Question- Explain the Structure of League of Nations.

Answer -

Principal Organs

The League of Nations’ principal organs were:

(a) The General Assembly,

(b) The Council and

(c) The Secretariat.

These organs were headed by the Secretary General in addition to Permanent Court of International Justice and the International Labour Organization and a number of subsidiaries organs like Mandates Commission, International Traffic Commission, International Economic and Fiscal Commission. The Council was deemed the most significant of all the three bodies Government as it was in charge of preserving peace and stability.

(a) The General Assembly : It met once a year and was made up of representatives of all member states and decided on the policy of the organization. The Assembly was the League member states' annual meeting. The Assembly’s proceedings existed for the first three sessions as a separate journal, the first of which was held in Paris on 16 January 1920.

These were eventually published as a separate supplement to the Official Journal until 1938. Resolutions adopted in plenary sessions have also been issued in Special Additions. Over the years these supplements have been counted consecutively. Assembly dates and links to the list of appointed representatives of each nation.

(b) The Council : The Council consisted of four permanent members (Britain, France, Italy, and Japan) and four (later nine) other members chosen every three years by the General Assembly. The primary role of the Council was to resolve foreign disputes. Different number of permanent and non-permanent members. Four times a year, and as much as required in extraordinary sessions, Council meetings were held at ordinary sessions. In the period 1920 to 1939, 107 public sessions were held. The minutes appeared in the Official Journal as of 1922 onwards. Separately were published records for meetings held prior to 1922. The decisions are contained only in the minutes of the meetings.

(c) The Secretariat : The Secretariat set out the agenda and released meeting papers. The Secretariat has carried out the League’s daily work, under the Secretary-General’s direction. Sir Eric Drummond, 1919-1933; Joseph Avenol, 1933-1940, and Sean Lester, 1940-1946 were the three Secretaries-General. The Secretary-General had written regular reports on the League’s work.

(a) Permanent Court of Justice : This provided for the establishment of the Permanent Court of International Justice (PCIJ) in the League of Nations Covenant. In 1922 it held its inaugural sitting and was disbanded in 1946.

(b) International Labor Organization : The International Labor Organization / Bureau International du Travail (ILO / BIT) was founded as an international body operating in collaboration with the League of Nations in 1919 at the Paris Peace Conference.

The ILO / BIT objective was set out in the League of Nations Covenant (Article 23a), which called for “fair and humane working conditions for men, women, and children” to be maintained. ILO / BIT membership consisted of all League of Nations member states plus the United States (which accepted membership of the organization on 20 August 1934).

Committee, Confer ences, and Commissions

The League of Nations has provided mandates to boards, commissions, and conferences; such as the Opium Advisory Committee and the Permanent Mandates Commission. Reports on the Committee could not have been released. Since 1931, the League ceased publishing the minutes of several committees. If a committee submitted reports to the Assembly or Council, the reports were printed as documents of the Assembly or of the Council. A general guide to the committee structure can be found at League of Nations Committees.

Question- Introduce Second World War. What are the Causes of this War?

Answer -

Introduction

(1) World War II, also called Second World War, was a conflict that involved virtually every part of the world during the years 1939-45.

(2) The principal belligerents were the Axis powers: Germany, Italy, and Japan, and the Allies: France, Great Britain, the United States, the Soviet Union, and, to a lesser extent, China.

(3) It was the biggest conflict in history that had lasted almost six years.

(4) Nearly some 100 million people had been militarized, and 50 million had been killed (around 3% of the world’s population).

Causes of War

1. Treaty of Versailles

(i) Following World War I, the victorious Allied Powers met to decide Germany’s future. Germany was forced to sign the Treaty of Versailles.

(ii) Under this treaty, Germany had to accept guilt for the war and to pay reparations. Germany lost territory and was prohibited from having a large military.

(iii) The humiliation faced by Germany under this treaty paved the way for the spread of Ultra-Nationalism in Germany.

2. Failure of the League of Nations

(i) The League of Nations was an international organization set up in 1919 to keep world peace.

(ii) It was intended that all countries would be members and that if there were disputes between countries, they could be settled by negotiation rather than by force.

(iii) The League of Nations was a good idea, but ultimately a failure, as not all countries joined the league.

