"The League of Nations created in the aftermath of World War-I failed to stop the fascist aggression and thereby failing to stop the outbreak of World War-II in 1939."In this context, explain the reasons for the failure of the League of Nations.

Reasons for the failure of the League of Nations were as follows:

• The ultimate goal of League of Nation was achieving disarmament. But, the domestic forces were hostile to disarmament and League failed to achieve its major objective. This failure was the main reason for heavy destruction caused during the World War-II.
• The absence of major powers in the League of Nation was another major reason for the outbreak of World War-II. United States never joined the League; Soviet Union joined late in 1932 but was soon expelled when it invaded Finland; Germany, Japan as well as Italy withdrew from the League very soon.
• The League had no troops of its own. The French and British government had conflict of interest and they were reluctant in promising troops. This paralysed the League in terms of military power which encouraged Nazi leader Adolf Hitler to invade Poland.

This apart, the decisions made by the League of Nations were very slow. During crisis, League was supposed to act quickly, but most of time member nations failed to agree on a common course of action thereby unnecessarily delaying the action.

Topics: GS-I: World Wars, Cold War and Other Major Events of 20th Century