League of nations structure

STUDENT NOTES: This is an essay planning strategy.

Questions are often set on the strengths and weaknesses of the League.

This essay planning will help you to a) categorise information to help you organise your ideas into paragraphs b) recognise the importance of explaining rather than just describing Your tasks: 1. Decide whether the information provided is a strength or weakness of the League 2. Write your explanation of how it is a strength or weakness in the space provided.

3. Cut and paste your work into the following table: Strengths

Weaknesses

Structure (how the league was organised) Membership (Who belonged and didn’t belong) Powers (what the League could do) 4. What you have now is an essay plan with three main paragraphs; on the structure, the membership and the powers of the League. Each paragraph is also ANALYTICAL (it balances strengths and weaknesses of each area). What you need are appropriate assertions for each paragraph. E.G THE STRUCTURE OF THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS WAS QUITE STRONG (or any other assertion you think is appropriate.

Insert an extra row into your table above each section and write an assertion.

Your table should now look like this: Strengths Assertion: Structure (how the league was organised) Assertion Membership (Who belonged and didn’t belong) Assertion

Weaknesses

Powers (what the League could do) What you should have noticed 1- That the evidence and explanation parts of a paragraph can be mixed together, as long as both exist.

What you could do to develop your writing style 1- In each of your three paragraphs you could deal with the strengths and weaknesses separately, or you could alternate contrasting points.

2- Add a conclusion! See question 3 below

You could now answer any of the following questions: 1. DESCRIPTIVE RESPONSE REQUIRED: What were the powers of the League of Nations?

2. EXPLANATORY RESPONSE REQUIRED: Explain the weaknesses of the structure of the League of Nations.

3. ANALYTICAL RESPONSE REQUIRED: Did the weaknesses of the League of Nations outweigh the strengths?

Remember your markscheme for analytical answers: Level 1 Unsupported general comments Level 2 Descriptive answer – describes TOV without explaining whether justified or not Level 3 Explains whether TOV justified or not Level 4 Explains both views Level 5 Explains both views and offers a convincing overall judgment

Many poorer countries of the world supported the aims of the League

Germany was not allowed to join the League until 1926

EXPLANATION:

EXPLANATION

Each nation in the council had the power of veto.

This means any Council member could stop Council decisions, even if everyone else was agreed.

The Council of the League had the power to arbitrate in disputes. This means that member states could bring their problems to the council for a decision to be made, rather than resort to conflict and aggression.

EXPLANATION EXPLANATION

The Secretariat of the League kept records of meetings and prepared reports for the different League agencies. It had specialist sections for areas such as health, disarmament and economic matters.

Forty-two countries joined the League at the start. In the 1930s about 60 countries were members.

EXPLANATION

EXPLANATION

A Permanent Court of International Justice was established at the Hague in the Netherlands. It was made up of judges from the member countries. The Court had the power to make judgments over issues such as border disputes.

EXPLANATION

The Secretariat had to translate many documents into multiple languages, as not every member of the League spoke English.

EXPLANATION

Many of the members of the League were committed to peace, after the horrors of the Great War

The International Labour Organisation was established to improve working conditions around the world.

EXPLANATION

EXPLANATION

The American people were isolationist. US Congress (Parliament) knew this. It refused to ratify (sign) the ToV, which meant that America did not join the LoN

Russia was not invited to join the League until 1934, because the European powers which dominated the League were suspicious of communism spreading.

EXPLANATION

EXPLANATION

The Council of the League met 5 times per year.

In 1920, the Council of the League had 4 permanent members; Britain, France, Italy and Japan. However, the two most powerful were Britain & France.

EXPLANATION

EXPLANATION

The League had no army to enforce its decisions EXPLANATION

If arbitration failed, the League had three powers that it could use against disobedient nations: moral condemnation, economic sanctions and military sanctions EXPLANATION

The Permanent Court of Justice could only make a ruling if it was asked to do so by both parties in a dispute.

The Permanent Court of Justice had no power to enforce a judgment.

EXPLANATION

EXPLANATION

All decisions made in the Assembly had to be unanimous (i.e agree by everyone!)

Collective Security was the League’s principle behind future peace. This was a better principle than the old Alliance system!

EXPLANATION EXPLANATION

The Council of the League met about five times per year.

The Assembly of the League met once a year.

EXPLANATION

EXPLANATION

The Assembly was the League’s Parliament.

Representatives from all member countries were invited. The Assembly could recommend action to the Council and could vote on membership proposals.

EXPLANATION

The League established a number of new commissions to improve living conditions around the world. For example, the Slavery commission worked to abolish slavery worldwide, the Health Committee educated people about sanitation and disease prevention, and the Refugees Committee worked to return refugees to their original homes after WWI. EXPLANATION

TEACHER NOTES: Sort into strengths & weaknesses Further categorise into  Membership  Structure  Powers This is an essay planning technique.

Provide the evidence for sorting, then discuss explanations. This can be done either by general q&a, or by posing the question ‘if the explanation were ‘xyz’, to which one of these pieces of evidence would it apply?

When evidence and explanation elements complete, ask what assertions you would use. This it to try and get students to see the importance of categorising, and paragraphing It will also help the more able students to see that you can mix up evidence/explanation in a paragraph, provided both elements exist