Lesson video

Hello and welcome back to your OAK Academy history lesson with me Ms Goult.

And we're on lesson two of our inquiry into why the League of Nations failed.

Now, if you've not already done lesson one of this inquiry, which is about the successes of the League of Nations in the 1920s, then go back and do that one because otherwise this one won't make sense.

If you have some that one brilliant, grab a pen and write the title.

Why did the League of Nations fail in the 1930s? Pause this video so you can do that.

When we're looking at the 1930s, it is really important to set the scene.

Now, this image really evokes the 1930s in terms of the devastation that was wrought in 1929.

So this is an image of a cleaner, he is sweeping up after a day that devastated America, the 30th of October, 1929, the Wall Street Crash.

He's working in a stock exchange where businessmen in New York would go to buy and sell stocks.

And in the period of just a few days, America went from the richest country in the world to its economy being in tatters, as people totally lost faith in American stocks.

This sparked a worldwide economic depression, meaning that there was a huge downturn in the economy of every country in the world, and it had three big impacts.

So unemployment, lots of people lost their jobs, extremisms, so people started voting for really extreme political parties with extreme views, and militarism, countries didn't feel safe, so they built up their armed forces.

All of this made the work of the League of Nations to keep peace, remember three aims to promote disarmament and to uphold the Treaty of Versailles almost impossible.

Last lesson we looked at some of the successes of the 1920s.

The 1930s were much more difficult because the peace that had been created in the 1920s began to unravel and Europe saw the rise of the dictators.

Because there's all countries were suffering economically, they didn't want to spend time and energy dealing with international affairs.

America is going through such a crisis, it doesn't want to get involved in European affairs called back in loans, money that they've lent to other countries, unemployment sky rocketed.

It was an incredibly different, difficult time for the whole world.

So with this in mind, why did the League of Nations fail? And there's two big reasons in the purple and the pink are going to come up aggressive dictators and weak democracies.

And we're going to look at those two today, but those two big reasons why the League of Nations failed are underpinned by the structure of the League of Nations.

The fact that America wasn't in it, the fact that it took them ages to make decisions and also the economic collapse of 1929, which I have just described.

This is not an easy inquiry question to answer, but the League of Nations became weaker and weaker throughout the 1930s.

But before we look at that, just a quick reminder of how it works.

The three main aims to stop war, because we didn't want pitcher war break out, to encourage peace armament that's reduction of the number of weapons and to uphold and enforce the Treaty of Versailles.

Now, if you want you can pause here to take a moment to look at this because I'm going to test you on this, on the next slide.

So pause, if you want to, if you're feeling confident, carry on.

Right, now pause your video and see if you can write down the three main aims. Okay? Pause your video now.

Welcome back, so our three main aims, were one, two stop war two, disarmament and three to uphold and enforce the Treaty of Versailles.

So let's say that in mind, while we look at these two case studies of failures of the League of Nations.

So, our first one is in Manchuria and started in 1932.

So Japan, who was one of the great powers and on the counsellors of the League of Nations was becoming more and more powerful.

Now Manchuria is where that second arrow is, was part of Northern China and it was attractive to Japan as it was rich in natural resources.

So Japan wanted sort of that, so a cause of the crisis was this increase in power from Japan and the fact they wanted a bit of Manchuria.

In 1932, and this is an image here of Japan invading Manchuria.

They've renamed it Manchukuo and took overruling it, and this image we see is if the Japanese Forces.

China appeal to the help from the League of Nations, they went to the League and said, "We need help, this isn't fair, Japan shouldn't be invading us" and the League told Japan to withdraw.

They told Japan to leave Manchuria.

An inquiry was set up under this man, who is called Lord Lytton.

And he condensed Japan's actions, which meant that he said that they were wrong, they were bad, and the members of the League accepted these conclusions.

Japan ignored the report and left the League of Nations.

So they ignored everything that had been told and left the League of Nations and went on to invade more of China and the League was powerless to stop it and did nothing to stop it.

So the consequences of Japan invading Manchuria, and then ignoring the League where, the League was exposed as powerless.

East Asia did feel far away.

So it didn't damage the League's reputation in Europe, as much as it would have done, if it had happened closer to home, but it did show you that the League actually couldn't do anything.

They told Japan not to do it, Japan did it anyway, and nothing bad happened to Japan.

The League supporters believe that if a similar thing happened in Europe, where be interest of the great powers where at stake, the League would be able to cope with it and would be able to act more effectively.

