League of Nations and Related Topics

Medical supplies for the front in Addis Ababa.

Second Italo-Ethiopian War

War of aggression which was fought between Italy and Ethiopia from October 1935 to February 1937.

Italian soldiers recruited in 1935 in Montevarchi to fight the Second Italo-Abyssinian War.

Map showing the military actions from 1935 to February 1936

Map showing the military actions from February to May 1936

Italian notice, signed by general Emilio De Bono, proclaiming the abolishment of slavery in Tigray in Italian and Amharic. The abolition of slavery was one of the first measures taken by the Italian occupation government in Ethiopia.

Italian artillery operated by Somali Ascari troops

Giuseppe Bottai at the Battle of Amba Aradam

Italian colonial troops advance on Addis Ababa

Medal commemorating the role of the Italian Eritrean colonial troops in the war

Haile Selassie's resistance to the Italian invasion made him Time Man of the Year 1935.

Haile Selassie passes through Jerusalem on his way to exile in England.

The six provinces of Italian East Africa.

Soldiers of the West African Frontier Force removing Italian frontier markers from the Kenya–Italian Somaliland border, 1941

It is seen as an example of the expansionist policy that characterized the Axis powers and the ineffectiveness of the League of Nations before the outbreak of the Second World War.

Treaty of Versailles

The most important of the peace treaties of World War I.

The heads of the "Big Four" nations at the Paris Peace Conference, 27 May 1919. From left to right: David Lloyd George, Vittorio Orlando, Georges Clemenceau, and Woodrow Wilson

British Prime Minister David Lloyd George

German delegate Johannes Bell signing the Treaty of Versailles in the Hall of Mirrors, with various Allied delegations sitting and standing in front of him

German colonies (light blue) were made into League of Nations mandates.

Workmen decommissioning a heavy gun, to comply with the treaty

A British news placard announcing the signing of the peace treaty

Senator Borah, Lodge and Johnson refuse Lady Peace a seat, referring to efforts by Republican isolationists to block ratification of Treaty of Versailles establishing the League of Nations

German delegates in Versailles: Professor Walther Schücking, Reichspostminister Johannes Giesberts, Justice Minister Otto Landsberg, Foreign Minister Ulrich Graf von Brockdorff-Rantzau, Prussian State President Robert Leinert, and financial advisor Carl Melchior

Demonstration against the treaty in front of the Reichstag

Medal issued by the Japanese authorities in 1919, commemorating the Treaty of Versailles. Obv: Flags of the five allies of World War I. Rev: Peace standing in Oriental attire with the Palace of Versailles in the background

A crowd awaits the plebiscite results in Oppeln

French soldiers in the Ruhr, which resulted in the American withdrawal from the Rhineland

Adolf Hitler announcing the Anschluß in violation of Art. 80 on the Heldenplatz, Vienna, 15 March 1938

John Maynard Keynes, the principal representative of the British Treasury, referred to the Treaty of Versailles as a "Carthaginian peace".

Commemorative medal issued in 1929 in the Republic of Weimar on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the Treaty of Versailles. The obverse depicts George Clemenceau presenting a bound treaty, decorated with skull and crossbones to Ulrich von Brockdorff-Rantzau. Other members of the Conference are standing behind Clemenceau, including Lloyd-George, Wilson and Orlando.

American political cartoon depicting the contemporary view of German reparations, 1921

Map of territorial changes in Europe after World War I (as of 1923)

The treaty was registered by the Secretariat of the League of Nations on 21 October 1919.

Winter War

War between the Soviet Union and Finland.

Geopolitical status in Northern Europe in November 1939

A Soviet propaganda postcard from 1940 saying "the fascist dog growls" in reference to the Finnish White Guard (Шюцкор), the paramilitary forces that had a role in defeating the socialist Reds during the Finnish Civil War.

The Soviet–Finnish Non-Aggression Pact was signed by Aarno Yrjö-Koskinen and Maxim Litvinov in Moscow 1932.

Rybachy Peninsula in 2008. The Soviet Union demanded for the peninsula, the northernmost point of Finland at the time, to be ceded, along with other areas, to protect Soviet assets.

Finnish soldiers gather breakfast from a field kitchen during "additional refresher training" at the Karelian Isthmus, on 10 October 1939.

29 November 1939, foreign journalists at Mainila, where a border incident between Finland and the Soviet Union escalated into the Winter War.

January 1940, Soldier from the Finnish People's Army.

Dense forests of Ladoga Karelia at Kollaa. A Soviet tank on the road in the background according to the photographer.

Offensives of the four Soviet armies from 30 November to 22 December 1939 displayed in red

Fire at the corner of Lönnrotinkatu and Abrahaminkatu Streets in Helsinki after Soviet aerial bombing of Helsinki on 30 November 1939

Vyacheslav Molotov signs an agreement between the Soviet Union and the Finnish Democratic Republic in front of Joseph Stalin in 1939. Otto Wille Kuusinen, the prime minister and head of the Terijoki government, on the right side of the picture, behind Molotov.

The situation on 7 December: Soviets have reached the Mannerheim Line on the Karelian Isthmus.

Soviet tracks at Kianta Lake, Suomussalmi during a Finnish pursuit in December 1939. Nordic combined skier Timo Murama is pictured.

Soviet T-26 Model 1937 "advancing aggressively", as described by the photographer, on the eastern side of Kollaa River during the battle of Kollaa

Simo Häyhä, the legendary Finnish sniper, known as "the White Death" by Soviets.

