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Core Study: Power and Authority in the Modern World 1919-1946
Quick questions on League of Nations and collective security: HSC Modern History Core Study
12short Q&A pairs drawn directly from our worked dot-point answer. For full context and worked exam questions, read the parent dot-point page.
What is origins and structure?Show answer
The League was established by Part I of the Treaty of Versailles. The Covenant (26 articles) entered into force on 10 January 1920. Headquarters were in Geneva. The League had four main organs.
What is collective security?Show answer
Article 10 committed members to respect each other's territorial integrity. Article 16 obliged members to apply economic sanctions against any state breaking the Covenant. Military force was permissible but never compulsory. Council decisions required unanimity.
What is early successes (1920s)?Show answer
The League settled the Aaland Islands dispute (Finland vs Sweden, 1921), the Upper Silesia partition (1921), and the Greek-Bulgarian border crisis (1925). The Geneva Protocol (1924) attempted to strengthen collective security; Britain refused to ratify. The Locarno Treaties (December 1925) brought Germany into the European order, and Germany joined the League in September 1926.
What is crisis 1?Show answer
The Mukden Incident (18 September 1931): Japanese officers staged an explosion on the South Manchurian Railway and blamed Chinese forces. The Kwantung Army invaded Manchuria and established the puppet state of Manchukuo (February 1932).
What is crisis 2?Show answer
Italy invaded Abyssinia (Ethiopia) on 3 October 1935. Emperor Haile Selassie appealed to the League. Article 16 sanctions were imposed (18 November 1935): an arms embargo, financial sanctions, and a ban on certain Italian imports. Oil, coal, steel, and the Suez Canal were deliberately excluded so as not to provoke Italy into leaving the British and French camp.
What is crisis 3?Show answer
On 7 March 1936, Hitler remilitarised the Rhineland in direct violation of Articles 42 to 44 of the Treaty of Versailles and the Locarno Treaties. The German force was small and under orders to retreat if challenged. France did not respond; Britain offered no support for action. The League Council condemned the violation but took no enforcement action.
What is why the League failed?Show answer
Structurally: no army, unanimity rule, voluntary military enforcement.
What is historiography?Show answer
F.S. Northedge (The League of Nations: Its Life and Times, 1986) frames the League as a victim of great-power unwillingness rather than institutional design.
What is calling the League "a failure" without qualification?Show answer
Cite Henig and Pedersen and note the 1920s successes.
What is forgetting the United States?Show answer
The US never joined. This is the single most important structural weakness.
What is confusing dates of the crises?Show answer
Manchuria (1931), Abyssinia (1935-1936), Rhineland (March 1936). Memorise them.
What is skipping Hoare-Laval?Show answer
It is the most-tested aspect of the Abyssinian crisis.