Why did it take so long for the league to make a descion over manchuria?

Answer 1

The League of Nations was a failure in Abyssinia for 4 main reasons.

The first was due to the declaration of the Hoare-Laval Pact, between Britain and France. The pact stated that a deal would be struck with the Italian leader, Benito Mussolini, to have power over 2/3 of Abyssinia, without the knowledge of the rest of the world. However, once the deal was leaked, the British and French public instantly took a stand, disagreeing with the idea of the deal, lowering the League's support and diminishing the League's moral authority. This discredited the League in that they could not stand up in such a clear cut case of aggression and do what it was created to do, impose collective security for all. Therefore, The League had no power.

Another reason as to why the League failed in Abyssinia between 1935-1936, was because Britain and France appeared selfish. Both countries had the vital opportunity to close the well-known Suez Canal, yet failed to. The reason for this was because the League wished to keep Mussolini and Italy as an ally against Adolf Hitler. They were not willing to intervene over a small country and jeopardize the peace of Europe. Unlucky for the League, Benito Mussolini joined evil forces with the Nazi Germany leader, and due to the large colonies already in Africa, gave Nazi Germany a strategic advantage in WW2.

The third reason as to why the League failed was because of the lack of support from France and Britain in imposing a trade embargo on Italy. The reason for the lack of support, was because the trade ban did not include fuels, such as petrol and oil. If there was no ban on petrol and oil, Italy could still continue their localised war against Abyssinia.

The fourth and final reason as to why the League of Nations was a failure in Abyssinia was because Britain and France, the two most involved countries of the League, had too much self-interest and neither could afford to use army force at this time (they were too busy recovering from WW1). They knew if war did break out, Italy would be a strong force to have on their side, and a strong nation to be kept in the League. The two countries were too worried about their own population in their own countries rather than a small African country with little promise.

Also, the League having no army of its own was definitely another catastrophic failure of the League. The fact that the USA was not a member and none of the top countries in Europe were prepared to submit troops to fight, especially after the horrors of WW1, meant it could not fight, and therefore, could not use military sanctions.