The League of Nations was established in 1920 with the aim of maintaining international peace. (a) Describe the main organs of the League of Nations and the...

(a) Main organs of the League of Nations [4 marks]

The League of Nations had four principal organs. The Assembly met annually in Geneva and included all member states, each with one vote, serving as a forum for international discussion. The Council met more frequently and dealt with disputes and crises; it had permanent members (Britain, France, Italy, and Japan) alongside temporary elected members. The Permanent Court of International Justice, based at The Hague in the Netherlands, ruled on legal disputes between states. The Secretariat, headed by the Secretary-General, handled the League's day-to-day administration, coordinating its commissions and agencies.

(b) Why US absence was a major weakness [6 marks]

The absence of the United States fundamentally undermined the League. The USA was the world's strongest economic power, and without American participation, economic sanctions lacked the force to cripple an aggressor's trade. American absence was particularly damaging because President Woodrow Wilson had been the League's principal architect; his own country's refusal to join (the US Senate rejected the Treaty of Versailles in November 1919 and March 1920) damaged the League's moral authority from the outset. Aggressors such as Japan and Italy knew that the world's most powerful country would not be mobilised against them. When sanctions were imposed on Italy over Abyssinia in 1935, the USA continued trading with Italy, creating a massive gap in their effectiveness. Britain and France were left carrying a disproportionate burden for enforcing League decisions, a responsibility neither was willing or able to bear alone. American isolationism also encouraged other nations to pursue their own national interests rather than rely on collective security.

(c) How far structural weaknesses were the main reason for the League's failure [10 marks]

Structural weaknesses as the main reason:

• Unanimous voting in the Council meant any single member could block action, paralysing decision-making during crises.
• The League had no permanent army and depended on members voluntarily providing forces, which they were reluctant to do.
• The absence of major powers, including the USA (never joined), the USSR (joined only in 1934), and Germany (member only 1926-33), meant the League never represented the full weight of international power.
• The Covenant lacked clear enforcement mechanisms; sanctions were voluntary and there was no guaranteed military response to aggression.

Other reasons for failure:

• The League operated within a post-war order shaped by the flawed Treaty of Versailles, which created resentment among defeated nations.
• The rise of aggressive dictatorships in Germany (Hitler, 1933), Italy (Mussolini, 1922), and Japan (militarist expansion from 1931) posed challenges that overwhelmed any international body.
• The Great Depression from 1929 destroyed the spirit of international cooperation and made nations unwilling to sacrifice trade through sanctions.
• Britain and France, the League's leading members, lacked the political will to act decisively, as demonstrated by their failure to stop Mussolini in Abyssinia (1935-36).

The strongest answers conclude that structural weaknesses were significant but that the League's failure ultimately resulted from the unwillingness of its leading members to enforce collective security, compounded by the Depression and the rise of fascism.