How Weakness of The League of Nations Contributed to the Collapse of Versailles System - Essay Example

To What Extent Did The Weakness of The League of Nations Contribute To The Collapse Of The Versailles System? Table of Contents Introduction 3 The League of Nation 3 The Treaty of Versailles 4 Weakness of the League of Nations Collapsing the Versailles System 5 Conclusion 8 References 10 Introduction The end of the First World War has raised the concern among the European nations to prevent such events and to move forward with the aim of peace. Despite a number of attempts taken the Second World War started in the later years. The Second World War indicates the failure of the League of Nation as well as the Treaty of Versailles. The Paris Peace Conference in 1919 aimed at developing a treaty in order to penalise Germany and to fulfil the needs of the Allied nations. The official treaty that was signed to end the First World War was the Treaty of Versailles in the year 1919. In order to avoid war between nations allied powers were likely to expect that creation of League of Nation for bringing global peace (Brezina, 2005; Ellis, 2003). The important aim of the League of Nation was to promote peace across the world and to prevent the happening of another Word War. The league was responsible to handle the disputes occurring between different nations and to safeguard the independence of small and weaker nations. The League of Nation acted as an international organization and was also involved in solving other global problems covering world health, labour problems and other essential issues (Brezina, 2005; Boemeke & Feldman, 1998). In this regard, the paper aims is to analyse the impact of the League of Nation on Treaty of Versailles and examine the causes behind its failure. The league was successful in the initial years, but the weaknesses were exposed after the Second World War. The League of Nation The League of Nation was a global body formed after the end of the First World War with the aim to maintain peace between the accepted members and to provide them with proper security. The two major aims of the league were to deal with the unfortunate disputes between the member nations and to stop war and this was known as collective security. Another aim of the league was to protect the independence of the member nations and to implement the measures in order to avoid the attack of the larger nation over smaller or weaker ones (Boemeke & Feldman, 1998). The key principle behind maintaining peace between nations was collective security. For instance, if one nation attacks another, then according to the principle of collective security, all the member nations are likely to respond collectively in order to protect the victim country. The Paris Peace Conference was meant to develop the ways to prevent wars between the nations and to maintain peace. However, the Treaty of Versailles of the conference was proved to be a failure to maintain peace due to a number of factors (Ellis, 2003; Fanning, n.d.). The Treaty of Versailles The Treaty of Versailles was a peace treaty signed amongst the Allied Powers and Germany. It was finally signed by Germany on 28th June 1919 that has resulted to a number of changes including the capture of industrial area and the control of land was handled by the League of Nations. As Germany was strong as compared to other nations of world, military restrictions were implemented by the League of Nations. The military limitations have reduced the number of modern arms and ammunition hold by the concerned individuals of the nations. Another weakness of the treaty was that it had made Germany accept the terms that the nation alone was responsible for the outbreak of the war. However, the treaty ignored the role played by France and Germany in the outbreak of the First World War. In addition to this, according to the terms of the treaty, Germany had paid compensation to the allied powers faced with economic crisis and other major problems for affecting the growth of the nation. Moreover, Germany was not permitted to become the member of the League of Nations, which was the result of Woodrow Wilson point of opinion regarding world peace. The people of Germany were in anger and therefore, wanted to take revenge with respect to the limitations according to the Treaty of Versailles (Henig, 2006). Weakness of the League of Nations Collapsing the Versailles System The First World War had a negative impact on different nations for instance destruction of European nations. The post effects of the war including damage of infrastructures, houses as well as spread of flu epidemic had a negative impact on the growth of the concerned nations. In addition to this, the economic problems for instance, huge debts had made it difficult for the peacemakers to fulfil the aim of the treaty. Therefore, the post impact of the war and economic crisis faced by the nations was one of the major causes for the failure of the Treaty of Versailles (Fischer & Sharp, 2013). The process of negotiation in the Treaty of Versailles was a complex procedure and involved conflicting opinions among the members. As a result of which, the decisions were handled by the Big Three i.e. the United Nations, France and Great Britain. The Big Three was handled by three different members with a different point of view regarding the concept of maintaining peace between the nations and to avoid wars. The US was led by Woodrow Wilson, according to whom Germany was to be treated fairly by all other nations. In addition to this, Wilson has proposed fourteen points in order to avoid any future wars and to build trade networks between the nations in order to maintain peace. On the other hand, Great Britain was led by David Lloyd George, with the aim to develop world trade. France was led by George Clemenceau, as the country faced destruction after the war ended and therefore, wanted the Germany force to be disarmed so as to reduce the chances of future war. The differences in opinion among the members were another cause for the failure of the treaty (Fischer & Sharp, 2013; Fanning, n.d.). The league was not successful for a long period of time that can be examined from the outbreak of the Second World War. Some of the other factors responsible for the weakness of the League of Nations were the unavailability of proper armed force. In addition, the dependence on other powerful nations was another factor that has affected the success of the League of Nations. Due to the shortage of military power, the league was unable to prevent the problems between the conflicting nations that in turn have the potential for the outbreak of the Second World War (Henig, 2006). Furthermore, the representation of the League of Nations was another weakness that has a negative impact on the success of the league. All the nations were aware about the league, but many have never joined the league. It has been further argued in this context that