Pre-AICE World History Ms.

Speight-Johnson

Mussolini Invasion of Abyssinia Homework

Objective is to answer this question: How can Sources be used to explain why the League of Nations unable to stop Italy from taking over Abyssinia in the 1930s? REASONS WHY THE LEAGUE FAILED
1. Weak the Leagues powers could do little more than morally condemn aggressive nations and set unenforceable sanctions because it had no army. 2. America the strongest nation in the world was not a member. Britain and France were not strong enough to impose peace on their own. 3. Structure the Leagues structure was inefficient so it took too long to do anything. Decisions had to be unanimous but members couldnt agree. 4. Depression the worldwide Depression made countries try to get more land and power. They were worried about themselves, not about world peace. 5. Unsuccessful the more the League failed, the less people trusted the organization. In the end, everybody just ignored it. 6. Members the Leagues main members let it down. Italy and Japan defied and then left the League. France and Britain betrayed the League. 7. Big bullies in the 1920s, the League had been quite successful with small, weak countries. In the 1930s, powerful countries like Germany, Italy and Japan defied the League. They were too strong for the League to stop them.

Source A
Could the League survive the failure of sanctions to rescue Abyssinia? Could it ever impose sanctions again? Probably there had never been such a clear-cut case for sanctions. If the League had failed in this case there could probably be no confidence that it could succeed again in the future. Anthony Eden, British Foreign Minister, expressing his feelings about the crisis to the British Cabinet in May 1936

Source B

Pre-AICE World History Ms. Speight-Johnson

Source C
The crisis of 1935-36 was fatal to the League, which was not taken seriously againit was too late to save the League. Instead, it began the emotional preparation among the democracies for the Second World War. Written by the historian JR Western (1971)

Source D
The League died in 1935. One day it was a powerful body imposing sanctions, the next day it was a useless fraud, everybody running away from it as quickly as possible. Hitler watched. Written by the historian AJP Taylor (1966)

Source E
Manchuria demonstrated that the League was toothless. However, the blow to the League was not a mortal one and the decisive test came two years later in the Abyssinian crisis... The Abyssinian crisis delivered a deathblow to the League. It was already weakened by the departure of Japan in March 1933 and Germany in October. Italy left in 1937. While Britain and France were distracted, Hitler made his first major territorial move, sending a force of 22,000 men into the demilitarised Rhineland. Written by the historian AP Adamthwaite (1977)

1. How many of the factors that led to the Leagues failure in Abyssinia can you see depicted in the sources?

2. To what extent do the Sources explain the reasons WHY the League failed during the Mussolini invasion?