Why was the League of Nations created? (origins)
A reaction to the catastrophe of 1914-18 plus Wilson's idealism β peace was to be kept by talking, not by secret alliances and arms races.
The First World War killed around ten million soldiers and shattered four empires. Many people concluded that the old system of secret alliances, arms races and balance-of-power diplomacy had dragged the world into disaster. The League of Nations was the answer: a permanent body where countries would settle quarrels by discussion rather than war.
1. The driving idea β Woodrow Wilson and the Fourteen Points (1918)
- US President Woodrow Wilson set out a vision for a fairer post-war world in his Fourteen Points (January 1918).
- The crucial one was point 14, which called for 'a general association of nations' to guarantee the independence and security of states great and small β this is the League in embryo.
- Wilson believed in collective security: if all nations agreed to protect any member that was attacked, no aggressor would dare to start a war.
2. From idea to institution β the Covenant in the peace treaties
- The League's rulebook was the Covenant β 26 articles setting out its aims, structure and procedures.
- Crucially, the Covenant was written into the first part of every peace treaty signed in 1919-20 (the Treaty of Versailles with Germany, plus the treaties with Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria and Turkey).
- This bound membership of the League to acceptance of the peace settlement β which later caused problems, because the defeated powers resented both.
3. Public mood β 'never again'
- The League rode a wave of war-weariness and idealism. Ordinary people across Europe wanted a guarantee that the slaughter of 1914-18 would not be repeated.
- It was a genuinely new kind of body: the first attempt at a standing, worldwide organisation to manage international relations.
- The League was a reaction to the First World War and the failure of old-style alliance diplomacy.
- Wilson's Fourteen Points (1918), especially point 14, called for 'a general association of nations'.
- The Covenant (26 articles) was written into ALL the 1919-20 peace treaties.
- Core principle: collective security β an attack on one member is treated as an attack on all.