Company of the Nations - SpeedyLook encyclopedia

Circumstances of the birth of SdN

End of the war

In 1917, the German , knowing the arrival of the American troops near, decides to concentrate their efforts in the west, to gain the war before the allied reinforcements do not unload. In March 1918, the German general Erich Ludendorff attacks the Picardy and opens a breach between the French Army and British. The allies create for the 1st time a single command entrusted the March 26th to the marshal Ferdinand Foch. In May, the Germans arrive until the Marne and threaten Paris, but Ludendorff cannot benefit from this success, for lack of reserves. The troops of the United States thus have time to unload and help Foch to push back the Germans. The Italy NS obtain in 1918 the capitulation of the Austria, whereas the joined together allied troops with Salonique force the Bulgaria then the Ottoman Empire to require the Armistice. Germany capitulates the November 11th 1918.

The human losses of the war are impressive, 18 million men lose the life during the conflict. Malnutrition and the epidemics also cause the loss of a big number of civil and military lives. The property damages are also enormous: Germany and France are the two countries most touched with a fall of the industrial production compared to 1913 from respectively 39% and 38%.

Treaty of Versailles

The treated of Versailles puts an end to the First World War. It is signed the June 28th 1919 with the Château of Versailles between Germany and the Alliés. Although this conference joins together 27 States (overcome excluded), work is dominated by a kind of directory of 4 members: Georges Clémenceau for France, David Lloyd George for the the United Kingdom, Vittorio Emanuele Orlando for the Italy and Woodrow Wilson for the the United States.

The sanctions taken towards the Germany are extremely hard:

demilitarization of the surroundings of the the Rhine
independence of the Austria, the Czechoslovakia and the Poland
loss of the colonies to the profit of the winners
total responsibility for the damage of the war and duty of refunding
occupation of certain German territories by the allies
restitution of the Alsace-Lorraine in France and detachment of the the Saar which is subjected for 15 years to the control of the council of SdN.

At the time to define the new borders of Europe, the United States and the United Kingdom refuse to reach at the French request of them create a military barrier on the Rhine to avoid a French hegemony on the continent. Moreover, these two countries are convinced that Europe cannot be rebuilt effectively without strong Germany. This is why they try to moderate the enormous requirements of France. To avoid the creation of this barrier, the United States and the United Kingdom propose to sign with France a treaty of common defense in the event of German aggression, which means that France would immediately receive the military aid of these countries. Clemenceau accepts this proposal, but the American Congrès refuses to ratify the Traité of Versailles, which returns their contract of mutual defense null and void.

Germany being extremely dissatisfied decisions taken in the treaty, the French judge good to protect themselves from another manner. They then will constitute a Little Entente with Czechoslovakia, the Yugoslavia and the Romania to replace the non-existent support of the United States and the United Kingdom.

Birth of the SDN

Origins

At the 18th century and 19th century, companies for peace are created with New York, London and Geneva. In 1892, one creates with Bern the International office of the peace which receives the Nobel Prize of peace in 1910.

The predecessors of the Company of Nations were, with many regards, the International Conferences of peaces of $the Hague of 1899 and 1907 which lead to the creation of the international Court of arbitration of $the Hague. The " Confederation of the States of $the Hague " , like called it the pacifist Neo-Kantian Walther Schücking, formed a universal alliance of which the goal was the disarmament and the Pacific regulation of the conflicts by the arbitration. The concept of a peaceful community of the nations had been previously described in the work of Emmanuel Kant: Perpetual Peace: In Philosophical Sketch (1795). Following the failure of these Conferences (a third had been planned for 1915), the idea of the Company of Nations was initiated by the Secretary of foreign affairs British Edward Grey and taken again with enthusiasm by the democratic President of the United States Woodrow Wilson and his adviser, the colonel Edward Mr. House who saw a means there of preventing a new blood bath comparable with that of the First World War.

The creation of SdN was in the center of the " Fourteen points of Wilson " , in particular the last: " A total association of nations must be formed by specific engagements guaranteeing a political independence and a mutual territorial integrity identical to all the large countries or petits" .

The participants in the Conférence of peace of Paris (1919) agreed the proposal to create a Company of the Nations (English: League off Nations , German: Völkerbund ) on January 25th 1919.

The project is completed the February 14th 1919. The April 28th 1919, one chooses Geneva like sits of the organization. This choice is justified by the international radiation acquired by the city during the centuries and its membership of the Suisse (neutral country).

Convention defining the Company of Nations was outlined by a special subcommittee, the creation of SdN being envisaged in Part 1 of the Traité of Versailles signed on June 28th 1919. Initially, the Charte was signed by 44 State S, of which 31 had taken share with the war of with dimensions of the Triple Entente or joined it during the conflict. In spite of the efforts of Wilson to create and promote SdN - for which it accepted the Nobel Prize of Peace in 1919 -, the the United States never ratified the Charter, nor did not join it later following the opposition of the Sénat of the United States, and particularly of that of republican influential like Henry Cabot Lodge of the Massachusetts and William E. Borah of the Idaho, in conjunction with the refusal of a compromise per Wilson.

