LoN Successes & Failures
History: OCR A GCSE Cold War & International Relations, topic 1.1.5
Successes and Failures of the League of Nations
In the early days of the League of Nations, a few successes enhanced its reputation. However, there were two failures in particular that undid a lot of these early gains.
Successes - territorial disputes
- The League managed to settle the following territorial disputes whilst avoiding fighting:
- 1921 dispute over Upper Silesia between Poland and Germany.
- 1921 dispute over the Aaland Islands between Finland and Sweden.
- 1925 invasion of Bulgaria by Greece.
Successes - social and economic
- The League did other good in addition to settling territorial disputes.
- Made a stand against slavery.
- Helped prevent economic collapse in Hungary and Austria.
- Assisted WWI refugees.
- Fought the spread of deadly disease.
- Made efforts to improve global working conditions.
Failure - The Corfu Incident, 1923
- Mussolini decided to occupy Corfu in response to the news that an Italian diplomat had been murdered there.
- Mussolini wanted an apology and money from Greece, whilst the League wanted the money themselves.
- The League appeared weak when Mussolini eventually managed to receive both of his demands.
Failure - French Occupation of the Ruhr, 1923
- France's retaliation to Germany's inability to repay them was to occupy the industrial Ruhr region of Germany.
- The League chose not to get involved.
- The situation was eventually settled by the USA's Dawes Plan in 1925.
International Agreements in the 1920s
Many countries decided to bypass the League of Nations in the 1920s by signing their own treaties. Some of these agreements are outlined below:
The Dawes Plan, 1924
- The Dawes Plan, which was designed by the American Charles Dawes, helped Germany pay their reparations (payments to the victors).
- Banks in the US loaned 800 million Reichsmarks (the new currency of Germany) to German industries.
- Reparation instalments (fixed regular payments) were temporarily made £50 million a year.
- This plan succeeded in boosting the German economy (which was in ruins).
Locarno Pact, 1925
- In 1925, Germany signed an agreement with Great Britain, France, Italy and Belgium called the Locarno Pact.
- In this pact, Germany recognised their borders with France and the demilitarisation (withdrawing military from an area) of the Rhineland.
- The Locarno Pact also paved the way for Germany to be added to the League of Nations.
- But, Czechoslovakia and Poland were still concerned because the agreement said nothing about their borders with Germany.
Kellogg-Briand Pact, 1928
- In 1928, Germany was one of 65 countries to sign the Kellogg-Briand Pact.
- In this pact, countries agreed to disarm (give up or reduce armed forces) and not use 'aggression' to resolve disagreements.
- Downsides of this agreement were that 'aggression' wasn't defined and it was unclear what the consequences of breaking the pact would be.
- Nonetheless, this pact represented a big step in the right direction towards peace.
The Young Plan, 1929
- The Young Plan proposed to reduce German reparations (payments to the victors) as Germany was still having problems finding the money.
- The Young Plan aimed to lower the total reparations from £6.6 billion to £2 billion.
- The payments would continue until 1988.
- Several Brits thought reducing the reparations again wasn't fair.
Test yourself on LoN Successes & Failures
In what year did the League of Nations suffer its first two major failures?
Which Greek island was occupied by Mussolini in 1923 in response to the murder of an Italian diplomat?
Which of the following was NOT an agreement aimed at promoting international peace after WWI?
Which of the following international agreements was signed in 1925?
International Agreements in the 1920s