However, you'd have the big negative impact on the way that the League was viewed.

So facing what we've learned now, let's have a bit of a quiz to just check on our knowledge and help remind us.

So four statements are going to appear, I will read through them, pause the video and under each one, write down whether you think it's true or false, if you want to as well, you could give a reason for that.

In that case why do you think it's true? Or why do you think it's false? What's your evidence? And we'll go through the answers.

So statements will pop up.

You write down, if you think they're true or false, then we will go through the answers.

So four statements here, Japan was becoming less powerful.

Manchuria was rich in natural resources.

The Lytton inquiry condemned Japan's invasion of Manchuria.

Japan listened to the League of Nations and left Manchuria.

Pause now, true or false each of them.

Okay, welcome back.

Let's see, so Japan was becoming less powerful, true or false.

It was false, we know that Japan was gaining power, they wanted to take over more land.

Manchuria was rich in natural resources, true.

That's why Japan wanted to take over.

The Lytton inquiry condemned Japan's invasion of Manchuria, true.

But Japan well this will give away the next one, D, Japan listens to the League of Nations and left Manchuria.

No, that's false.

So despite the fact that Lytton inquiry condemned Japan's invasion of Manchuria.

Japan did not listen to the League of Nations requesting for them to leave.

So the League of Nations looked powerless.

Okay, so now we're going on to Abyssinia Crisis, I'm going to disappear and I'll come back again.

When it's time to do another quiz.

So the causes of the Abyssinia Crisis.

Now, first of all, let's meet Mussolini.

He was the leader of Italy and I'd taken him control earlier in the 1920s.

He was an extremist leader who was a perfectionist with an aggressive Nationalistic Foreign Policy.

This meant that he wanted to take over new areas of land, so that Italy could rule them and make money from them.

Particularly in what we know is an economic crisis, in the 1930s, he wanted to improve its economy.

He wasn't concerned with keeping world peace, but rather with increasing the power of Italy.

So we remember from last lesson, the Corfu incident where the League of Nations acted in favour of Mussolini, had invaded Corfu and League of Nations didn't condemn him and they supported him to get what he wanted out of Greece and he's invaded Corfu because he'd been upset with the actions of Greece.

But the League of Nations didn't stop him, which meant that he felt that he could invade other places.

So he had his eye on Abyssinia So that's Italy there and Abyssinia is in North Africa, North East Africa and it's now called Ethiopia.

So, that was the causes of the Abyssinia crisis.

The events.

There were some warning signs that Italy was going to invade Abyssinia.

So the British Foreign Secretary, Sir Samuel Hoare, in September, 1935, made a speech to the Assembly of the League of Nations and remember they meet once a year.

He called for collective resistance to Italian aggression, to these aggressive moves.

This meant he was asking for the League to work together, to prevent Mussolini the leader of Italy from invading Abyssinia.

Italy invaded on the 3rd of October, 1935.

And the Abyssinia Forces stood little chance against the modern Italian Army, it's worth being aware as well, that Mussolini would have known about this speech that had been made to say they should resist Italian invasions.

So, at first it seemed that the League would react really harshly.

Within a week, it condemned Italy as the aggressor and stopped all League members from trading with Italy.

And this should have been a really harsh punishment, particularly because there was this worldwide depression, Italy really needed the money, and the League was scared of Mussolini's power.

So this trading sanctions, these trading punishments didn't extend to any war materials, that's coal, iron, oil and so that meant that Mussolini could carry on.

And he like he said that, if they stop trading in coal, iron and oil, he actually would have called off the invasion.

But because they weren't that harsh on him, he knew he could get away with it.

Now, they put these sanctions in place, which aren't that harsh, but it appears relatively harsh to the outside world and behind the scenes, Britain and France undermined the harsh actions of the League.

Hoare and Laval who was the French Foreign Secretary met in December and agreed on a plan to bring this invasion act to an end.

They would split up Abyssinia, with Italy getting the most useful land, had the fertile land, where they could grow things.

And the other thing here that was going to be owned by the Abyssinia would be half of its original size and would be infertile.

That's the less useful mountainous region.

This plan was never put to Abyssinia or Italy though, because it was leaked to the press and the public found out about it.

And they were appalled that the League of Nations and Britain and France in the League of Nations on the outside of pretended to be really tough, but actually they weren't prepared to back it up with action.

And they were going to reward Mussolini for being so aggressive.

So that never happened.

Nothing happened.

