The League of Nations

The League of Nations was the predecessor to the U.N. It was formed following World War I, and its mission was to prevent future wars. Like the U.N. it had no military, and relied on its member states to supply military forces. However the League was supposed to enforce international law through economic sanctions rather than by military force. In practice the League of Nations was a completely toothless tiger, often lacking the will to use even economic sanctions to punish aggressors. . It proved to be completely incapable of stopping Japanese aggression in China in 1931, or Italian aggression in Ethiopia in 1935. In a 1936 speech before the League, Emperor Haile Sellassie I of Ethiopia took the League to task for its failure to act against the Italian invasion. The League still did nothing. The League drifted into irrelevance, and it had no significant role in World War II. It disbanded almost unnoticed in 1946.