League of Nations Paper 2

"Failures of the League of Nations and attempts at collective security were in fact the main cause of World War II." To what extent do you agree with this claim.

This statement is almost entirely false. The failures of the League of Nations and the international community were largely irrelevant to the actual causes of World War II. The actions of the League did very little towards actually starting the war, but simply failed in its purpose of preventing a war from happening. In fact, the main cause of the Second World War was the rise of militarism, which had become increasingly popular throughout the early 20th century, particularly as a means of dealing with issues of economic and nationalistic importance. This could be seen in various international incidents which are often viewed as the failures of the League of Nations that caused World War II. However, upon closer inspection it is clear that these events were actually examples of militarism that the League of Nations was powerless to stop.

One of these events was the Japanese invasion of the Chinese territory of Manchuria in 1931. This invasion was carried out for what seemed to be mostly economic reasons. Manchuria contained a large amount of natural resources, and offered many opportunities for trade and employment. In addition to this, Manchuria was three times the size of Japan, but at the same time it was the home of a third of the number of people who lived in the Japanese empire. Because of this, Japan adopted a militaristic policy similar to Hitler's idea of gaining "lebensraum," or living space, for Germany. Japan decided that it should take what it wanted from China through the use of force. Meanwhile, China and Japan were both members of the League of Nations, with Japan being one of the leading members of the organization. As such, it was the League's responsibility to maintain collective security by punishing Japan. The League had planned resolve such situations by issuing sanctions against the country that committed the violation. However, using sanctions meant ending trade with that country, and this was not something that any nation was ready to do. Stopping trade with Japan would have been damaging to the global economy, which was already ruined by the Great Depression, and it was also likely to cause a war, which was exactly what the League had hoped to prevent. The League tried to compromise with Japan, suggesting that Japan remove its military from China and that Manchuria become a semi-independent nation. Japan reacted to this by withdrawing from the League of Nations and continuing to invade Chinese provinces such as Jehol.

This event was a definite failure for the League of Nations, showing the League's complete inability to react to certain threats to international peace. Nevertheless, the League of Nations did nothing to actually provoke the Japanese invasion of Manchuria. The true reason for the invasion, and thus in this case the true cause of World War II, was Japan's militaristic ideology, with which the military was convinced that it could resolve its nation's economic problems by taking foreign lands. Japan's economy was impacted greatly in 1929 by the Great Depression, so Japanese army officers believed that gaining the economic benefits of territories like Manchuria would help restore their country's former success.

A similar incident occurred when Italy invaded the African country of Ethiopia in 1935. Italy did this because it had been relatively unsuccessful during the European "scramble for Africa" in the 19th century (Stopped here in class), gaining only three colonies at that time. Another reason for the invasion was the fact that Italy's military had been disgraced by its defeat at the hands of Ethiopia at the Battle of Adowa in 1896. It is likely that the fascist Italian dictator Mussolini invaded Ethiopia in order to restore some of this lost dignity, in addition to gaining territory in Africa and the trade and resources it would bring. Like the incident with Japan and China, this was a conflict between two members of the League of Nations. This time, however, the League was able to impose sanctions on Italy. Unfortunately, the League had never tried this before, and so it did not know how ineffective it would be. The sanctions were delayed for six weeks, and even after that delay some nations refused to stop trading with their ally, Italy. The sanctions that did take effect proved to be a hindrance for Italy, but they were not particularly devastating, as there was no sanction on oil, which would have been the only thing that could have stopped Italy's aggression. Because of this failure, the League tried to negotiate with Mussolini with the Hoare-Laval Plan, which offered a large portion of Ethiopia to Italy in return for the end of the invasion. Mussolini agreed, but many people protested, saying that Ethiopia was being betrayed. As a result, the plan was never carried out, and the invasion was not stopped.

It would be difficult to argue that this was not a terrible failure on the League of Nations' part, but that does not mean that this situation was an example of the League causing World War II. This crisis was started by Italy's belief that its superior military strength was the best tool it could use to restore its national pride and to improve its economy. Mussolini knew that Ethiopia had a poorly equipped army, and that his military could easily crush it. It was Italy's decision to use this type of force rather than peaceful negotiation that made this event a cause of the Second World War.

One of the most common accusations against the League of Nations is that its policy of appeasement in regards to Germany's aggressive actions in the 1930's and 1940's. Germany showed several signs suggesting that it was likely to start a conflict, but these were largely ignored by the League of Nations. Hitler's foreign and domestic policies deliberately disregarded the conditions set by the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 after the end of World War I. For example, although the Treaty of Versailles had forbidden Germany from having an army larger than 100,000 troops, Hitler increased the size of his military to about 550,000 soldiers by 1935. The rest of Europe may have been worried by this, but no action was taken against Germany. In 1936, only a year later, Hitler remilitarized the Rhineland, which had been occupied by France after World War I. France could have easily put an end to this remilitarization by reacting with its own military, but instead it did not react at all. Then, in 1938, Hitler formed an Anschluss, or union, with Austria, although the Treaty of Versailles had stated that Germany could not make such alliances. The League of Nations' unwillingness to react to these things may have been caused by an international feeling of sympathy toward Germany, with Britain and France thinking that they might have been too strict with their punishments in the Treaty of Versailles.

The League of Nations was not truly to blame in this situation, either. As seen in the Ethiopia and Manchuria crises, the League was probably powerless as an organization to do anything to stop Hitler, even if it tried. If anyone was to blame, apart from Germany, it would have been Britain and France. These nations were the leaders of the League, but they could have also taken action on their own, responding to Germany's violations of the Treaty of Versailles with force. Still, Nazi Germany's militaristic policies are the most notable causes of World War II in this example. Hitler clearly focused on building a large military force, and he attempted to use this military to eliminate anything that he thought may be a threat to his power in Europe.

In conclusion, the statement that "failures of the League of Nations and attempts at collective security were in fact the main cause of World War II" is, to a great extent, incorrect. It is true that the League was for the most part unable to prevent a war from happening, but its failures were not a cause of World War II in the way that the international rise of militarism at the time was. The League only failed in its mission to establish and maintain collective security; it did not actually do much that could be seen as having provoked World War II.