League of Nations

The League of Nations was designed and authorized during the 1919 Paris Peace Conference in the aftermath of World War I. The leaders of the victorious powers, particularly US president Woodrow Wilson, hoped to create an international organization and permanent conference that would serve to peacefully resolve future conflicts and prevent another war. Although they managed to found the League of Nations to those declared ends, this experiment in international security is generally regarded as a failure, especially in light of the outbreak of World War II. After World War II, the victors attempted to improve on the League by creating the United Nations, but they kept the League’s bicameral structure as a model. During its formal existence from January 1920 until April 1946, the League faced a variety of violent conflicts that it usually failed to prevent. However, at levels below that of international security, the League advanced a number of important areas and issues in international relations, including the way states approached emergent global issues such as human rights, post–World War II revision of international law, and ongoing efforts to provide some form of collective security to the international community.