American History
                     The League of Nations and It's Impact on World Peace
                     
                           
                             Through my studies and research I have come to the
                     following conclusion about the League of Nations: despite
                     all of President Woodrow Wilson's efforts, the League was
                     doomed to fail.  I feel this was so for many reasons, some
                     of which I hope to convey in the following report. From the
                     day when Congress voted on the Fourteen Points, it was
                     obvious that the League had a very slim chance of being
                     passed in Congress, and without all of the World powers, the
                     League had little chance of surviving.
                             On November 11, 1918 an armistice was declared in
                     Europe. Wilson saw the opportunity to form an international
                     organization of peace to be formed. He acted quickly. On
                     January 18, 1919 he released his fourteen points. The
                     Fourteen Points consisted of many things, but the most
                     important was the fourteenth-the establishment of a league
                     of nations to settle international disputes and to keep the
                     peace.  After congress had voted, only three of Wilson's
                     fourteen points were accepted without compromise.  Six of
                     the others were rejected all together.  Fortunately the
                     League was compromised.
                             Wilson then went to Europe to discuss the Treaty of
                     Versailles.  Representatives from Italy, France, and Britain
                     didn't want to work with the nations they had defeated. 
                     They wanted to hurt them.  After much fighting and
                     negotiating, Wilson managed to convince them that a league
                     of nations was not only feasible, it was necessary.
                     
                             The Senate supported most of the Treaty of Versailles
                     but not the League. They thought it would make the U.S.A.
                     too involved in foreign affairs.  Wilson saw that the League
                     may not make it through Congress, so he went on the road and
                     gave speeches to sway the public opinion.  Unfortunately,
                     Wilson's health, which was already depleted from the
                     negotiations in France, continued to recede. Wilson's battle
                     with his health reached its climax when Wilson had a stroke
                     on his train between speeches.
                             After Wison's stroke, support of the League weakened,
                     both in Congress and in the public's opinion. In 1920 G.
                     Harding, who opposed the League, was elected as president.
                     The League formed but the U.S. never joined.
                             The first meeting of the League was held in Geneva,
                     Switzerland on November 15, 1920 with fourty two nations
                     represented. During twenty-six years the League lived, a
                     total of sixty-three nations were represented at one time or
                     another. Thirty-one nations were represented all twenty-six
                     years.
                             The League had an assembly, a council, and a
                     secretariat. Before World War II, the assembly convened
                     regularly at Geneva in September. There were three
                     representatives for every member state each state having one
                     vote. The council met at least three times a year to
                     consider political disputes and reduction of armaments.
                             
                     
                             The council had several permanent members, France,
                     Great Britan, Italy, Japan, and later Germany and the Soviet
                     Union. It also had several nonpermanent members which were
                     elected by the assembly. The council's decisions had to be
                     unanimous.
                             The secretariat was the administrative branch of the
                     League and consisted of a secretary, general, and a staff of
                     five hundred people. Several other organizations were
                     associated with the League- the Permanent Court of
                     International Justice, also called the World Court, and the
                     International Labor Organization.
                              One important activity of the League was the
                     disposition of certain territories that had been colonies of
                     Germany and Turkey before World War I. Territories were
                     awarded to the League members in the form of mandates. The
                     mandated territories were given different degrees of
                     independence in accordance with their geographic situation,
                     their stage of development, and their economic status.
                             The League, unfortunately, rarely implemented its
                     available resources, limited through the were, to achieve
                     their goal, to end war. The League can be credited with
                     certain social achievements. these achievements include
                     settlement of disputes between Finland and Sweden over the
                     Aland Islands in 1921 and between Greece and Bulgaria over
                     their mutual border in 1925. 
                             Great powers preferred to handle their affairs on their
                     own; French occupation of the Ruhr and Italian occupation of
                     Corfu, both in 1923, went on in spite of the League. The
                     League failed to end the war between Bolivia and Paraguary
                     over the Gand Chaco between 1932 and 1935. The League also
                     failed to stop Italy's invasion of Ethiopia, which began in
                     1935.
                             Although Germany joined in 1926, the National Socialist
                     government withdrew in 1933 as did Japan, after their
                     attacks on China were condemned by the League. The League
                     was now powerless to prevent the events in Europe that lead
                     to World War 2. In 1940 the secretariat in Geneva was
                     reduced to a skeleton staff and moved to the U.S. and
                     Canada.
                             In 1946 the League voted to effect its own dissolution,
                     whereupon much of its property and organization were
                     transferred to the United Nations which had resently been
                     founded. Never truly effective as a peace keeping
                     organization, the lasting importance of the League of
                     Nations lies in the fact that it provided the groundwork for
                     the United Nations. This international alliance, formed
                     after World War 2, not only profited by the mistakes of the
                     League but borrowed much of the organizational machinics of
                     the League of Nations. 

                     Bibliography: 
                      Mothner, Ira. Woodrow Wilson, Champion of Peace. New York
                             Watts Inc., 1969
                     
                     Mason, Lorna; Garcia, Jesus; Powell, Frances; Risinger,
                     Fredrick. America's Past and Promise. Boston
                             McDougal Littell, 1995
                     
                     Albright, Madeleine. "America and the League of Nations,
                     Lessons for Today"  Speech
                             United States Department of State  1994
                     
                     McNally, Rand. Atlas of World History.  New York
                             Reed International Books Limited, 1992
                      Microsoft. "The League of Nations."
                             Excarta 95. 1995        