Assess the Significance of the League Nations

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Recommended: Failure of the League of Nations and WW2

The league of Nations was an entity that had never existed before. It was an intergovernmental organization founded in the fallout of the first World War at the Paris Peace Conference to prevent another war. Northedge states, ‘The formation of an international agency to prevent future wars was enrolled among the war policies of all major states in the conflict.’[ NORTHEDGE, F, S. (1986) The League of Nations its life and times 1920-1946, New York: Holmes and Meier Publishers, Page 2] It was the first global system whose primary goal was to maintain world peace and stems from the ideas of Woodrow Wilson's fourteen points. It relied on a concept coined collective security in which all member states are concerned with the security of the others and the belief of collective universal disarmament. Regarding the creation of the league of nations, Northedge continues, ‘Its purpose was mainly to keep peace, but it was also intended to serve as an umbrella under which a more orderly management of all world affairs, political, economic, financial, cultural and so on, would develop.’[ NORTHEDGE, F, S. (1986) The League of Nations its life and times 1920-1946, New York: Holmes and Meier Publishers, Page 1] The league of nations set the tone for the current United Nations and its successes and failures served as a building block for the future universal intergovernmental organization. Some say the league of nations had no direct significance and deem it an ultimate failure while others claim its indirect significance is the creation of the United Nations.

As the first intergovernmental system, the league of nations tackled the complications derived as a result of the first world war. The aftermath of the first world war had left many territ...

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...ue of Nations, Edinburgh: Oliver & Boyd, Page 161

] Fundamentally, this is the most powerful perception that supports the significance of the league of nations; the idea that it it formed the basis of a succeeding universal intergovernmental organization that was not only enhanced, but successful.

Bibliography

NORTHEDGE, F, S. (1986) The League of Nations its life and times 1920-1946, New York: Holmes and Meier Publishers

WALTERS, F,P. (1952) The History of the league of Nations, London: Oxford University Press

HENIG,R (1973) The League of Nations, Edinburgh: Oliver & Boyd

BIRN, D (1981) The League of Nations Union 1918-1945, New York: Oxford University Press

FOLEY, H (1923) Woodrow Wilson's case for the League of Nations, London: Oxford University Press

SCOTT, G (1973) The Rise and Fall of the League of Nations, London: Hutchinson & Co Publishers

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