- On 20th April 1946, the League of Nations, established by the Allied Powers at the end of World War I was officially dissolved in Geneva.
- A brainchild of US President Woodrow Wilson, the League was an ambitious attempt to construct a peaceful global order. The founders believed it could encourage open discussions to achieve ‘peace by reason’.
- The precursor to the League of Nations (LN) was the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) formed in 1889.
- When the First World War broke out in 1914, there was a huge public support in the UK and the USA for an international organisation that would prevent further wars in the future.
- At the Paris Peace Conference of January 1919, the delegates deliberated on the proposals and agreed to form the League of Nations.
- In June 1919, 44 nations signed the covenant. The LN was established by Part I of the Treaty of Versailles. This treaty was one of the most important peace treaties that terminated World War I.
- LN’s official founding date was 10 January, 1920. The USA did not join the organisation even though American President Woodrow Wilson had played an active part in its formation.
- The league’s first meeting was held on 16 January 1920. Its initial headquarters was in London. Later on, it was moved to Geneva.
- The League was the first international organization whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. Its primary goals, as stated in its Covenant, included preventing wars through collective security and disarmament and settling international disputes through negotiation and arbitration.
- Other issues in this and related treaties included labor conditions, just treatment of native inhabitants, human and drug trafficking, the arms trade, global health, prisoners of war, and protection of minorities in Europe.
- There were 42 founding members and at its greatest extent from 28 September 1934 to 23 February 1935, it had 58 members.
- The League was formed with the intention of preventing another war but it was unsuccessful in this mission.
- The League was marked by notable failures, most glaringly, in preventing the invasion of Manchuria by Japan, the annexation of Ethiopia by Italy, and the onset of World War II.
- It did have a number of successes, however, including cooperative ventures that were transferred to the United Nations.
- Once the Second World War started, the league existed only nominally. It was officially dissolved on 20 April, 1946 after the United Nations was formed in October 1945.