So the consequences of this crisis where? The League of Nations was powerless when it's most important members, Britain and France would not take effective action and even met in secret to undermine the League.

And Abyssinia was now helpless against the Italians.

On the 5th of May, 1936, the Italians entered the Capital.

Three days later, the Abyssinia Emperor Haile Selassie fled the country, travelled to Geneva.

And on the 30th of June, he addressed the assembly of the League of Nations.

And he summarised all the events and the failures of the League of Nations as well.

And his speech marks the end of the League's existence as an important organisation.

He said, "Look, we came to you for help you didn't do anything".

And therefore, no one took it seriously in the future.

It played no significant parts in the events, which from 1936 descended towards another war.

Well done, that was a lot of information to take on.

So we're going to have another true or false quiz just to see how well you've been listening and taking this onboard.

So again, four statements will pop up.

I'll pause, but you will need to pause the video.

Then we'll go through the answers.

I'm going to disappear this time because I won't fit on the screens.

A good luck.

My first statement Mussolini was the leader of Italy.

He wanted to make it more powerful by taking over more land.

The League of Nations supported Mussolini's invasion of Abyssinia.

Britain and France made the League of Nations look strong by planning to give some Abyssinia to Italy.

The Abyssinia crisis was effectively the end of the League of Nations having any power over European nations.

So pause here, true or false for each of them.

Welcome back, let's go through them.

So, first of all, Mussolini was the leader of Italy, he wanted to make it's the more powerful by taking over more land.

True or focused.

Yes, it's true.

He was nationalistic, he really believed in the power of the Italian States.

B, the League of Nations supported Mussolini's invasion of Abyssinia, false, they were against it and Samuel Hoare spoke to the League of Nations and said that they should take collective action against Mussolini's invasion.

C, Britain in France made the League of Nations look strong by making a plan to give some of Abyssinia to Italy.

So it's true, they made the plan, but they didn't make the League of Nations look strong.

That made the League of Nations look very weak because Britain and France were going behind the League of Nations.

Back to try and settle something and reward Mussolini, for his aggressive actions.

And finally the Abyssinia crisis was effectively the end of the League of Nations, having any power over European nations.

True, it was not seen as a strong international body following this because nothing was done to stop Italy.

So let see what we can remember.

Hello again and we're going to just check that we understand the events of the Manchurian and Abyssinia Crisis.

So I've drawn tables here, say Manchuria causes events, consequences, and the same for Abyssinia.

It's up to you if want to draw a table or you could just do it down your page, causes, leave a couple of lines, events, leave a couple of lines, consequences.

So pause your video now and set it out, how you want to set this out.

Right now, these are all the statements, that information that our causes, events and consequences of each of the crises the Manchuria, and Abyssinia Crisis, that we've just gone through.

the bits in bold are the key bits of information.

So when you're filling in your table, if you want to you could just write the bits in bold, or when you're filling in your causes, events, consequences, you can just write the bits in bold.

if you want to use them like the whole thing.

So pause the video now and try and put these in the right order and with the right crisis.

We will then go through the answers.

I'll come back and let's go through them.

So Manchuria.

The causes of this crisis was that Japan was becoming more powerful and Manchuria had lots of natural resources, and that's why Japan wants to invade.

The events were that Japan invaded Manchuria, the League told Japan to leave.

and Japan didn't follow this instruction and left the League instead.

The consequences were that the League of Nations looked weak.

It had not stopped Japan from invading Manchuria and did not punish Japan for failing to follow instructions.

Abyssinia, the causes were Mussolini the leader of Italy wanted to make it more powerful by taking over other countries.

He was a nationalistic fascist dictator.

The events were that, Italy invaded Abyssinia, members of the League of Nations stop trading with Italy, condemned her actions, but secretly Britain and France had an agreement to give the best fits of Abyssinia to Italy.

Consequences were that, the plan to split Abyssinia did not go ahead.

Italy took over all of Abyssinia, and the League did nothing.

The League looked weak and was now seen as useless.

So what were the outcomes of these events, these two big crises in the 1930s? The failure of the League over Manchuria and the failure of the League over Abyssinia left weak nations, unable to defend themselves against powerful neighbours.

Manchuria and Abyssinia were occupied by foreign powers and were abandoned by the League.

Aggression and violence by Japan and Italy had paid off.

they kept the territory that they had gained and they paid no penalty for it.

The weakness of Britain and France in dealing with Manchuria representative the weakness of the League itself.

And as partly to do with the structure, but also to do with the fact as well that the structure was weak and the global economic crisis made it even weaker.

