The League of Nations' contribution to Peace

The League was initially very popular and was often called upon to sort out disagreements between countries. In 1921, there was a disagreement over the future of Upper Silesia. Both Germany and Poland claimed the territory as their own. The League stepped in to assist those countries. They send League armed forces to occupy the area whilst the issue was resolved. The people of Upper Silesia voted on where they wanted to be governed from. Parts voted for Germany and parts voted for Poland. In the end the League of Nations gave areas which voted for Germany to Germany and those areas for Poland were given to Poland.

Decisions like the one in Upper Silesia were carried out by the League with relative success. There were disputes over the borders of Europe which resulted in the Locarno treaties, which helped embed the terms from the treaty into world affairs.

Despite some success however, the League was not all powerful. There were several instances whereby the League were unable to perform the duties effectively. In 1920, Poland invaded Lithuania and all action by the League was ignored. The fact that the League did not have an army meant it was often difficult to enforce the decision of the League. In one case in 1923, Mussolini of Italy invaded Greece and the League said that Mussolini was in the right. Greece ended up having to pay significant sums of compensation to Italy.