The Consequences of the Failure of the League in the 1930s

The Consequences of the Failure of the League in the 1930s

The league was, overall, a failure. There were numerous reasons for

why the league failed in the 1930s. These included the self-interest

of leading members, economic sanctions did not work, America and other

important countries were absent, the league had to cope with a lack of

troops, the treaties it had to uphold were seen as unfair and also,

the decisions that the league made were slow.

The first major test for the League came when the Japanese invaded

Manchuria in 1931. Japan, like many other countries around the world,

was suffering due to the Depression caused by the Wall Street Crash in

America. Japan was also a permanent member of the League's council

(and it also had a VETO with this position) and by the 1920s Japan had

become a major power. It had a very powerful army and navy - army

leaders often dictated government policy; it had a strong industry,

exporting goods to the USA and China in particular; it had a growing

empire which included the Korean peninsular. The depression had hit

Japan quite hard. Both America and China put up TARIFFS (trade

barriers) against Japanese goods. Without this trade Japan could not

feed its people. Army leaders in Japan had one solution in mind,

invading and expanding to create a Japanese empire, by force! In 1931

an incident in Manchuria occurred where the Japanese claimed that

Chinese soldiers had sabotaged the South Manchurian Railway, which was

built and run by the Japanese. This gave them an excuse to invade and

in September 1931 they did just that, renaming the region of Manchuria

to 'Manchukuo.'

In February 1932 the Jap...

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...he league. In March

1936 Hitler had risked marching his troops into the Rhineland knowing

that the League of Nations couldn't bare another defeat. This was in

direct violation of the Treaty of Versailles. Britain would not do

much but France would protest. Hitler's gambled had worked. The

Fascist revolution had begun. The treaties from the First World War

had been broken and too many Nations now began to worry amongst

themselves. Hitler managed to break every ruling from the treaty of

Versailles. He managed to form a Rome-Berlin Axis whilst the

Abyssinian crisis was taking place. Later, Italy and Germany would

open their arms to Japan, forming the "Anti-Comintern Pact". The

League had faced a huge failure and was forced to close as majority of

her members decided to walk out, thus, making it almost completely

dead.