 Hello and welcome to our video summarizing all you need to know about the League of Nations. My name is Barbara and in this video we'll examine the history of the League of Nations from its inception all the way to its end. But also we'll look at key case studies on which on one side the League of Nations did register notable successes but equally the failures and weaknesses that ultimately led to its ending. So let's get started. Now when it comes to the League of Nations, which is also abbreviated to LN or LON, it was an intergovernmental organisation founded on 10th January 1920 as a result of the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War. It was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. Its primary goals, stated in its Confident, included preventing wars through collective security and disarmament and settling international disputes through negotiation and arbitration. The League also dealt with other issues including labour conditions, just treatment of native inhabitants, human and drug trafficking, the arms trade, global health, prisoners of war and protection of minorities in Europe. At its greatest extent from 20th September 1934 to 23rd February 1935 it had 58 members. The League's main aims were firstly to stop wars and provide a centralised mechanism for monitoring and regulating global politics, secondly to encourage the disarmament of nations and the subsequent seeking of peace between them and thirdly to make the world a better place by improving people's working conditions and by tackling disease, poverty and hunger. The organisation itself had an assembly which met once a year, a council which met more regularly to consider crises, a small secretariat to handle the paperwork, a court of international justice and a number rather of committees such as the International Labour Organisation and the Health Committee to carry out its humanitarian work. Now when you're thinking about broadly the strengths and weaknesses of the League, when it comes to the strengths, firstly it was set up by the Treaty of Versailles which every nation signed meaning it had the cooperation of 58 nations which were members by the time it was in the 1930s. Also to enforce its will it could offer arbitration through the court of international justice or apply trade sanctions against countries that went to war. However the League did have significant weaknesses so despite being a product of the Treaty of Versailles which were signed for every nation, most nations disliked the principles of this treaty and thus disliked the League of Nations by extension. Furthermore the League was too ambitious, Germany, Russia and the USA which were all global superpowers were not members, it had no standing army, its organisation was quite cumbersome and decisions had to be unanimous making discussions quite difficult and unnecessarily prolonged. Now it's really important to consider the case of Manchuria and Abyssinia. So the Manchurian and Abyssinian crises shook people's confidence in the League and proved that the League had no real power or authority over its members. Since the early 1930s two vents destroyed people's beliefs in the ability of the League to stop wars. In both situations the League did not act quickly enough or made pure decisions about how to suppress the aggressor nation. This served to show that smaller countries could not expect protection from the League and that aggressors such as Hitler had nothing to stand in the way. So when it comes to Manchurian crisis so by February 1932 Japan which is a member of the League's council had essentially invaded and conquered Manchuria which was part of Chinese territory. It took the League nearly a year to send a commission and declare that Japan ought to leave where upon Japan left the League. The League couldn't send an army to enforce this departure and it needed America's support to impose sanctions successfully and in the end it essentially did nothing. Also in 1935 there was the Abyssinian crisis where Italy essentially invaded Abyssinia which today is modern day Ethiopia. Although the Abyssinian emperor Haile Selassie went to the League himself to ask for help all the League did was ban arms sales which did Abyssinia more harm than Italy. The League commission offered Italy part of Abyssinia but Italy invaded anyway and far from stopping Italy, Britain and France they tried to make a secret pact to give Abyssinia over to Italy or two-thirds of Abyssinia over to Italy. Now the effects of both crises were important so it's important to have an understanding of the effect that both of them had on the League. So firstly it became clear that if a strong nation was prepared to ignore the League the League could essentially do nothing about it that's reducing its effectiveness in practice. The League's delays and slowness also made it look scared as it lacked intimidating atmosphere in an international Regulative Council which it should hold if countries are to respect it. Furthermore sanctions were shown to be quite useless reducing the League's credibility with those with a belief in it turning the heads elsewhere. Furthermore everybody realised that Britain and France were not prepared to use force thus strengthening Germany's confidence in the lead up to the Second World War. The four major powers Japan, Italy, Britain and France all betrayed the League and smaller nations realised that the League could not and would not protect them. Moreover Britain and France decided that the League was essentially useless to stop war and instead followed a policy of appeasement and Hitler was