The Manchurian Abyssinia Crises destroyed the idea of collective security by demonstrating that League members and in particular the democracies of Britain and France would not act firmly against aggression.

The League was failing to meet any of its aims and the League was seen as useless from this point forward.

And this was made even worse by the economic crisis.

So if we go back to our inquiry question, why did it fail? We've got these aggressive dictators.

In this example, Italy and Japan are behaving in an aggressive way.

And the weak democracies of Britain and France are not working to stop them.

But is underpinned by the fact that the League of Nations had a weak structure and the economic collapse of 1929 meant that countries didn't have the money, time or resources, to support the League of Nations.

Well done.

at this point, pause the video, read the slides on the next page and have a go at the comprehension questions, and then we will go through them together.

Resume the video when you have finished doing the questions.

Well done and welcome back.

So these are the comprehension questions that we have to go with this lesson to check your understanding of the content that we've covered.

You'll notice that question five, wasn't on your worksheet.

And that's because I'm going to give you a bit more help with the structure of that.

And you can pause again at the end before you did it.

So first of all, what economic event happened in 1929? So an acceptable answer would be the Wall Street Crash.

It did happen in 1929, but as historians, we can give more detailed than that.

A good answer would be on the 30th of October, 1929.

The Wall Street Crash destroyed firstly the economy in America, then the world economy.

And that just gives that additional explanation into what the Wall Street Crash was and what it did.

Number two, why was the work of the League of Nations particularly difficult in the 1930s? So an extractable answer would be that countries were only worried about their own problems. A good answer would give much more detail and say the worldwide economic depression meant that countries were dealing with high levels of unemployment and people turning to extremist political ideas.

This meant that countries wanted to deal with their own problems instead of getting involved with other countries issues.

So that gives a much better explanation of why it was difficult because it's saying the reason why countries were only worried about their own problems, not just the fact that they were.

Question three, how did Japan react when told by the League of Nations to leave Manchuria, the acceptable answer would be ignore the League of Nations.

Japan did ignore League of Nations.

But a good answer gives much more detail.

So when told to leave Manchuria by the League of Nations, Japan not only ignored the request, but also left the League of Nations.

There was no further punishment for Japan, which shows that League of Nations had very little international power.

So it's that explanation of what Japan did and then what that shows about the League of Nations.

Question four, why did the League look particularly weak during the Abyssinia Crisis? So an acceptable answer would be that the League didn't stop Italy and we can see that made the League look weak.

But we now know a lot more than that and can give a lot more historical detail.

So a good answer would say, the League looked weak during Abyssinia Crisis because Italy ignored the fact that the League had condemned the invasion and continued to take over the country.

Additionally, Britain and France, who were the most powerful countries in the League, made a secret plan to give most of Abyssinia to Mussolini of Italy.

When the plan was revealed, people were horrified that Britain and France would be willing to give into violence.

The plan was not shared with Italy or Abyssinia and Italy took over anyway, the League looks weak because it was not effective in protecting a small weak country against a powerful one.

Now that answer just give so much more specific historical detail and explanation, and that is why it is a much stronger answer.

Right, question five, explain why the League failed in the 1930s? You may wish to write this question down because this wasn't on your original worksheet.

So if you want to do that, pause your video now and write it down.

So some guidance on structure for this one, use the sentence starters and the keywords to help you, you should use evidence from the case studies of Manchuria and Abyssinia.

So there's some sentence started there and I'd recommend you can write two or three paragraphs for this.

So one reason why the League failed in the 1930s was, and then you can give some examples of why the League failed.

You can use the example of Manchuria and Abyssinia and you can continue that for the next two paragraphs.

And then you can use the keyword self-interest, economy, weakness, condemn, ignore, sanctions, or Hoare and Laval that British and foreign.

British and French Foreign Ministers.

And at this point you might want to pause the video here and you keep this on the screen to then have a go at writing that answer.

So well done for completing your second lesson, explaining why the League of Nations failed and why war broke out in 1939.

And we're starting to see now how dictators are taking steps to destroy the relative peace and security that has been built in Europe over the 1920s, but partly because things were made so difficult by the Wall Street Crash and by the structure of the League of Nations as well.

So if you've done the work, we're really keen to see your work and what you've completed.

So do feel free, if you wish to share your work with Oak National, please ask your parent or carer to share it on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter, to have it @OakNational or #LearnwithOak, and I will look forward to seeing you in lesson three of our inquiry.