A Failing League

Essay by deazn1High School, 10th gradeA+, January 2006

download word file, 6 pages 3.0

The League of Nations was the first established international organization to maintain world peace. It was founded in 1920 as part of the settlement that ended World War I. The League of Nations was first suggested in the Fourteen Points presented on Jan. 8, 1918, by Woodrow Wilson, who was at that time the president of the United States. After the peace negotiations opened, a commission headed by Wilson continued the work in a plan called The Covenant of the League of Nations, later it became Section I of the Treaty of Versailles. The League came officially into existence with the ratification of this treaty on Jan. 10, 1920. The first Assembly met in Geneva, Nov. 15, 1920, with 41 nations represented. More than 20 nations joined later, but there were many withdrawals. The organization, powers, and purposes of the League were stated in 26 articles of the Covenant.

The Covenant stated that the League was designed to deal with collective security, arbitration, disarmament, and economic and social cooperation among nations. The League of Nations was a well organized and convincing plan that had the potential to become an international peacekeeper, yet despite Woodrow Wilson's efforts to endorse it; the league failed to deliver international peace among nations.

The League of Nations was created in an attempt to achieve world peace. Wilson had the desire to establish this organization and create agreement among other countries. He made travels throughout the United States and Europe to give speeches of his thoughts on how the League of Nations "could be used for cooperation in any international matter." He aim was for the League to be a "constitution of peace, not as a league of war." His confidence in it was so strong that he even went as far as saying "it...