FREE ESSAY ON YEARS OF CHANGE

YEARS OF CHANGE

Years of Change
4. The hopes and dreams of the League of Nation were quite realistic, although they
simply rushed into them to fast. First of all, they tried to maintain the Treaty of
Versailles. This frustarated Germany from the start, because they felt as though their
honor was robbed from them. Later on, the League did not even notice the country
reassembling their military troops, something the treaty outlawed. Trying to keep peace
between Germany and the rest of the world was a realistic goal, but they simple did not
go about it in the right way. Another reason that their realistic dreams of peace did not
work was because they got started during an economical slump. The aftermath of the war
left many countries with little money and trying to maintain perfect peace with no
supplies was hard for many to do. The goals of the League of Nations were not complete
quixotic, but they were just brought about in the wrong time, with the wrong forces
behind it.
5. The Locarno treaty was very significant in the fact that it showed peace almost to be
possible. Signed in 1925, the treaty was a reinforcement of the Treaty of Versailles. It
seemed to secure peace between Europe's two biggest enemies; France and Germany. Germany
decided to join the League of Nations after the signing of this treaty, putting her back
into the international community. The League believed that after the signing of this
treaty, a new era of peace would begin. Yet, each had a weakness that proved to be it's
fatal flaw. The treaty of Lacarno was quite important in the fact that it showed the
League of Nations dreams to be somewhat realistic. Although they had their problems, for
one moment in time, there was peace between the worst of rivals. This shows that even
though the League, to many, failed, it accomplished to demonstrate the kind of peace they
were aiming for, even if it was only for a split second.
6. The economy collapse and the following of the Wall Street crash hit the League of
Nations very hard. Each countries factories were damaged because of this, all fighting to
make enough money to survive. This also had an effect on international relations.
Overseas trade was no longer possible, because each country needed what they had for
themselves. Also, the duties were very high because of the crash. In 1931, President
Hoover, of the US, proposed one-year payments for each country. In June of the next year,
representatives met because they were unhappy with this proposition. This caused
hostility between nations. The collapse caused problems for America and Germany as well.
Germany had debts of $10000 million to pay but when the Great Depression began; Germany
refused to pay the rest, after only giving the US $3000 million. These issues caused
conflicts between many of the countries of the League of Nations, creating a hostility
that was doomed for failure.
7. The League of Nations did not prevent Japan from invading Manchuria, because they were
to busy analyzing the situation when they should have been taking action. In early 1932,
70000 Japanese troops were set up in Shanghai and forced the Chinese to stop their
boycott on Japanese goods. The League began to examine the situation, first of all too
late, and then spend to long doing it. In January 1932, six months after Japan first
entered Manchuria, the United States created sanctions, once knowing that Japan was not
attacking out of self-defense. They did not take military actions against Japan, because
they were not sure of the reasons behind their invasion. In 1933, the sanctions were
given to Japan, who rejected and withdrew from the League. The reason that the League of
Nations did not work on the crisis sooner was because they were too busy creating
beautiful sanctions and analyzing the situations to its fullest. If they simply would
have acted quicker and maybe listen to Japan's reasons for attack, then their resignation
could have been prevented and Manchuria would not have had to be kept 'hostage' for so
long. Perhaps after learning from their slow actions in the Japanese crisis, the League
would have acted quicker in the Italian invasion of Abyssinia. This time, they did
investigate the situation quicker, but still did not take military action, because they
knew it would start a war. Instead, the League thought it would be best to negotiate, but
again they were wrong. Italy did not agree with their ideas and pulled out of the Nation.
The two main reasons that the League of Nations did not take military action was because
they though it might cause war. Instead, they tried to negotiate, but in both cases, lost
a member. This was not necessarily a bad choice on the League's behave, but they simple
had a closed mind and did not believe to attack Italy or Japan, mostly out of the fear of
war and defeat.