(iv) Also, the League had no army to prevent military aggression such as Italy’s invasion of Ethiopia in Africa or Japan’s invasion of Manchuria in China.

3. Great Depression of 1929

(i) The worldwide economic depression of the 1930s took its toll in different ways in Europe and Asia.

(ii) In Europe, political power shifted to totalitarian and imperialist governments in several countries, including Germany, Italy, and Spain.

(iii) In Asia, a resource-starved Japan began to expand aggressively, invading China and maneuvering to control a sphere of influence in the Pacific.

4. Rise of Fascism

(i) Victors’ stated aims in World War I had been "to make the world safe for democracy," and postwar Germany was made to adopt a democratic constitution, as did most of the other states restored or created after the war.

(ii) In the 1920s, however, the wave of nationalistic, militaristic totalitarianism known by its Italian name, fascism, emerged.

(iii) It promised to minister to peoples' wants more effectively than democracy and presented itself as the one sure defense against communism.

(iv) Benito Mussolini established the first Fascist, European dictatorship during the interwar period in Italy in 1922.

5. Rise of Nazism

(i) Adolf Hitler, the Leader of the German National Socialist (Nazi) party, preached a racist brand of fascism.

(ii) Hitler promised to overturn the Versailles Treaty, restore German wealth & glory, and secure additional Lebensraum ("living space") for the German people, who he contended deserve more as members of a superior race.

(iv) Moreover, in 1941, the Nazi regime unleashed a war of extermination against Slavs, Jews, and other elements deemed inferior by Hitler’s ideology.

6. Policy of Appeasement

(i) Hitler openly denounced the Treaty of Versailles and began secretly building up Germany’s army and weapons.

(ii) Although Britain and France knew of Hitler’s actions, they thought a stronger Germany would stop the spread of Communism from Russia.

(iii) An example of appeasement was the Munich Agreement of September 1938. In the Agreement, Britain and France allowed Germany to annex areas in Czechoslovakia where German-speakers lived.

(a) Germany agreed not to invade the rest of Czechoslovakia or any other country. However, in March 1939, Germany broke its promise and invaded the rest of Czechoslovakia.

(b) Even then, neither Britain nor France was prepared to take military action.

7. The Weakness of the League of Nations

The League of Nations was a helpless spectator when the Axis powers committed acts of aggression due to the fact that England and France followed the policy of appeasement towards the Axis powers.

It failed to maintain peace and to protect smaller nations against big powers.

The U.S. President Wilson was the principal architect of the League and promoter of disarmament. However, his own country could never become a member of the League.

The League of Nations had several other shortcomings.

8. Rise of Dictatorship in Italy and Germany

The dictatorship of the Fascist party, under the leadership of Mussolini, was established in Italy in 1922.

The dictatorship of the Nazi party was established in Germany after Hitler came to power in 1933.

9. Expansionist Policy of The Axis Powers

Germany, Italy, and Japan were the Axis Powers that pursued an expansionist policy during the inter-war period.

• Germany brought about the unification of all German-speaking provinces by the annexation of Austria and Czechoslovakia.
• Italy annexed Ethiopia in 1936 and Albania in 1939.
• Japan invaded China in 1937 and occupied three-fourths of its territory by the middle of 1939.

10. Failure of Disarmament

The task of preparing a plan for the reduction of armaments was entrusted to the League of Nations.

However, no success could be achieved in this area.

The temporary Mixed Commission appointed by the League in 1920 also failed in its efforts could not do any substantial work. In 1925 Preparatory Commission was constituted. It could not do any substantial work. Finally, a Disarmament Conference met in Geneva in February 1932 but could not reach any agreement. In 1935, Germany declared that she was no more bound by the military clauses of the Treaty of Versailles.

11. The Problem of National Minorities

The US President Wilson had advocated the concept of self-determination but his principle could not be implemented on various occasions. For instance, large German minorities were in company with non-Germans in Poland and Czechoslovakia. There were Russian minorities in Poland and Rumania. This gave rise to feelings of insecurity among the minorities.

12. Policy of Appeasement

England and France ignored the acts of aggression by Germany and Italy and succumbed to their pressure. Appeasement was started by Prime Minister Baldwin but pursued by Neville Chamberlain in 1938. The policy of appeasement emboldened the aggressive nations.

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