SdN held its first meeting with London on January 10th 1920. Its first gesture was to ratify the Traité of Versailles, finishing thus officially the First World War. The authorities leading of SdN moved with Geneva on November 1st 1920. The first General meeting was held there on November 15th, 1920 with the representatives of 41 nations.

David Kennedy, professor with the Faculty of Law of Harvard, studied SdN through erudite texts relating to it, of the treaties which created it, and the votes at the plenary sessions. Kennedy suggests that the SDN was one moment single where the international businesses were " institutionnalisées" , in opposition to the legal and political methods of before the First World War (Kennedy, 1987).

Role of the United States

In a program of 14 points, US president Woodrow Wilson proposes the creation of a company of the nations which must guarantee world peace. The project is relatively badly accommodated in France because of the moderation of the United States towards the nations overcome during the development of the treaty of Versailles. However, the President of the Council Georges Clémenceau agrees to adhere to SdN because it understands that in this manner, it obtains the assent of the United States on his requirements towards Germany. Wilson essuie a serious failure when the American Congress refuses to adhere to SdN by isolationist tradition with respect to Europe.

Fourteen points of Wilson

fine of the secret diplomacy
freedom of navigation on the seas
removal of the economic barriers and commercial equality for all the nations
reduction of the armaments
arrangement on the colonial questions by taking account of the interests of the populations concerned
evacuation of the Russia and possibility for the Russians of freely choosing their government
evacuation and restoration of the Belgium
release of the French territory and return of Alsace-Lorraine to France
correction of the Italian borders according to the principle of nationalities
autonomy of the people of Austria-Hungary
evacuation of Romania, the Serbia and Montenegro; free access to the sea for Serbia
autonomy of the people not Turkish of the Ottoman Empire; freedom of passage in the straits towards the Black Sea
creation of a Poland independent with access to the sea
creation of an association of the nations to guarantee the independence and the borders of the States

Organization of SdN

SdN gathers in the beginning 45 countries, including 26 non-European. Thereafter, the number of Member States passes to 57. SdN has 3 fundamental goals:

to make respect the international law, with CPIJ (international permanent Court of justice)
to abolish the secret diplomacy
to solve the conflicts by arbitration

The pact of SdN regulates the relationship between the Member States. The 26 articles which compose it define the functions of the 4 principal bodies:

the Parliament brings together the representatives of the Member States to discuss relative questions with peace in the world, as well as the admission of novel members (Germany is allowed only in 1926). It also controls the budget of the organization.
the Council is composed of 5 permanent members, namely the United Kingdom, France, Italy, the Japan, China, as well as 9 not-permanent members. The council has the same rights as the assembly. It also deals with various tasks in which the assembly has only one to be able limited (mandates, minorities, etc).
the Secretariat is the auxiliary of the assembly. It is directed by a general secretary who controls several sections as well as the personnel (670 people coming from 51 countries in 1930).
the international permanent Court of justice of $the Hague, created in 1922, must consider businesses which are subjected to him and generally resulting from the war.

Any action of SdN was to be authorized by a unanimous vote of the Council and a majority vote of the Parliament.

Secretariat and Parliament

The personnel of the secretariat was responsible to prepare the day order for the Council and the Parliament and to publish account-returned meetings and reports/ratios on the current subjects, acting makes some like civils servant of the Company.

General secretaries of the Company of nations (1920 - 1946)

the United Kingdom, Sir James Eric Drummond, 7th Count of (1920-1933)
France, Joseph Avenol (1933-1940)
Irish Republic, Seán To ballast (1940-1946)

Each Member State was represented and had a vote with the Parliament (although all the states did not have inevitably of permanent representative in Geneva). The Parliament held her sessions once per annum in September.

Presidents of the general meeting of the Company (1920-1946)

Belgium, Paul Hymans, (1st time) 1920-1921
Netherlands, Hermann Adriaan van Karnebeek, 1921-1922
Chile, Agustin Edwards, 1922-1923
Cuba, Cosme of Torriente there Peraza, 1923-1924 Swiss
, Giuseppe Motta, 1924-1925
Canada, Raoul Dandurand, 1925-1926
Portugal 1926-1926
Yugoslavia, Momčilo Ninčić, 1926-1927
Uruguay, 1927-1928
Denmark, 1928-1929
El Salvador, 1929-1930
Romania, Nicolae Titulescu, 1930-1932
Belgium, Paul Hymans, (2nd time) 1932-1933
South Africa, Charles Theodore You Toilets, 1933-1934
Sweden, Richard Johannes Sandler, 1934
Mexico, Francisco Castillo Najera, 1934-1935
Czechoslovakia, Edvard Beneš, 1935-1936
Argentinian, 1936-1937
Turkey, Tevfik Rustu Macaws, 1937-1937
British Raj Sir Muhammad Shah Aga Khan 1937-1938
Ireland, Eamon de Valera, 1938-1939
Norway, 1939-1946

