What were the weaknesses of Britain as a leader in the league of nations?

Answer 1

Forty-two countries joined the League at the start. In the 1930s about 60 countries were members. This made the League seem strong. Britain and France were the main members, helped by Italy and Japan; they were quite powerful countries. The League hoped that it could influence countries to 'do the right thing' through collective security, by building a community of power, and through moral persuasion. Many writers have pointed out that these are not very effective weapons against a powerful country which was determined to disobey the League. The League had four powers it could use to make countries do as it wanted. Theoretically, the League was allowed to use military force, but the League did not have an army of its own - so if a country ignored it, in the end, there was nothing the League could do. The main strength of the League was that it had been set up by the Treaty of Versailles, and agreed by everybody at the conference. When, later, many people started to criticise and attack the Treaty, this was also a major weakness. Another critical weakness was that, the most powerful countries in the world were not members. The USA did not want to join. The Russians refused to join - they were Communists and hated Britain and France. Germany was not allowed to join. Without these three big powers, the League was weak. One of the biggest weaknesses was that the League's organisation was a muddle. The different parts of the League were supposed to act together; but in a crisis, no-one could agree.