The League of Nations

The League of Nations

In 1919 during the Paris Peace Conference, Woodrow Wilson can up with

the idea of the League of Nations, an organization that would that

would attempt to unite all of the world's nations. Then in 1920,

George Clemenceau of France and Lloyd George of Britain agreed to set

up the League of Nations, but now the American, Wilson, wanted nothing

to do with it.

Both he and all the other Americans believed it would end up being

them sorting out all the disputes around the world, leading to all

their friends and family dieing. So they said they would not join at

all.

The main headquarters of the League of Nations was in Switzerland, in

Geneva. The major aims of the League were to:

· To discourage aggression from any nation.

· To encourage countries to co-operate, especially in business and

trade.

· To encourage nations to disarm.

· To improve the living and working conditions of people in all parts

of the world.

· To uphold and enforce the Treaty of Versailles.

When the league was first set up there were forty two countries ready

to join. The four main contenders were Britain, France, Italy and

Japan. But any action by the League had to run past both the French

and the British prior.

After the war, much of the German empire was given away to weaken it,

this meant that there would be some new states and changed other sates

borders. But when it came to dividing the land some people were not

happy, there were many disputes like this, so the League was called in

to help sort out the arguments.

However there were so many disputes, the Conference of Ambassadors was

asked for help. One of the First disputes was "Vilna". In the new

state of Lithuania, Vilna was the capital. Yet the main population was

Polish. Then in 1920 a private Polish army merely took control of it.

Lit6huania appealed to the League, this would be their crucial "first