The Council

The Council of SdN had authority to deal with any question affecting the peace of the world . Its composition was initially of four permanent members (the the United Kingdom, the France, the Italy and the Japan) and four nonpermanent members, elected by the General meeting for one three years period. The first four nonpermanent members were the Belgium, the Brésil, the Greece and the Spain. The the United States, were supposed being the fifth permanent member, but the Sénat of the United States, dominated by the Republicans after the elections of 1918, voted against the ratification of the Traité of Versailles, preventing of this fact the participation of America in the SDN. It was an incentive with the return to the isolationist policy .

The initial composition of the Council was then modified with many recoveries. The number of nonpermanent members was initially changed to six (on September 22nd 1922), then to nine (on September 8th 1926). The Weimar Republic also joined the Company and became the fifth permanent member of the Council, increasing the full number of members with fifteen. Later, when Germany and Japan left SdN, the number of nonpermanent members was finally increased from nine to eleven. On average, the Council met five times per annum, without counting the extraordinary sessions. 107 public sessions were held between 1920 and 1939.

Other bodies

SdN supervised the international permanent Cour of justice and various other agencies and commissions created to deal with international problems prégnants. One found there the Commission of Contrôle of the firearms, the Organization of health, the International organization of work, the Commission of the Mandats, the permanent central office of the Opium, the Commission on the Réfugié S, and the Commission on the Esclavage. Whereas the league itself is often stigmatized for its failures, several of its agencies and commissions had notable successes in the exercise of their respective mandates.

; Commission of disarmament: The Commission obtained the initial agreement of France, Italy, Japan and Great Britain in order to limit the size of their respective navy of war. Néanamoins, the the United Kingdom refused to sign a treaty of disarmament of 1923, and the Pacte Briand-Kellogg, facilitated by the commission in 1928, failed in its objective to banish the war. Lastly, the Commission did not succeed in stopping the rearmament of Germany, Italy and Japan during the years 1930.

; Medical committee (Organization of health) This body aimed at éradiquer the Lèpre, the Malaria and the Yellow fever, the two last by beginning an international campaign from extermination of the Moustique S. the Organization of health also succeeds in preventing that an epidemic of Typhus developed in Europe thanks to an early intervention in Soviet Union.

; Commission of the Mandates: The Commission supervised the Mandats territories of SdN. It organized also Référendum S in the disputed territories so that their residents can decide country which they wanted to join; most famous was that of the the Saar in 1935.

; International organization of work: This body was directed by French Albert Thomas. It succeeds in making prohibit the addition of Plomb in painting, and convainquit a certain number of countries to adopt a Loi the 8 hours of daily work and forty-eight weekly hours. He also worked with the abolition of the Travail of the children, to improve the women's right to work, and to return the Armateur S persons in charge for the accidents implying of the sailors.

; The central permanent Office of opium: The Office was created to direct the statistical control system suggested by the second International convention of the opium which arbitrated the production, manufacture, the international business and of detail of the Opium and its by-products. The Office also establishes a system of import licenses and authorizations of export to legalize the International business Narcotique S.

; Commission of the refugees: Directed by Fridtjof Nansen, the Commission supervised repatriation and, if necessary rehousing, of: 400000 refugees and ex- prisoner of war, whose majority had failed in Russia at the end of the First World War. It establishes camps in Turkey in 1922 to treat an surge of refugees in the country and thus to take part in the prevention of the diseases and the famine. It also establishes the Passeport Nansen like means of identification of the people Apatride S.

; Commission of slavery: The Commission sought with éradiquer the Esclavage and the treats slaves in the world, fought the Prostitution forced and the Trafic of narcotic S particularly that of opium. It succeeds in making to émanciper 200.000 slaves in Sierra Leone and organized raids against the traffickers of slaves in order to stop the practice of the Forced labor in Africa. It also succeeds in bringing back the death rate of the workmen building the railroad of the Tanganyika from 55% to 4%. In other areas of the world, the Commission collected testimonys on the traffic of slaves, the prostitution and the drug trafficking in an attempt at monitoring of these questions.

; International commission of intellectual co-operation (CICI): The authority of the CICI, founded in 1921, has as a function to promote the favorable conditions with international peace. It is a question of developing the critical spirit of the individuals thanks to the education so that can enable them to act of healthy manner and person in charge . The CICI, which gathers in its center several intellectuals of the whole world, have like first chair the philosopher Henri Bergson. This authority of dialog disappears at the time of the Second world war and reappears in 1946 in a new form, that of UNESCO.

Several of these institutions were transferred to the the United Nations after the Second world war. In addition to the International organization of Work, the International Court of Justice permanent became the the International Court of Justice, and the Organization of health was reorganized in the World Health Organization.

