hour I was responsible for the fate of the people and thereby became Supreme Judge of the people” [18]. No one wanted to challenge Hitler’s views, making it nearly impossible not to support him and his policies. One opinion of Hitler’s many struggled to accept was his Anti-Semitism. He wrote in his book __Mein Kampf__ that the dominate race was the Aryan race and that Jews were responsible for everything he didn’t like; modern art, pornography, prostitution and losing WWI [19]. Hitler was able to convince his people that if only the Jews were eliminated, everything would be good in the world. This was most definitely seen as one of the causes of WWII, and without Hitler and his ability to captivate and convince his people, this may never have happened.

In conclusion, it’s easy to see how the League of Nations failure and collapse led to the outbreak of the Second World War; however it’s hard to say it was more effective and more dangerous than the complications of the Treaty of Versailles and the dangerous ways of Adolf Hitler. Both the Treaty of Versailles and Adolf Hitler were more complex and long term than the collapse of the League of Nations. The Treaty and Hitler affected people on multiple levels (socially, politically and economically) while the League’s failures only affected certain countries politically. The League of Nation’s failure was predicted and its collapse was inevitable, however the Treaty of Versailles and Adolf Hitler were both very unexpected, unbelievably destructive, and extremely responsible for the cause of the Second World War.

[1] Geoff, Layton. //Weimar and the Rise of Nazi Germany//. London: Hodder, 2005. Print. [2] “Corfu Incident.” //Wikipedia//. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 Dec. 2009. . [3] Layton [4] Ibid [5] Ibid [6] Ibid [7] Ibid [8] Ibid [9] “Hitler, Adolf.” //Encyclopaedia Britannica Online School Edition//. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Dec. 2009. . [10] Layton [11] Ibid [12] Ibid [13] Ibid [14] Ibid [15] Ibid [16] “Hitler, Adolf.” //Encyclopaedia Britannica Online School Edition// [17] “The Night of the Long Knives.” //The History Place//. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Dec. 2009. . [18] Hitler, Adolf. “Speech to the Reichstag.” 13 July 1934. Rpt. in //N.p.// N.p.: n.p., n.d. N. pag. Print. [19] “Anti-Semitism.” //Spartacus Educational//. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Dec. 2009. .