‘Was the League of Nations a success in the 1920s?’

Was the League of Nations a success in the 1920s?’

The League of Nations, for it’s time and even for today, had extremely idealistic aims. As President Woodrow Wilson said in 1918, “Merely to win the war was not enough. It must be won in such a way as to ensure the future peace of the world.” Hence, the reality of the matter was that the League could never have been a success because its goals were out of reach. However, this is not enough to deem the League as a failure.
The League had a crippled beginning, for mainly two reasons. Firstly, the USA did not join and secondly, it’s connection with the treaties that ended World War I and, arguably were the basis for World War II. The USA’s refusal to join weakened the League. The USA was the leading major power after World War I. Without the USA as a member, the League could not pose any real threat to any member who disagreed with it’s resolutions, neither economically nor militarily. The treaties drawn up at...