Member States

The Company of nations had 42 founding members; 16 of between-them left or withdrew organization. The Royaume of Yugoslavia was only, among the founding members, to leave the Company and to return, remaining there then member until the end. The year of the foundation, six other states joined it; only two of them took part in it until the end. Thereafter, 15 other countries became members, of which only two were it until the end. The Egypt was the last Member State in 1937. The Soviet Union was excluded from the Company on December 14th 1939, five years after its adhesion on September 18th 1934. The Iraq was the only member with being also a Mandat of the Company of the Nations. Iraq became member in 1932.

Symbols

SdN never had neither official Drapeau, nor logo. Proposals were presented in the beginnings of the SDN in order to adopt an official symbol, but the Member States never fell from agreement.

Nevertheless, the organizations of SdN used, if necessary, various flags and logos for their own needs. An international contest was organized in 1929 in order to find a concept, which there still did not lead to a symbol. One of the reasons of this failure was perhaps fear by Member States that the power of this supranational organization had been able to exceed theirs. Finally, in 1939, a semi-official emblem was born: two stars with five points in the center of a blue pentagon. The pentagon and the stars were to account for symbolically the five Continent S and the five races of humanity. The flag included/understood, respectively in top and bottom, the names English ( League off Nations ) and French ( Société of nations ). This flag, in particular, was deployed on the building of the International exhibition of New York 1939-1940.

Official languages

The official languages were the French, the English and the Spanish (in 1920). At the beginning of years 1920, it was proposed to adopt the Esperanto like working language. Ten deputy accepted the proposal against only one, the French delegate Gabriel Hanotaux. Hanotaux did not appreciate the fact that the French loses its position of language of the diplomacy and saw in Esperanto a threat. Two years after, the Company recommended that its Member States include Esperanto in their programs of education.

" Mandats" of SdN ( territory under mandate )

Territories under mandate of SdN, or " Mandats" , were created under cover of Article 22 of engagements of the Company of the Nations. These territories were old colonies of the German Empire and Ottoman Empire.

There were three class of Mandates.

With With

They was territories having reached a sufficient developmental stage so that they can be identified, on a purely provisional basis, like nations independent and being able to receive councils and assistances by a " Mandataire" , until the moment when they could only move. The wishes of these communities must be a principal consideration in the selection of the agent. These territories formed mainly part of the ex- Ottoman Empire.

B B

In fact territories were at a stage where the agent was to be responsible for the administration of the territory under the conditions which guarantee:

the Freedom of conscience and the religious liberty
the maintenance of the social order and the moral Ordre
the prohibition of the abuses such as the Commerce of the slaves, the traffic of weapons and the traffic of alcohol
prevention of the establishment of fortifications or military bases and naval and of the military training of the natives for another thing that political objectives and the defense of territory
Of the equal appropriatenesses of exchanges and trade aveccles other members of SdN.

C C

They was territories who, due to the weak density of their population, or their small size, or their distance of the centers of civilization, or their geographical adjacency of the territory of an Agent, and other circumstances, can be managed better according to the laws of the agent.

The territories were governed by delegations of powers , with the image from what occurred for the the United Kingdom to Palestine ( British Mandate off Palestine ) and in South Africa ( Union of South Africa ), until these territories are able car-to be managed.

There were fourteen mandates managed by six agents: the United Kingdom, France, Belgium, New Zealand, Australia and Japan. In practice, the territories under mandate were treated like colonies and critics denounced them like spoils of war. Except for the Iraq, which joined SdN on October 3rd 1932, these territories could not gain their independence before the end of the Second world war, process which finished only in 1990. Following the dissolution of the SDN, the majority of the remaining Mandates passed under the control of the the United Nations under the name of United Nations Trust Territories .

In addition to the Mandates, the SDN managed itself the the Saar during 15 years, before it is reassigned with the Third Reich following a plebiscite, and the free Ville of Dantzig (Gdańsk, Poland) of November 15th 1920 at September 1st 1939.

Its successes

SdN was generally shown to have failed in its mission. However, it had significant successes in a certain number of territories.

The Åland islands

The Åland represent a whole of about 6500 islands located halfway of the Sweden and Finland. The inhabitants are exclusively of language Swedish E although Finland obtained sovereignty with the beginning of the year 1900 from it. As from 1917, the majority of the residents wished that the islands become a Swedish area. Finland, however, was opposed to it. The Swedish government raised the question in front of SdN in 1921. After a careful thought, the Company judged that the islands were to be Finnish while having a self government, avoiding a potential war between the two countries.

Albania

The border between the Albania and the Royaume of Yugoslavia had remained prone of controversy after the Conference of peace of Paris in 1919, the Yugoslav forces occupying part of the Albanian territory. After confrontations with the Albanian tribes, the Yugoslav forces penetrated more before the territories. The Company sent a composite commission of representatives of the various regional capacities. The commission ruled in favor of Albania and the Yugoslav forces were withdrawn in 1921, not without to have protested. The war was again avoided.

