League of Nations (HM6)

The League of Nations (French: Société des Nations) is the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. Its seat is in Geneva, .
It was founded on January 10th in 1920 by the Peace Conference after the end of the First World War. Since the time of philosopher Immanuel Kant, people had dreamed of a similar organisation. Now that US president Woodrow Wilson stood behind it and 's prime minister designed the architecture of the organization, it seemed to become reality.
Ran by the Executive Council (of which , , , and were the permanent members), the League had some successes in making countries outlaw slavery, fighting diseases, and negotiating at minor conflicts. Also, it administrated the former colonies of Germany and Arab territories ceded by the Ottoman Empire. As critics pointed out though, the fact that important decisions had to be done unanimously, would hamper the League in practice.
Since 1933, the weakness of the League became more and more obvious: The of , fascist Italy and Imperial Japan left it; the was excluded after invading , which didn't help either; and the never had become a member of it in the first place. The League's sanctions against Italy (during the conquest) and 's (during the Civil War) proved to be useless. When broke out, it had to be regarded a failure. Since 1939, the Council of the League hasn't met anymore. In early June 1940, about 75% of its staff was fired.
Category:League of Nations
Category:Diplomacy (HM6)
Category:Organisations (HM6)
de:Völkerbund (W6)