Failure Of The League Of Nations Essay

The League of Nations was borne out of collective desire of the nations around the world to prevent war, promote world peace and stability. Not to mention, the unprecedented destruction and death caused by World War I spurred the victorious nations into establishing a system of collective security in the form of League of Nations. The primary motive of the League of Nations was to prevent/deter or address any aggression by a state through collective response from other states, thereby ensuring collective security. By ensuring collective security, the member states aimed to discourage an aggressor nation from waging war against the victim nation through the prospect of the aggressor having to face the collective power of the members who were signatories to the ‘League of Nations’. Along with other objectives such as disarmament, dispute settlement between countries by conducting …show more content…
The League of Nations came into existence on January 10th, 1920 with initially 18 members. Though the membership grew to include many more nations from around the world, transgressions by Japan, Germany and Italy in 1931,1933 and 1935 respectively led to the authority of the League being undermined and ultimately to it being formally dismantled on April 18th, 1946 (Sobel, 1994). Thus it can be inferred that the failure of the League of Nations resulted from a lack of possession of any real power to enforce the League’s directives due to the different and often conflicting requirements of the member states, who were more interested in serving their own interests. This eventually weakened the League and ultimately resulted in World War II. However, the League of Nations laid the groundwork for the formation of United Nations. Thus, it is imperative to examine its key features to understand its contribution towards establishment of the