Austria and Hungary

Following the First World War, the Austria and the Hungary had to deal with bankruptcy resulting from the very important war reparations which they had to pay. The Company set up loans for the two nations and sent police chiefs to supervise the expenditure of it. These actions reflect Austria and Hungary on the way of the economic re-establishment.

High Silesia

The Treaty of Versailles had required that a Référendum was organized in High Silesia in order to determine of if the territory should be attached to the Weimar Republic (Germany) or with the Second Republic of Poland. A brutal repression and discrimination against the Poles brought to riot S and thereafter to the two first Soulèvement S in Silesia (1919 and 1920). At the time of the referendum, roughly 59,6% of the voices (around: 500000 people) were favorable to fastening in Germany. This result led to the third rising in 1921. The SDN was invited to settle the question. In 1922, a six weeks investigation noted that the territory should be cut out into two. The decision was accepted by the two camps and the majority of the inhabitants.

Memel

The port city of Memel (now Klaipėda) and the neighbouring area (see) were placed under the control of SdN at the end of the First World War and was controlled by a French general during three years. Although the population was mainly German, the Lithuanian government asserted the territory and its troops invaded it in 1923. SdN chooses to yield the territory surrounding Memel to Lithuania, but declared that the port should remain international zone, which accepted Lithuania. This decision could be seen as a failure (SdN having reacts passively to the use of the force), but the payment of the question without much significant bloodshed was a favorable result of SdN.

Gréco-Bulgarian disagreement

Sarre

The the Saar was a formed province of parts of territory of the Prussia and Rhenish Palatinat. It was created and placed under the control of SdN after the Traité of Versailles. A referendum was to be organized after fifteen years to determine if the area should belong to Germany or France. This referendum, organized in 1935,90.3% of the votes were favorable to the return of the Saar to Germany.

Mosul

The Company solved in 1926 a conflict between the Iraq and the Turkey in connection with the control of the old Othoman province of Mosul. According to the United Kingdom, which had received from SdN a mandate " A" on Iraq in 1920 and of this fact represented Iraq for its foreign affairs, Mosul had belonged to Iraq. On another side, the Turkish republic lately created asserted the province like its historical center.

A committee of three people was sent by SdN in the area in 1924 in order to study this case and recommended, in 1925, that the area was attached to Iraq, under the condition of the United Kingdom preserved its mandate on Iraq for one 25 years period in order to ensure the autonomous duties of the Kurdish population .

The Council of SdN adopted the proposal and decided on December 16th 1925 to allot Mosul to Iraq. Although Turkey had accepted the arbitration of the Company in the Traité of Lausanne of 1923, it rejected its decision. However, the British, Iraq and Turkey signed a treaty on June 5th 1926 which, in its broad outlines, included the Council Decision of SdN, also allotting Mosul to Iraq.

Liberia

Following rumors of Forced labor to the Liberia, independent African country, the Company launched an investigation on this subject, in particular concerning the allegations of forced labor in the gigantic rubber plantations of Firestone in the country. In 1930, a report/ratio of the Company implied many civils servant of the government in the sale of labor, leading to the resignation of President Charles D.B. King, of its vice-president and many other civils servant of the government. SdN continued while threatening to establish a supervision on Liberia unless reforms are carried out, which became the main aim of President Edwin Barclay.

Other successes

SdN also fought the international traffic of Opium and the sexual Esclavage and helped to relieve the difficult situation of the Réfugié S, especially in Turkey in 1926. One of its innovations in the field was creation, in 1922, of the Passeport Nansen, which was the first indentity card internationally recognized for the refugees stateless people. Many successes of the Company were carried out by its various agencies and commissions.

Defects of SdN

On the long run, SdN was a failure. The release of the Second world war was the immediate cause of its disappearance, but much of other reasons, more fundamental, preexisted.

The Company, like today the United Nations, did not have armed force into clean and depended on the Great powers to make apply its resolutions, which they never were very laid out to do. economic sanctions , which was the most serious measurement that SdN could decide - right before the military option, was difficult to impose and had little impact on the countries concerned because those could continue to trade with countries not belonging to SdN. The problem is illustrated in the following passage (extracted the handbook " The fact essential to know on the Company of Nations" , Geneva, 1939):

The two most important members of the Company, Great Britain and France, were reticent to use of sanctions and even more reticent to the recourse to the armed action in the name of the Company. So early after the end of the First World War, the populations and the governments of the two countries were pacifist. The preserving British were particularly tepid with respect to the role of SdN and preferred, when they were with the government, to negotiate treaties without the participation of the organization. Finally, Great Britain and France gave up both the concept of collective security () in favor of that of appeasing () vis-a-vis the development of rising militarism in Germany under Adolf Hitler.

