page_title: League of Nations
hierarchical_section_title: League of Nations
caption_attribution_description: English: Palace of Nations in Geneva, SwitzerlandFrançais&#160;: Palais des Nations, GenèveDeutsch: Palais des Nations in Genf
context_page_description: The League of Nations was the predecessor to the United Nations. The League was founded in 1920, after World War I, but failed to maintain peace during World War II. The League had a Council of the great powers and an Assembly of all the member countries.
  The League of Nations was thought up by Woodrow Wilson, the American President during the First World War. It was to be a group of nations that worked together to keep peace. One of the reasons for its downfall was that, after a vote, the American public refused to join. The League did not have the power it needed to enforce any of the rules that made it up. This later proved to be a fatal flaw in the League's structure.
  Another flaw in the League was that it was not representative enough: no more than 65 nations were members at any given time, and the interests of the leading members often outweighed those of smaller, less powerful members.
  The League also had no troops of its own, and decisions it made were often slow. For example, when the Empire of Japan invaded Manchuria in 1931, the League took a whole year to make a decision. When it came, Japan ignored it.
context_section_description: The League of Nations (French: La Société des Nations) was the predecessor to the United Nations. The League was founded in 1920, after World War I, but failed to maintain peace during World War II. The League had a Council of the great powers and an Assembly of all the member countries. 
  The League of Nations was thought up by Woodrow Wilson, the American President during the First World War. It was to be a group of nations that worked together to keep peace. One of the reasons for its downfall was that, after a vote, the American public refused to join. The League did not have the power it needed to enforce any of the rules that made it up. This later proved to be a fatal flaw in the League's structure. 
  Another flaw in the League was that it was not representative enough: no more than 65 nations were members at any given time, and the interests of the leading members (notably Britain and France) often outweighed those of smaller, less powerful members. 
  The League also had no troops of its own, and decisions it made were often slow. For example, when the Empire of Japan invaded Manchuria  (North-East China) in 1931, the League took a whole year to make a decision.  When it came, Japan ignored it.   When  Italy invaded Abyssinia in 1935, the League condemned it more quickly but Italy merely quit the League and continued its conquest.  After these disasters the League was thought to be weak and powerless and stopped operations in 1939.  
  The League did not fail completely: it had prevented a few conflicts in Europe in the 1920s and worked hard to relieve various public health and social problems around the world.
  In 1946, the already inactive League of Nations formally ended.  The United Nations was established, and still today does many of the same things the League of Nations did.
caption: Headquarters of League of Nations at Geneva, Switzerland
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