Successes and failures of the league in the 1920's

Successes and failures of the league in the 1920's

Area of dispute

What the League of Nations did…
1919 Teschen - a small on the border between Poland and Czechoslovakia, which both countries wanted for its valuable coal mines. In January 1919, polish and Czech soldiers fought for a week in Teschen, killing many people.

In 1920 the League arbitrated on the dispute, splitting the area between the two countries. Although neither country was happy about the decision, they accepted it and stopped the fighting.
1919 Fiume – a port on the Adriatic Coast. Italy had hoped that she would be given it in the Paris Peace Treaties, as a reward for WWI. Instead it was given to the new country of Yugoslavia. A group of Italian nationalists weren’t willing to accept this, and occupied the town.

The league did not intervene

1920 Vilna - in 1919 Lithuania had regained its independence from Russia, and the people wanted Vilna as their capital. But only 2% of the inhabitants were Lithuanian while 30% were Polish. The Poles also wanted Vilna, and in 1920 they seized it. Lithuania asked the League for help.

 The League ordered Poland to withdraw, though Britain and France supported Poland. Poland refused. The League could do nothing.
The conference of ambassadors awarded Vilna to Poland


1921 Aaland Islands – belonged to Finland, but most of the islanders wanted to be ruled by Sweden. The two countries could not argue who should own the islands, so asked the League to decide.

After an investigation it said that the islands should belong to Finland;
Safe guards for the citizens including de-militarization
 Sweden and Finland agreed.
1921 Upper Silesia – the people were allowed to vote upon whether they wanted to be part of Germany or Poland. Over 700,000 voted to be part of Germany and 500,000 for Poland. Rioting and violence ensued. The League was asked to settle the dispute.

 Held a plebiscite and suggested a partition, Germany and Poland agreed.
Upper Silesian went to Poland while western upper Silesian went to Germany


1923 Memel – most people living in this port were Lithuanian, so the Lithuanian government wanted it. However, under the Treaty of Versailles it was under League control, governed by a French general. In 1923, the Lithuanians invaded the area. The Conference of Ambassadors was asked to settle the dispute.

The League told Lithuania to leave, but the Conference of Ambassadors gave Memel to Lithuania.
1923 Ruhr Valley – when the Germans failed to make reparation payments the French and Belgians invaded this are to take coal, iron and steel in payment. The Germans initially responded with ‘passive resistance’.

  
France supported Belgium. This action only served to confirm the impression of the league that it was nothing more than a victors club for the pursuit of the victors interests
1923 Corfu – the borders between Albania and Greece had not been decided at the Paris Peace Conference, so in 1923 the Council of Ambassadors was asked to decide them. A survey team was sent to the area (as there were no proper maps). The five Italians in the team got separated, and were ambushed and shot. Italy blamed the Greek government, and when they refused to pay a fine, Italy sent her navy to bombard Corfu. The Greeks turned to the League for help.

An Italian general named Tellini was murdered in Greece, so Italy occupied Corfu. Greece appealed to the League for help, which ordered Mussolini to leave – but the Conference of Ambassadors overruled the League and forced Greece to pay compensation to Italy.
1925 Greece and Bulgaria – a war between these two countries started over a border quarrel, in which a Greek sentry was shot by a Bulgarian soldier. Greece invaded Bulgaria for revenge, and Bulgaria appealed to the League for help.

The League ordered Greece to withdraw, which it did.
Ordered to pay 45,000 pounds compensation 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How satisfied were the big 3 by the treaty of Versailles?

How satisfied were the big 3 by the treaty of Versailles? Clemenceau was largely satisfied by the terms of the treaty of Versailles as he achieved most of his aims such as making Germany too weak to attack again. Germany was forced to pay huge reparations of £6.6 billion and was forced to limit its army to 100,000 soldiers. These pleased Clemenceau as it meant that Germany's economy was significantly weakened and France was being given the money they need to repair the country and the limited army mean they were not able to fight back and so the country was easier to control from the outside.  However, France was hoping to gain more; and from Germany to increase its own empire and although they did not gain the land it was still taken away from Germany which weakened the country.  Overall Clemenceau achieved most of his aims at the treaty of Versailles and was mostly satisfied by the terms. David Lloyd George was greatly satisfied by the treaty of Versailles as he man...
Read more

Why did the aims of the big three at Versailles differ?

Why did the aims of the big three at Versailles differ? (6 Marks)  The aims of the big three at Versailles was different because each of them had a different experience of the war and so hopes to achieve different things from Germany. France very heavily wanted Germany to pay for the damage they had caused to the country, as over 8000 miles of farmland was ruined and over 1 million lives lost. France hoped to achieve revenge and to weaken Germany. They had this strongest view as they were closest to the action and therefore experienced the worst damage as a result. Whereas America was more focused on achieving peace, they may have had a different mindset as they were more distant from the action and did not experience anywhere near that much destruction. As well as this the distance meant that the population of the country was not as involved and did not have as strong of an opinion as those who suffered more during the war. Britain  ...
Read more