.png)
THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS Do you know ?
The Principal Purpose Of The League
Of all the predecessors of the United Nations, the league of Nations was the most significant one. It contributed innovative ideas, practices and experiences which were later taken up by the UN. The league was the brainchild of president woodrow wilson of the united states. In the last of the famous the 14 point that set out the war aims of his government, he proposed: a general association of nations must be formed under specific covenants for the purpose of the affording mutual guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity to great and small states alike.
This idea together with plans developed by great britain and france become the basis of negotiation at the versailles treaty that was intended to formally terminate world war 1. the principal purpose of the league, as might be expected after a war, was to prevent repetition of such a disaster ever again.
United nations Starting as a permanent organisation, the league of nations can be understood as the institutional version of the ad hoc conferences of the concert of the Europe, In between the league's annual conferences, its several organs met periodically. It had a permanent staff Headed by a secretary-General, and a permanent headquarter at the Geneva. In Order To promote general purpose of fostering international cooperation and maintenance of peace and security, member of the league, all of the sovereign states accepted certain obligation. They committed themselves to solving mutual conflicts without going to war. such conflicts were to be put before the organs of the league and parties to them were expected to defer to their decisions, some of which were legally binding. If a state went to war in defiance of the league of nations, the members could employ diplomatic, financial and even military sanctions against the offender.
Despite this lack of formal authority, the methods to be used by the league in setting disputes were carefully elaborated and institutionalised diplomatic practices that had frequently served well earlier. members agreed in principle to subject their disputes to arbitration or to put them before the Permanent court of international justice. But if a dispute was not of the kind to be treated legally by a tribunal, it was to be submitted to the council (or, for less specific treatment, to the assembly).
They also had the obligation to allow the passage of armed forces on the way to act against the violator of the obligations.
Causes Of The Failure Of The League
From the very beginning the League lacked the cooperation of some of the major powers. When the League was founded in 1919, it was assumed that all states in the world would join it, that is its membership would be universal. President Wilson of the United States, who initiated the institution, caused the first major disappointment.Influenced by both isolationist and utopian tendencies, the US senate refused to approve the Treaty of Versailles which the senators feared would mean abandonment of the time-honoured US principle of non-involvement in European affairs. Thus, the most important major power never joined the system of collective security.
Without US participation, the predominantly European character of the new organisation gained further emphasis . Japan was the only non-European member of any importance.
 |
United nations Starting as a permanent organisation, the league of nations can be understood as the institutional version of the ad hoc conferences of the concert of the Europe, In between the league's annual conferences, its several organs met periodically. It had a permanent staff Headed by a secretary-General, and a permanent headquarter at the Geneva. In Order To promote general purpose of fostering international cooperation and maintenance of peace and security, member of the league, all of the sovereign states accepted certain obligation. They committed themselves to solving mutual conflicts without going to war. such conflicts were to be put before the organs of the league and parties to them were expected to defer to their decisions, some of which were legally binding. If a state went to war in defiance of the league of nations, the members could employ diplomatic, financial and even military sanctions against the offender.
Despite this lack of formal authority, the methods to be used by the league in setting disputes were carefully elaborated and institutionalised diplomatic practices that had frequently served well earlier. members agreed in principle to subject their disputes to arbitration or to put them before the Permanent court of international justice. But if a dispute was not of the kind to be treated legally by a tribunal, it was to be submitted to the council (or, for less specific treatment, to the assembly).
They also had the obligation to allow the passage of armed forces on the way to act against the violator of the obligations.
Causes Of The Failure Of The League
From the very beginning the League lacked the cooperation of some of the major powers. When the League was founded in 1919, it was assumed that all states in the world would join it, that is its membership would be universal. President Wilson of the United States, who initiated the institution, caused the first major disappointment.Influenced by both isolationist and utopian tendencies, the US senate refused to approve the Treaty of Versailles which the senators feared would mean abandonment of the time-honoured US principle of non-involvement in European affairs. Thus, the most important major power never joined the system of collective security.
Without US participation, the predominantly European character of the new organisation gained further emphasis . Japan was the only non-European member of any importance.
 |
| Sr |
Except for Great Britain and France, which remained members during the entire life of the League, most of the major powers joined it only for brief periods. Germany joined in 1926, but withdrew in 1933, when Japan also left after having been condemned for its intervention in Manchuria. Italy withdrew in 1937 after its conquest of Ethiopia.The Soviet Union joined in 1934,but was thrown out after its attack on Finland in 1939.
The failure to obtain universality of membership and the unwillingness of some states to renounce was as a means of policy came in conflict with the fundamental principles of the League. Moreover, the members declined to accept the rule that an attack on any one state was to be considered an attack on all others, which was the main idea behind the League's concept of collective security. Since the sense of community and mutual confidence needed for the system of collective security was singularly lacking in the 1930s, the rather positive results achieved in the first decade of the existence of the League could not be repeated. During the first half of its existence, the League had comparatively more members and fewer disputes. It successfully brought several of the disputes to an end. These included hostilities between Bulgaria and Greece and disputes between Sweden and Finland over the Aaland Island in 1925.
No comments:
Post a Comment