Chronology: Key Events in The failure of the League of Nations, 1919–39

 

1918:  11 November: Armistice signed (1).
1919: January: Peace talks begin in Paris (2).
1919: June: Treaty of Versailles signed: settlement with Germany (3).
1919: Treaty of Saint-Germain signed: settlement with Austria; Treaty of Neuilly signed: settlement with Bulgaria.
1920: January: League of Nations starts work.
1920: Treaty of Trianon signed: settlement with Hungary; Treaty of Sèvres proposes settlement with Turkey.
1922: Washington Naval Conference (4); Treaty of Rapallo between USSR and Germany (5).
1923: January: French occupation of the Ruhr region of Germany (6).
1923: Italy invades Corfu (7); Treaty of Lausanne revises Treaty of Sèvres (8).
1924: Geneva Protocol discussed (9); Dawes Plan agreed (10).
1925: Locarno treaties signed (11).
1926: Germany joins League
1928: Kellogg–Briand Pact (12).
1929: Young Plan (13).
1931: September: Japanese invade Manchuria.
1932: Lytton Committee Report (14).
1933: Breakdown of Disarmament Conference (15); Japan leaves League.
1934: Germany leaves League; USSR joins League.
1935: Stresa Front agreed (16); Italy invades Abyssinia; Hoare–Laval Pact proposed (17).
1936: Anti-Comintern Pact signed (18).
1936: Germany remilitarises the Rhineland; Spanish Civil War begins.
1938: Germany invades Austria in the Anschluss; Sudetenland given to Germany after the Munich Crisis.
1939: March: Hitler invades remaining part of Czechoslovakia.
1939: End of Spanish Civil War.
1939: August: Nazi–Soviet Pact (19).
1939: September: Germany invades Poland (20).

(1) A ceasefire.
(2) The Big Three of Wilson (USA), Clemenceau (France) and Lloyd-George (Britain) met to discuss a peace settlement.
(3) The most argued-over peace treaty. Germany lost all colonies and 15 per cent of her land, and had to agree to a ‘war guilt clause’ and eventually pay a reparations bill of £6.6 billion.
(4) A major military agreement, which limited naval armaments, involved the USA, Japan and Britain but was also outside the League’s remit.
(5) A treaty between two states excluded from post-war diplomacy; included a secret agreement to allow Germany to produce military technology banned by Versailles in the USSR.
(6) Without consulting the League or Britain.
(7) Showed the League to be unable to stop aggressive action by a leading member.
(8) Showed how one of the Paris settlement treaties could be renegotiated by force. The Turks went to war against the Greeks to do this.
(9) Attempt to strengthen the League by giving it the option to use force; British Labour Prime Minister Ramsay McDonald supported it, but when he left office, the Protocol was dropped.
(10) Plan helped stabilise the German economy after the years of hyperinflation.
(11) Treaties saw Britain and Italy guarantee France’s border with Germany. It thus left open the question of Germany’s border in the east and also went above the League. Germany was to join the League in 1926. Spirit of Locarno was seen as a new age of international cooperation.
(12) Agreed by USA’s Charles Kellogg and France’s Aristide Briand. Countries who signed it renounced war as a means of settling disputes. Most countries signed it, but it did little to stop war in the future, as the 1930s showed.
(13) Reduced reparations and extended payment period for Germany.
(14) Lord Lytton’s report allowed Japan to keep control of the land taken by force.
(15) Conference organised by the League but too late to make real progress. Allowed Hitler to walk out and claim that Britain and France were refusing to make concessions.
(16) Britain, France and Italy agreed to uphold frontiers in Western Europe. Broke down over Abyssinia.
(17) Pact suggested Italy keep two-thirds of her gains; another victory for aggressive behaviour.
(18) Initially between Germany and Japan. Italy joined soon after.
(19) Surprised Britain and France; a pact between two rivals which suited both their objectives in the short term.
(20) The start of war in Europe, as Britain and France kept to their promise to support Poland.