Setting the Scene

The League of Nations was born from the trenches of World War One. Never again, the world said. Woodrow Wilson's great dream was an international organisation where countries would talk through disputes instead of fighting. Collective security (the principle that an attack on one member is an attack on all, who must unite in response) would deter aggressors — if one country attacked another, all League members would unite against the aggressor. But from day one, the League was crippled. America refused to join. Germany and Russia were excluded. And when real tests came in the 1930s, the League failed spectacularly.