IGCSE History

• Home
• Introduction to IGCSE
• The Road to Affluence: USA 1917 - 1941 (A9)
  • 1917 - 1929
    • The impact of the First World War
    • Immigration
    • Henry Ford and mass production
    • Farming in the 1920s
    • The Stock Market Boom
  • 1929 - 1941
    • The Wall Street Crash
    • The Depression
    • The policies of Hoover
    • Roosevelt and the New Deal
    • Reactions to the New Deal
• International Relations 1919-1939 (A8)
  • Collective Security
    • The Versailles Settlement
    • The Foundation of the League of Nations
    • Strengths and weaknesses of the League of Nations
    • Successes and failures of the League of Nations
    • Locarno and the Kellogg-Briand Pact
  • Appeasement
    • Manchuria
    • The Disarmament Conference
    • Abyssinia
    • Hitler and the League
    • Appeasement in action
• Revolution in China 1949 - 1996 (A14)
  • 1949 - 1976
    • China under Mao
    • Reform under Liu and Deng
    • The reasons for the Cultural Revolution
    • The impact of the Cultural Revolution
    • China 1971 - 1976
  • 1976 - 1996
    • The defeat of the Gang of Four
    • China under Deng Xiaoping
    • Reforms of the economy
    • The Democracy Movement
    • China in the 1990s
• South-East Asia 1945 - 1900 (A15)
  • Indo-China
    • The end of the French Empire
    • Vietnam 1954 - 1965
    • US involvement in Vietnam
    • The unification of Vietnam
    • Laos and Cambodia
  • South-East Asia
    • The struggle for control of Malaya
    • The creation of Malaysia
    • Singapore
    • Suharto and Indonesia
    • Sukarno and Pancasila
• Conflict and Crisis is the Middle East 1946 - 1996 (A16)
  • Unit overview
  • 1946 - 1967
    • The creation of Israel
    • The impact of the war of 1948 - 1949
    • The Suez Crisis
    • Superpower involvement in the Middle East
    • The Six Day War
  • 1967 - 1996
    • International terrorism
    • The war of Yom Kippur
    • The Palestinian Liberation Organisation
    • Lebanon and the occupied territories
    • Successes and failures from Camp David to Oslo
• The First World War (B4)
  • The Schlieffen Plan
  • Deadlock on the Western Front
  • Gallipoli
  • The Somme and Passchendaele
  • The War at Sea
  • The defeat of Germany
• The USA 1917-1929 (B7)
  • The Roaring Twenties
  • Advertising and consumerism
  • New forms of entertainment
  • Prohibition
  • Gangsterism
  • Hollywood
• China under Mao Zedong 1949 - 1959 (B10)
  • The creation of the Communist State
  • Land Reform
  • Communist society
  • The First Five Year Pan
  • The 100 Flowers
  • The Great Leap Forward
• The Changing Nature of Warfare (C3)
  • Unit overview
  • Warfare at the beginning of the 20th Century
  • Land warfare
  • Sea and aerial warfare
  • Atomic and nuclear weapons
  • Warfare at the end of the 20th Century
• Links

The Foundation of the League of Nations

The League of Nations was the Fourteenth Point of Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points. He was not so concerned with punishing Germany, but wanted to try to ensure that no wars took place in the future.

The League was created because the war had been so horrific that the Allies wanted to try to prevent anything like it ever happening again.

Membership of the League was open to all countries. But Germany was not allowed to join and nor was Russia.

The Council met three times a year. There were four permanent members, Britain, France, Italy and Japan (Germany became the fifth in 1926). They took most of the important decisions.

The Assembly had representatives of all the members and it meant once a year.

The Covenant was the agreement which members had to sign.

The Council of Ambassadors often took decisions, because the Council and Assembly only met occasionally.

Economic Sanctions banned trade; Military Sanctions meant a declaration of war by each member.

The Secretary-General was in charge of the administration of the League.

The Secretariat was the civil service of the League, which was based in Geneva.

This cartoon was printed on the menu distributed during a banquet in honour of the League of Nations in 1919. The caption describes a united Europe. Explain what message this cartoon is trying to give its readers.  Support your answer by referring to details of the source and your own knowledge.  Click on the thumbnail for the full cartoon.

• The Versailles Settlement
• The Foundation of the League of Nations
• Strengths and weakneses of the League of Nations
• Successes and failures of the League of Nations
• Locarno and the Kellogg-Briand Pact

• Manchuria
• The Disarmament Conference
• Abyssinia
• Hitler and the League
• Appeasement in action

Suggested Links

A League of Nations timeline

History Learning Site (excellent)

Good notes on the League of Nations

Brief United Nations site item on the League

University of Miami site on the League

The Encarta Encyclopedia article on the League

The Factmonster site on the League

Russian News Network site (detailed overview)

HAL Fisher on the League (1935)

Detailed page, heavy on origins

A personal evaluation by Karl J Schmidt

An ActiveHistory 'Fling the Teacher' quiz

A brilliant explanation by Ben Walsh of why America refused to join

Links