Do you agree that the absence of USA was the main reason the League of Nations failed? Explain your answers.
The League of Nations was founded as a result of the Treaty of Versailles. The four main objectives of the League were resolving conflicts through negotiation; disarmament; improving global quality of life through international co-operation and international law and maintaining treaties. Unfortunately it faced many problems and difficulties in achieving its aims. There were many reasons for the League's failure to achieve it's aims. Three of the problems were that USA not being a member, the League lacking military force and resources and negative attitudes of members towards the League also contributed to its failure.
One of the popular reasons was the absence of the USA as a member of the League. The idea of the League of Nations was largely promoted and created by the US President Woodrow Wilson. He believed an international organisation to promote peace and co-operation was the best way to prevent another world war. He persuaded the leaders of Europe after the war to create the League. However, the US eventually did not join due to domestic opposition from Congress. This hurt the League tremendously, as it lost a lot of its prestige and credibility when the US failed to join an organization that it was largely responsible for creating. The US was also strongly needed as a member as it was the most powerful and richest country after the First World War. It had the means to help the League carry out it's objectives and the credibility. Since the US was not a member, many countries did not take the League seriously and the League also lacked the resources needed to carry out its missions actively and thus it failed .
The League lacked its own armed force and so depended on Britain and France to enforce its resolutions, keep to economic sanctions and or provide an army. However, they were often reluctant to do so. For example, the League leaders were not keen to enter into a war with Japan when the latter invaded China illegally because they did not want to enter into a costly war far away in Asia. The League condemned the attack but did not send in troops to enforce its ruling as the leaders were not keen to donate the resources and soldiers to fight Japan. It only conducted minor trade sanctions to threaten Japan. This did not deter Japan and thus this showed that the League of Nations failed to solve conflicts partly due to its lack of armed forces to enforce its rules .
Another problem the League faced was the negative attitudes of the League members. Many of the members were reluctant members and are suspicious of each other. Britain and France were not strong believers in the League as the US was not a member. They were the leaders of the League but often conducted business and diplomacy on their own without consulting the League. They also felt that the League was more of a place to discuss than conduct real business. The leaders often signed secret agreements that hurt the League, like the Anglo-German Naval Pact and the Hoare-Laval Pact. The leaders also did not disarm. This negative attitudes made the rest of the League members suspicious of the leaders and thus they also did not fully support the League. Countries such as Germany, Italy and Japan stopped taking the League seriously and conducted their own business and disobeyed the League. They even left the League when it became inconvenient and when they did not agree to the rules and decisions of the League .
I agree that membership problems was the main reason for the League's failure . The absence of the US as a member was a major reason for the failure and problems of the League of Nations.
Britain and France were too weak and selfish to be the only leaders of the League. They had too many of their own problems to settle and thus did not want to sacrifice for the greater good. The US being the richest and most powerful could but would not take the League seriously and thus the British and French also did not take League seriously. Since the US was also not a member, sanctions from the League would not function as well. The ability to solve disputes would have been boosted by US participation and the attitudes towards the League would have been more positive if the US was a member . The British and the French were not trusted by many smaller countries as they had individually taken action that hurt the League and had even failed to give the colonies and mandates freedom. The British and French had also refused to disarm after the war but had insisted the rest of the countries to do so. Thus without the US, the League of Nations faced many problems in achieving its aims .
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