The representativeness of the Company was always a problem. Although it had been envisaged to include all the nations, much never united there, or their participation was of short duration. In January 1920, during the beginnings of SdN, Germany was not immediately allowed to form part of it, because of a strong resentment towards this country after the First World War. The Soviet Union was banished later of SdN because its communist positions were badly seen by the winners of the war. A key weakness came from the non-participation of the United States what removed a good part of its potential capacity. Although the US president Woodrow Wilson had been a main force during the creation of the Company, the Sénat of the United States voted on November 19th 1919 its refusal to join the Company.

The Company was weakened even more when some of the principal powers left it in the Thirties. The Japan which began like permanent member from the Council, was withdrawn in 1933 after SdN had expressed its opposition to the invasion of the Chinese territory of Mandchourie. Italy, also permanent member of the Council, withdrew itself in 1937. The Company had accepted Germany in 1926, considering it country " friend of the paix" , but Adolf Hitler made some leave when it arrived at the capacity in 1933.

Another of the great nations, the Soviet Union Bolshevik, was member only between 1934, when it joined SdN by antagonism with Germany (outgoing the previous year), with the December 14th 1939, when it was excluded for her aggression towards Finland. During the exclusion of the Soviet Union, SdN violated its own rules. Indeed only 7 of the 15 members voted for exclusion (Great Britain, France, Belgium, Bolivia, Egypt, South African Union and Dominican Republic), which did not represent by the majority of the votes required by the Charter. Three of these members had been named with the Council the vote day before (South African Union, Bolivia and Egypt). In fact, the Company ceased really functioning after that. It was formally dissolved in 1946.

The neutrality of the Company tended to pass for indecision. SdN required a unanimous vote of the nine members (later fifteen) of the Council for acter a resolution, thus it was difficult, if not impossible, to obtain a conclusion and an effective action. It was also slow to arrive to decisions. Some one of these decisions also required the unanimous assent of the Parliament, i.e., of all the members of SdN.

Another important weakness was that she claimed to represent all the nations, but that the majority of the members protected their national own interests, and really did not engage for SdN and its goals. The reserve of the whole of the members to be used the military option clearly showed it. If the league had made proof of more than resolution at the time of its creation, the countries, the governments and the dictators could have been more circumspect at the time to risk its anger during the years which followed. These lacks were, partly, causes of the release of the second world war.

In addition, the recommendation of SdN of disarmament of Great Britain and France (and other members) concomitant to the recommendation to establish a collective security showed that unconsciously the league was only deprived of the real means which could have established its authority. Indeed, if the Company had had to force a country to respect the international law that would have been mainly the Royal Navy and the Army French which would have to fight. Moreover, Great Britain and France were not enough powerful to impose the international law in the whole of the world, even if they had wanted it. For its members, engagements towards SdN, presented the risk which the states are involved in international dissensions which would not have directly related to their respective national interests.

June 23rd 1936, following the total failure of the efforts of SdN to prevent Italy from starting a war of conquest in Abyssinie, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Stanley Baldwin declared with the House of Commons (the United Kingdom) that the collective security " was a total failure because of the hesitation of almost all the European nations to proceed so that I could call military sanctions rightly… real, or principal, was that we discovered during the past weeks that there was no country, except the attacker, which was ready for the war… If the class action suit must be a reality and not only one concept, it means not only that each country must be ready for the war, but also must be ready to make it immediately the war. It is a terrible thing, but it is an essential share of safety collective". It was a precise evaluation and a lesson which was clearly followed during the formation of the Organization of the Treaty of the North Atlantic (NATO) which succeeded SdN in one of its roles, owing to the fact that it guarantees the safety of Western Europe.

Its failures

The weaknesses of the league are illustrated by its failures.

Cieszyn

Cieszyn [[German]: Teschen, Czech Těšín] is an area located between the Poland and current the Czech Republic, important for these coal mines. The Czechoslovakian troops made movement towards Cieszyn in 1919 to take the control of the area at the time when Poland was to face the attack of the Bolsheviks. SdN intervened, deciding that Poland was to preserve the control of the majority of the cities but that Czechoslovakia could keep one of the suburbs which had the most important mines as well as only shoed line connecting the Czech territories and Slovakia. The city was divided into a Polish part and a thèque part ( Český Těšín ). Poland refused this decision and, although there was not other violence, the diplomatic controversy lasted 20 more years.

Vilna (1920)

After the First World War, the Poland and the Lithuania found both the independence which they had lost at the time of the partition of Poland in 1795. Although the two countries shared centuries of common history during the Union of Poland-Lithuania and the République of the Two Nations, Lithuanian nationalism amount prevented the recreation of the old federation. The town of Vilna (in Lithuanian: Vilnius, in Polish: Wilno) became the capital of Lithuania, in spite of a population mainly of Polish origin.