as the US has not joined the league and was therefore able to take away the power of the league. However, Wilson as the member of Big Three was responsible for the formation of the league. Despite the fact that the US declared not to join the League of Nations, was having the power to control the same. Moreover, the League of Nations was further weakened after a number of powers have moved out from the membership (Kolb, 2005). In addition to this, the members of the Big Three that include Italy and other nations including Japan has also withdrawn from the league and was the major cause of weakness after 1930s. After the members of the Big Three have withdrawn, the League of Nations had accepted Germany as the member of the league. However, the power of Adolf Hitler had pulled Germany out of the league. In addition, the self-interest of the members of the treaty was another cause for the weakness of the league. Many allied powers of the defeated nations considered the league as a part of treaty and therefore, had associated it with their defeat. This has prevented the defeated countries to become the member of the treaty (Henig, 2006; Kolb, 2005). Some of the incidents that have occurred after the formation of the League of Nations also indicated the weakness and failure to prevent war. For instance, after the end of the World War One, Lithunia was an independent state due to the Treaty of Versailles and accordingly, Vilna was identified as its capital. However, Vilna’s population mostly comprised Polish people and therefore the capital was seized by Poles. The League of Nation took no measure to avoid the incident. Therefore, the failure to handle the incident, Vilna was revealed as the weakness of the League of Nations (Martin & Reed, 2006; Schwab & Friedlander, 1981). The treaty of Versailles was the basis for the formation of the league in order to encourage the global members to maintain good trade relations and to protect weaker nations from any kind of destruction or war. The idea for League of Nations was put forward by Wilson of the US. The league was formed with the initial aim to avoid wars between nations. However, the Second World War had resulted to more loss of life and property as compared to the previous war. The absence of the US from the league was the major cause of weakness apart from the limitation of league design leading towards the failure of the Versailles System (Martin & Reed, 2006; Kolb, 2005). In addition to this, the decision making process of the League of Nations was also ineffective with respect to the goals set in order to achieve peace. All the members of the league were involved in the decision making and the members were required to give their vote to execute effective actions. The decisions given by the members of league council were slower due to the difference in the opinions among the members. In addition to this, some of the issues required the consent of all the members of the league. Furthermore, the decisions taken have to be agreed by all the members and agreements were made accordingly. Therefore, for this reason, the execution of the effective measure to bring peace among the nations was ineffective to a certain extent (Slavicek, 2010). Another important limitation of the League of Nations was that it represented all the nations despite the existence of few powerful nations. In addition to this, most of the member countries were engaged in protecting their own interest. As a result of which reduced focus on the objective of the league. The league did not have sufficient army and as a result of which in case of war, it was required to raise the force with the help of member nations. This was another factor that indicated ineffectiveness of the league. Moreover, some of the member nations were weak as well as unwilling to supply force due to self-interest. League’s decision to abolish arms and ammunitions for France and Britain has negative impact on the objective of preventing war. Furthermore, the member nations of the league were not powerful enough to enact the laws across different countries owing to which the Treaty of Versailles collapsed (Slavicek, 2010; Martin & Reed, 2006). Conclusion From the above discussion, it can be analysed that the outbreak of the First Word War and its negative impact on the economy was the key cause behind the Treaty of Versailles. In order to achieve the objective of the treaty, the League of Nations was established. The important aim of the league was to maintain peace between the nations and to prevent wars. However, the weakness of the treaty indicated the failure of the league. The factors responsible for the failure of the treaty as well as objective of the league included the absence of the US and economic downfall among others. The failure of treaty to satisfy the aim had a negative impact on the league. In addition to this, the withdrawal of major powers from the league has been identified as the major weakness of the league. The league of Nation was not a complete failure, as it had worked successfully through its established agencies in order to improve trade relations between different nations and maintain peace by preventing war. However, some of the incidents were seen as failure of the league. In addition to this, the members of the Big Three have withdrawn from the league, which was the major cause of the weakness of the same. The League of Nations has maintained different rules for different nations as result of which many smaller as well as larger nations were not willing to become a member of the league. These resulted to conflicts amid the member nations and complexities in policies of the treaty have been important factors accountable for the limitation of the effectiveness of the treaty. In this respect, the weakness of the League of Nations has been an important factor accountable for the collapse of the Versailles System. References Brezina, C., 2005. The Treaty of Versailles, 1919: A Primary Source Examination of the Treaty That Ended World War I. The Rosen Publishing Group. Boemeke, M. F. & Feldman, G. D., 1998. The Treaty of Versailles: A Reassessment after 75 Years. Cambridge University Press. Ellis, C. H., 2003. The Origin, Structure & Working of the League of Nations. The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd. Fischer, C. & Sharp, A., 2013. After The Versailles Treaty: Enforcement, Compliance, Contested Identities. Routledge. Fanning, R. W., No Date. Peace and Disarmament: Naval Rivalry & Arms Control, 1922-1933. University Press of Kentucky. Henig, R., 2006. Versailles and After, 1919-1933. Routledge. Kolb, E., 2005. The Weimar Republic. Psychology Press. Martin, L. & Reed, J., 2006. The Treaties of Peace, 1919-1923, Volume 1. The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd. Slavicek, L. C., 2010. The Treaty of Versailles. Infobase Publishing. Schwab, G. & Friedlander, H., 1981. Detente in Historical Perspective. Ardent Media. Read More