Was the League of Nations Doomed to Fail?

Dan Snow's History Hit

History Hit

History

4.7 • 12.9K Ratings

🗓️ 10 January 2022

⏱️ 21 minutes

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Summary

102 years ago on the 10th of January 1920, the League of Nations was formed out of the Treaty of Versailles. Its aim was to maintain peace after the First World War. With 58 member states by the 1930s, it had successes e against drug traffickers and slave traders, settling border disputes and returning prisoners of war. But much of the treaty was designed to punish Germany after WWI, creating an environment of disillusionment that enabled Nazi ideology to thrive. Across the rest of Europe, it was working up against economic depression, rising nationalism and a lack of support from the two great nations of Russia and the United States. Its ultimate demise began with Hitler's declaration of war in 1939.

Was it too utopian and doomed to fail? In this episode Mats Berdal, Professor of Security and Development at Kings College London, joins Dan to discuss the legacy of the League of Nations, its importance in establishing the Geneva Protocol (prohibition of gas warfare), laying the foundations of the UN and the challenges that led to its ultimate failure.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	I had been working on Dan Stowe's history.
0:02.4	I talk about the League of Nations, the four of the United Nations, probably Nations,
0:06.5	the bad reputation.
0:07.5	Everyone said it was powerless to prevent the start of the Second World War, but just
0:11.9	how much for failure was the League?
0:13.3	We will be finding out.
0:15.8	After the carnage of the First World War, Woodrow Wilson, the US President envisaged a global
0:20.3	organization that would be charged with resolving conflicts before they exploded into bloodshed.
0:27.3	They had to avoid the horrors they just lived through.
0:31.6	It was thought, super national cooperation might achieve this.
0:35.2	And you know what?
0:36.2	They weren't wrong.
0:37.2	We need more of it, not less.
0:38.5	But there we are.
0:40.3	The League of Nations was part of his famous 14-point plan.
0:43.4	Some of it more achievable than others.
0:45.8	He lived at a speech.
0:46.8	He called his 14-point plan the high road and it contained ideas like the League of Nations,
0:50.3	freedom for colonies, freedom of the sea, free trade.
0:54.1	The League of Nations bit was implemented, I guess partially implemented.
0:58.2	It had some successes, there were 58 members by the 1930s.
1:01.6	It arbitrated through the court of international justice.
	...

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