During the Russo-Polish War of 1920, a Polish army took the command of the city. In spite of the Polish claim on the city, the latter decided to require the withdrawal of the troops. The Poles remained. The city and its neighborhoods were then declared like belonging to the Republic of central Lithuania. Following largely boycotted elections, the February 20th 1922, the local parliament, dominated by Polish, signed the Acte of unification of with Poland. The city was attached to Poland like capital of Voivoda de Vilno. In theory, the British and French troops could have been invited to make apply the resolution of SdN. Néanamoins, France did not want to enter in conflict with Poland which was a potential ally in a future war against Germany and the Soviet Union, while Great Britain did not want to only act. Moreover, the British like French wished to preserve Poland like a “buffer zone” between Europe and the possible threat of communist Russia. Finally SdN, accepted the fastening of Vilna in Poland the March 15th 1923. Polish kept the juqu' city thus with the Soviet invasion in 1939.

Lithuania refused to accept the authority of Poland on Vilna, regarding it as an artificial capital. It was only at the time of the ultimatum of 1938 , when Lithuania broke its diplomatic relations with Poland, that it accepted de facto the borders with its neighbor.

Invasion of the Ruhr (1923)

According to the Treaty of Versailles, Germany was to pay war reparations. It could do it out of money or goods with a fixed value. However, in 1922 Germany was unable to carry out this payment. The following year, France and Belgium decided to react and invaded the industrial center of Germany, the the Ruhr, in spite of the fact that repésentait a direct violation of the rules of the Company. France being a major member of SdN, and reticent Great Britain to be opposed to a combined close relation, nothing was made. This constituted a significant precedent: the league seldom acts against major powers, and violated per moment its own rules.

Corfou (1923)

A major frontier question which remained after the end of the First World War related to the Greece and the Albania. The Conference of the Ambassadors, a body de facto of the Company was to settle the question. The Council designated the Italian general Enrico Tellini to supervise the question. The August 27th 1923, during an inspection on the Greek side of the border, Tellini and its personnel were assassinated. The Italian leader Benito Mussolini was exasperated and required by it pecuniary repairs of the Greeks as well as the execution of the murderers. The Greeks could not really identify the murderers.

The August 31st, the Italian forces occupied the island of Corfou, a Greek area, and fifteen people were killed. Initially, the Company condemned the invasion, but also recommended the payment by Greece of a pecuniary compensation which would be held by SdN until the arrest of the assassins of Tellini.

Mussolini, although it accepted initially this decision, decided to make it change. While working with the Council of the ambassadors, he arrived for this purpose. Greece was forced with excuses and to immediately pay the compensation directly and in Italy. Mussolini could thus leave Corfou triumphantly. While folding under the pressure of a large country, the league gave once again an example dangerous and prejudicial. It was one of its major failures.

The incident of Mukden (1931-1933)

The incidental of Mukden was another failure of SdN and acts like catalyst for the withdrawal of the Japan of the organization. At the time of the incident of Mukden, also known under the name of " Mandchou" incident; , the imperial Japan took the control of the Railroad of Mandchourie of the south in the Chinese area of Mandchourie. He claimed, the September 18th 1931, that the Chinese soldiers had sabotaged the railroad, which was an important shopping street between the two countries.

In fact, one thinks that sabotage had been conceived by officers of the Japanese of the armed with Kwantung without the Japanese government being informed, in order to start a complete invasion of Mandchourie. In reprisals, the Japanese army, and contrary to the orders of the civil government of Japan, occupied the whole area, and re-elected it in Manchukuo. This new country was recognized internationally only by Italy and Germany, the rest of the world continuing to regard Mandchourie as a Chinese area. In 1932, the air force and the navy Japanese women bombarded the Chinese city of Shanghai starting a short short war ( First incident of Shanghai ).

The Chinese government asked for the assistance of SdN but the long voyage by boat of official of the Company which wanted to inquire themselves caused deadlines. When they arrived, the official ones were confronted with the Chinese allegations of a Japanese invasion illegal while Japanese claimed to have acts to maintain peace in the zone. In spite of the high position of Japan within the Company, the Lytton Report/ratio declared that Japan had twists and required that Mandchourie go back to China. However, before the vote of the report/ratio to the Parliament, Japan announced her intention to continue the invasion of China. When the report/ratio was approved with the Parliament according to article 42-1 in 1933 (only Japan voted against), Japan withdrew Company.

According to the Convention ( Covenant ) of SdN, the Company would have to decide economic sanctions against Japan, or to gather an army and to declare the war to him. Nevertheless, nothing occurred. The economic sanctions had been made almost useless when the Congress of the United States refused to belong to the Company. All the economic sanctions that the Company would decide against its members would be largely unjustified, because the state concerned could be turned over simply towards America and trade with. An army was never setting-up, because of the clean interests of much of the Member States. That caused the refusal of Great Britain and France to assemble an army common to the profit of the Company, occupied which they were already with their own businesses (like keeping their control on their vast colonial empires), particularly after the storm of the First World War. Japan was to keep the control of Mandchourie, until the Red Army sovetic makes sure of the sector and to China at the end Second world war in 1945 returns it.

