How was the League of Nations set up, and why did it fail in the 1930s?
The aims and structure of the League of Nations, its successes and failures in the 1920s, and how the Manchurian and Abyssinian crises destroyed it in the 1930s.
A focused answer to the League of Nations section of AQA's Conflict and tension depth study, covering the League's aims and structure, its mixed record in the 1920s, and how the Depression and the Manchurian and Abyssinian crises exposed its fatal weaknesses.
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What this dot point is asking
This section of AQA's wider world depth study asks why the League of Nations was created, how it was organised, what it achieved and failed to achieve in the 1920s, and how the crises of the 1930s exposed its weaknesses and destroyed its authority. You need both the structure and the story of its collapse, because the 16-mark essay often asks you to weigh up the reasons for failure.
Aims and structure
The League's tools were limited. Against an aggressor it could use moral condemnation, then economic sanctions (cutting off trade), and in theory military force, but it had no army of its own. Collective security depended entirely on members being willing to act together, which became its fatal weakness.
The 1920s: a mixed record
The League's first decade was genuinely mixed, which is important for a balanced judgement.
Its commissions had real successes away from the headlines: the refugee organisation under Nansen resettled hundreds of thousands of refugees and prisoners of war, the health committee tackled disease, and others worked on slavery and working conditions. It also settled some small border disputes, such as the Aaland Islands quarrel between Sweden and Finland (1921), which it resolved peacefully.
But it failed whenever a strong state defied it. In the Corfu incident (1923) Mussolini's Italy bombarded and occupied the Greek island after an Italian general was killed; the League's attempt to act was sidestepped, and Italy effectively got its way. The pattern, success against the weak, failure against the strong, was already visible in the 1920s.
The 1930s crises and collapse
The Great Depression after 1929 changed everything. As trade collapsed and unemployment soared, governments became inward-looking and unwilling to risk trade or war over distant crises. This fatally undermined collective security just as aggressive states began to test the League.
The two crises are best understood as a chain. Manchuria showed that a great power could defy the League with no consequence. Abyssinia, three years later, showed that even Britain and France, the League's leading members, would put their own interests (keeping Italy as a possible ally against Hitler) above collective security. After Abyssinia, no aggressor took the League seriously, and Hitler moved into the Rhineland in March 1936 in the middle of the crisis, while the League was distracted.
Try this
Q1. State two weaknesses of the League of Nations. [Knowledge recall]
- Cue. The USA never joined and it had no army (also: unanimous voting, weak sanctions, dependence on Britain and France).
Q2. Explain why the Abyssinian Crisis damaged the League more than Manchuria. [Short explanation]
- Cue. It exposed the League's own leaders, Britain and France, as willing to betray collective security through the Hoare-Laval Pact, destroying its credibility entirely.
Exam-style practice questions
Practice questions written in the style of AQA exam questions on this dot point, with worked answer explainers. The year tag is the paper they imitate, not the source.
AQA 20208 marksWrite an account of the ways in which the Abyssinian Crisis of 1935 to 1936 weakened the League of Nations.Show worked answer →
This is the Paper 1 narrative account question (8 marks, AO1 and AO2). Markers reward a linked, analytical sequence, not a list. Use three or four connected events and show how each led to the next.
Possible sequence. Italy invaded Abyssinia in October 1935, breaching the Covenant, which forced the League to respond. The League imposed economic sanctions but deliberately left out oil and kept the Suez Canal open, so the sanctions could not stop Italy. This led to the secret Hoare-Laval Pact (December 1935), in which Britain and France offered Mussolini much of Abyssinia, which leaked and caused outrage. As a result the League looked both weak and dishonest, Abyssinia fell in 1936, and major powers concluded the League could not protect them.
Top band. Use linking phrases ("this led to", "as a result") so the account analyses how the crisis destroyed the League's credibility, ending on the named outcome.
AQA 201716 marksHow far do you agree that the main reason the League of Nations failed was its lack of an army? Explain your answer.Show worked answer →
The 16-mark "how far" essay (plus 4 SPaG marks). Argue both sides and reach a justified judgement.
For (no army mattered). With no armed force, the League relied on persuasion and economic sanctions, which member states would not enforce if it hurt their trade, as the weak Abyssinian sanctions showed.
Against (other reasons mattered). The absence of the USA removed the strongest power and weakened sanctions; the requirement for unanimous decisions let any major power block action; the Great Depression made states selfish and unwilling to risk trade or war; and the League depended on Britain and France, who put self-interest first (Hoare-Laval).
Judgement. A strong answer argues the weaknesses were connected, but that the deeper failure was the unwillingness of the leading powers to act, of which the lack of an army was a symptom. Reach a clear criteria-based verdict.
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Sources & how we know this
- AQA GCSE History (8145) specification — AQA (2016)