The Failure of the League of Nations in Stopping War

Why League of Nations could not prevent war?

Category :History

The League of Nations was established at the First World War and intended to stop wars and end conflicts.

Up to 1918 the First World War was easily the bloodiest conflict throughout the history of humanity. Then American President Woodrow Wilson was the mastermind behind the creation of the first global organisation of it's kind. However League of Nations also failed to prevent War due to the following reasons:

The United States never joined

The League of Nations was weakened from the onset by Congress voting against the United States joining it. The Republican controlled Congress was determined to revert back to a foreign policy centred around isolationism. That left Britain and France as the most powerful member nations.

The Soviet Union and Germany could not join

To begin with the Soviet Union and Germany were not allowed to become members of the League of Nations and that added to their sense of being internationally isolated. Both joined later with Stalin publicly at least becoming an advocate of collective security.

It had to rely on Britain and France

The League of Nations never had it's own armed forces and ultimately had to rely on Britain and France. During the 1920s it seemed they were willing to do so.

However the Great Depression seemed to dent the resolve of Paris and London to resist aggression just when that resolve needed to increase. Germany, Italy and Japan took full advantage.