War of Chaco (1932)

The Italian invasion of Abyssinie (1935-1936)

It was perhaps the most famous failure of the Company. In October 1935, Benito Mussolini sent the general Pietro Badoglio with: 400000 troops to invade the Abyssinie (Ethiopia). Modern the Italian Armée has easily demolishes Ethiopian the evil armed, and taken Addis Ababa in May 1936, forcing the emperor Haile Selassie to flee. The Italians used Chemical weapons (Mustard gas) and flame throwers.

The league condemned the Italian aggression and imposed economic sanctions in November 1935, but these sanctions were mainly ineffective. Like Stanley Baldwin, British the Prime Minister, observed it later, it was thus because nobody had military forces able to resist an Italian attack. The October 9th 1935, the United States (which was not members) refused to cooperate with any action of SdN. They had put the embargo on exports of weapons and weaponry at the belligerents (in accordance with their new Law of neutrality) the October 5th. Later (the February 29th 1936), it tried (with a dubious success) to limit the oil exportations and other materials at the normal level of the time of peace. The sanctions of SdN were issued the July 4th 1936, but they remained dead letter no matter what it occurs. In December 1935, the Pacte Hoare-Laval was an attempt of the Secretary of foreign affairs British Hoare and Prime Minister French Laval to put an end to the conflict in Abyssinie by proposing a plan dividing Abyssinie into two parts - an Italian sector and an Abyssinian sector. Mussolini was prepared to accept the Pact although information was partial. The British and French public opinions protested in a vehement way showing it to sell off Abyssinie. Hoare and Laval were forced to give up their position and the governments British and French dissociated some.

As that had been the case for Japan, the major nations answered with very little strength, considering that the destiny of this country poor and moved away, inhabited by the non-European ones, was not main interest for them.

Spanish civil war (1936-1939)

Rearmament of the Axis

SdN was impotent (and most of the time quiet) vis-a-vis the major events which led to the Second world war, like the remilitarization of the the Rhineland by Hitler, the occupation of the country of Sudètes and the Anschluss of the Austria which had been prohibited by the Treaty of Versailles. Like Japan, Germany in 1933 - fascinating for pretext the failure of the " World conference of désarmement" to accept the parity of the armaments between France and Germany -, and Italy in 1937 preferred to leave the Company rather than to subject itself to its judgments. The police chief of the Company with Danzig was unable to manage the German claims on the city, a factor which strongly contributed to the release of the Second world war. The last significant act of SdN was to expel the Soviet Union of it in December 1939 after its invasion of Finland.

Will and heritage

With the beginning of the Second world war, it was clear that the league had failed in its objective to avoid all new world war. During the war, neither the Parliament, nor the Council of SdN were able to meet (or did not wish it) and the secretariat with Geneva was tiny room to a skeletal personnel, much of offices being transferred in North America.

Following this failure, it was decided with the Conférence of Yalta to create a new organization having to compensate the role of SdN. It was the Organization of the United Nations. Many the bodies of the Company, for example the International organization of Work, continued to function for finally being attached to UNO. At a meeting of the Parliament in 1946, SdN is dissolved and its services, mandates, and properties were transferred to UNO.

The structure of UNO was to make it more effective than SdN.

Principal the Alliés of the Second world war (the the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, the France, the the United States and the China) became the permanent members of the Safety advice of UNO (a reflection of the Council of SdN), giving to the news " Large puissances" a significant international influence. The decisions of the Safety advice of UNO bind all the members of the Organization. Nevertheless, the unanimity of the decisions is not required, contrary to the Council of SdN. The permanent members of the Safety advice of UNO have a shield (the " right of veto") allowing them to protect their vital interests, and which prevented UNO from effectively acting in many cases. In the same way, UNO does not have armed forces into clean. But UNO was better entenue in its requests with the Member States to take part in armed interventions, such as the Guerre of Korea and the Maintien of peace in the ex- République of Yugoslavia. Néanamoins, in certain cases, UNO was forced to count on the economic sanctions.

UNO succeeded also much better than SdN to attract the nations of the world, making it more representative (practically all countries of the world there being registered).

Anecdotes

the first woman representing official was Dr. Sara Josephine Baker, an American doctor. They represented the United States for the public health.
the leader Communiste Swedish had as a habit to call the Company of Nations the Internationale imperialist .

See too

Internal bonds

List of the Member States of the Company of the Nations
Nicolae Titulescu
Henry Pooch Lodge, (Sénat of the United States) which carried out the opposition to the participation of the USA in SdN.
Palate of the Nations , built to be used as seat in SdN.
Article X which was, according to the republican senators , one of the most contestable parts of SdN and an imperative reason to refuse the accession of the USA.

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