encouraged to move ahead with his plans which ultimately of course led to the Second World War. Now when it comes to the Manchurian crisis and a more detailed timeline of it so it began in September 1931 when the Japanese claimed that signed Chinese soldiers had sabotaged the Manchurian railway in Korea which Japan controlled. Japan attacked and by February 1932 it had brutally conquered Manchuria. Meanwhile in January to March 1932 Japan attacked and captured this history of Shanghai in China itself. In March 1932 China appealed to the League of Nations. In April 1932 a League delegation led by Lord Lytton arrived in Manchuria to see what was happening and in October 1932 it declared that Japan should leave. In February 1933 a special assembly of the League voted against Japan and the Japanese ended up walking out of the League of Nations. The League however could not agree in sanctions and Britain and France were not prepared to send an army. Not only did the Japanese stay in Manchuria but in January in July rather 1937 they also invaded China. Now when it comes to a more detailed timeline of Abyssinia essentially in December 1934 there was a dispute about the border between Abyssinia and Italian Somali land which fled into fighting and in January 1935 Haile Selassie who was the Emperor of Abyssinia asked the League to arbitrate. In July 1935 the League banned arm cells to either side and in September 1935 it appointed a five power committee to arbitrate. In October 1935 the League's committee suggested that Italy should have some land in Abyssinia. However instead Italy's 100,000 strong army men invaded Abyssinia. The Italian troops used poison gas and attacked Red Cross hospitals. Britain and France refused to intervene. In December 1935 news leaked out about the Hall of El Pact which was a secret plan made by the Foreign Secretary of Britain and the Prime Minister of France to give Abyssinia to Italy which you're going to look at in some detail just now. And in the end the League almost did nothing and by May 1936 Italy had conquered Abyssinia. So as was mentioned the Hall of El Pact was really important and a key turning point in the Abyssinian crisis. So what was it in detail? So this pact which was made in 1935 was a secret plan to offer Benito Mussolini who was the leader of Italy, most of Ethiopia then called Abyssinia in return for a truce in the Italo-Ethiopian War. It was put together by British Foreign Secretary Sir Samuel Hoare and French Premier Pierre Laval who tried and failed to achieve a rapprochement between France and Italy. When news of the plan leaked out it drew immediate and widespread denunciation. On 10 December British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Samuel Hoare and French Prime Minister Pierre Laval secretly agreed on a plan to end the Italo-Ethiopian War by terms of strongly favouring Italy. On 11 December details of the Hall of El Pact were published and brewed by Pierre Laval with the agreement of Sir Samuel Hoare, the British Foreign Secretary. The plan suggested that Italy received large slices of northern and southeastern Abyssinia with half of the country handed over for future exploitation and settlement and Abyssinia's compensation would be only an outlet to the sea. The Hall of El Pact plan raised such vigorous protests and outrage from British public opinion once it was leaked that and this led Hoare to be sacked and the Baldwin government forced to disown the plan. And harsh editorials against the Hall of El Pact were published in British and French newspapers, thus seriously damaging the league's reputation even further on a global stage. Now when it comes to the collapse and legacy of the league itself. So in 1936 the League's Disarmament Conference failed, thus proving that the league's fundamental reason for existence, which was peace, was essentially defied by its participants and other countries. And it was really important and a key weakness that the league lacked an armed force of its own and dependent on the great powers to reinforce resolutions, which they were very unwilling to do. Its two most important members, Britain and France, were reluctant to use sanctions and even more reluctant to resort to military action on behalf of the league. Immediately after the First World War, pacifism became a strong force both among people and governments in the two countries and in 1937 Italy formally left the league. The final meeting of the League of Nations took place on 18th April 1946 in Geneva. Delegates from 34 nations attended the assembly and this session concerned itself with liquidating the league. As the situation in Europe escalated into war, the assembly transferred enough power to the Secretary-General on 30 September 1938 and on 14 December 1939 to allow the league to continue to exist legally and carry reduced operations. The headquarters of the league, the Palace of Nations, remained unoccupied for nearly six years until the Second World War ended. And despite being a failure in practice, the league was important in formalising institutionalised international collectiveness between nations, thus paving the way for institutions such as the United Nations to govern and regulate with more success on the global scale. So that's it. If you found this video useful, do give us a thumbs up and subscribe to our channel, but also make sure you visit www.firstreadtutors.com there you will find lots of revision materials that you can use as part of your studies, model answers and essay questions that you can use to support your studies and your endeavours. Thanks very much for listening.