The League of Nations Attempts at Peacekeeping in the 1920s (Cambridge (CIE) IGCSE History)

Aims and Methods of Peacekeeping

• There were several border disputes after the Versailles Settlement

  • The end of the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian empires caused the formation of new countries like Poland

    • These new countries took land away from previously powerful countries like Germany and Austria

  • Where the Allies drew new boundaries, it caused international tensions

    • Conflicts occurred in borderlands

    • Some countries attempted to invade other countries for land 

• The League of Nations promised to protect members from border disputes

  • Article 10 of the Covenant insisted on ‘collective security’. This meant that:

    • If an aggressive country attacked one League member, it attacked all members of the League 

    • The League of Nations could create a combined League army to defend the country from the aggressor

  • Collective security aims to:

    • Make member countries feel safer

    • Deter war

• Other methods that the League of Nations could use for peacekeeping were:

  • Moral condemnation: Use their influence to disapprove of an action

  • Trade sanctions: Impose trade boycotts on aggressive countries

  • Compensation: Money paid to the innocent country from the aggressor as an apology for their actions

  • Use the Conference of Ambassadors: An organisation that oversaw the Versailles Settlement. It had ambassadors from Britain, France and Japan that worked with the League to resolve disputes

  • Plebiscites: The population of a contested region decides who governs it

  • Do nothing: The League did not interfere with some disputes. For example, the French invasion of the Ruhr

• Overall, the League’s attempts to keep peace in Europe had mixed results

 Vilna, 1920

Significance of the Vilna Dispute

• It undermined the League’s power

  • It was the first time that an invaded country requested the help of the League

  • The League did not fulfil its pledge for collective security

• It showed the reluctance of the permanent members to raise an army

  • France did not want to upset Poland

    • They saw Poland as a potential ally

  • Britain did not want to act without the support of other members

Aaland Islands, 1920–1921

Significance of Aaland Islands Dispute

• One of the biggest successes of the League of Nations

• If both members respected the League of Nations, they:

  • Would ask the League for help in their dispute

  • Accept the League’s decision

Upper Silesia, 1921

Significance of the Upper Silesia Dispute

• Initially, the Upper Silesia dispute was a success for the League

  • Both countries accepted its ruling

• When the League’s solution ended in 1925, relations between Poland and Germany worsened

  • Poland argued that half of the population of Upper Silesia was Polish yet they received only a third of the land

  • Germany stated that the agreement took away a quarter of its coal mines

Corfu, 1923

Significance of the Corfu Dispute

• Without the USA, the League could not stand up to powerful countries like Italy

  • Britain and France preferred not to get involved in the conflict

  • Mussolini had successfully bullied the League into giving him what he wanted

  • It set the standard by which other aggressive leaders could manipulate the League

• It demonstrated that organisations like the Conference of Ambassadors could overturn the League’s decisions

Bulgaria, 1925

Significance of Bulgaria Dispute

• It showed the inconsistencies of the League’s rulings

  • Both the Corfu and Bulgaria disputes:

    • Involved the death of a military officer

    • Resulted in an armed invasion of a country

  • The League did not punish Italy for invading Corfu, yet punished Greece for invading Bulgaria

• The League was desperate not to antagonise certain countries that could start a war

  • As a result, the League did not rule fairly in all disputes

    • This undermined their reputation as a peacekeeping force