Battles in Ladoga Karelia, north of Lake Ladoga: the attack of the Soviet 8th Army was halted at the Finnish defensive line on 12 December 1939.

Dead Soviet soldiers and their equipment at Raate Road, Suomussalmi, after being encircled at the Battle of Raate Road

A Finnish soldier examines a Soviet tuba found among the many musical instruments that the destroyed 44th Division was carrying for a victory parade to be held in a vanquished Finland.

Soviet prisoners of war dressed with new clothes near the Arctic Circle at Rovaniemi in January 1940.

A Finnish soldier on guard near Kemijärvi in February 1940.

March 1940, a Finnish Bristol Blenheim Mk. IV bomber of the No. 44 Squadron refuelling at its air base on a frozen lake in Tikkakoski. On the fuselage is the swastika, which the Finnish Air Force had adopted as their symbol in 1918. Despite the likeness, it was not a Nazi design but was based on the personal owner; Eric von Rosen had donated the first aircraft to the Air Force.

Finnish officers inspecting Soviet skiing manuals gained as loot from the Battle of Suomussalmi

Situation on the Karelian Isthmus on 13 March 1940, the last day of the war

11:45 a.m. on 13 March 1940. Finnish soldiers retreating at Viipuri to the demarcation line.

Finland's territorial concessions to the Soviet Union displayed in red

Franco-British support was offered on the condition their forces could pass freely from Narvik through neutral Norway and Sweden instead of the difficult passage through Soviet-occupied Petsamo

Viipuri Cathedral was heavily damaged during the Winter War and never repaired. Viipuri itself was ceded to the Soviet Union.

A Winter War monument at Suomussalmi, Finland, containing a rock for every soldier who died at the Battle of Suomussalmi: 750 Finnish and an estimated 24,000 Soviet

The memorial stone for the soldiers of the Winter War and the Continuation War in Loppi, Finland

A monument devoted to the victims of the Soviet–Finnish War 1939–1940 in St. Petersburg

According to the 23 August 1939 Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact "the Baltic States (Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania)" were divided into German and Soviet "spheres of influence" (German copy)

The League of Nations deemed the attack illegal and expelled the Soviet Union from the organisation.

A League of Nations mandate was a legal status for certain territories transferred from the control of one country to another following World War I, or the legal instruments that contained the internationally agreed-upon terms for administering the territory on behalf of the League of Nations.

Inter-Parliamentary Union

International organization of national parliaments. Its primary purpose is to promote democratic governance, accountability, and cooperation among its members; other initiatives include advancing gender parity among legislatures, empowering youth participation in politics, and sustainable development.

Headquarters of the IPU in Geneva (2010)

Art Nouveau plaque-medallion for the 15th Inter-Parliamentary Conference 1908 in Berlin

The IPU facilitates the development of international law and institutions, including the Permanent Court of Arbitration, the League of Nations, and the United Nations.

Soviet General Secretary Gorbachev and U.S. President Reagan signing the INF Treaty in 1987

Arms control

Term for international restrictions upon the development, production, stockpiling, proliferation and usage of small arms, conventional weapons, and weapons of mass destruction.

UN vote on adoption of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons on 7 July 2017

After the World War I, the League of Nations was set up which attempted to limit and reduce arms.

Konrad Schumann, an East German border guard, fleeing East Germany towards West Germany in 1962

Refugee

Displaced person who has crossed national boundaries and who cannot or is unwilling to return home due to well-founded fear of persecution.

Refugees from Herzegovina, painting by Uroš Predić in 1889 made in the aftermath of the Herzegovina Uprising (1875–77)

One million Armenians were forced to leave their homes in Anatolia in 1915, and many either died or were murdered on their way to Syria.

Children preparing for evacuation from Spain during the Spanish Civil War between 1936 and 1939.

Czech refugees from the Sudetenland, October 1938

Polish child refugees and war orphans in Balachadi, British India, 1941

Polish refugees in Teheran, Iran, at an American Red Cross evacuation camp, 1943

A Dutch school teacher leads a group of refugee children just disembarked from a ship at Tilbury Docks in Essex during 1945.

Jewish refugees from Europe protest at a refugee camp in Cyprus, 1947

UNHCR tents at a refugee camp following episodes of xenophobic violence and rioting in South Africa, 2008

A camp in Guinea for refugees from Sierra Leone

Refugee camp in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Refugees from Vietnam land at Hamburg on the Cap Anamur II in 1986

For over 30 years, several tens of thousands of Sahrawi refugees have been living in the region of Tindouf, Algeria, in the heart of the desert.

After challenging Queen Jezebel, Elijah takes refuge in a cave until the voice of God calls him in this 1860 woodcut by Julius Schnorr von Karolsfeld.

Pro-refugee protest in Melbourne, Australia, with a banner reading "No one is illegal" with a Circle A

A Syrian refugee girl in Istanbul, Turkey

Refugee children from Syria at a clinic in Ramtha, Jordan, August 2013

The first modern definition of international refugee status came about under the League of Nations in 1921 from the Commission for Refugees.

Johannes Bell of Germany is portrayed as signing the peace treaties on 28 June 1919 in The Signing of Peace in the Hall of Mirrors, by Sir William Orpen.

Paris Peace Conference (1919–1920)

The formal meeting in 1919 and 1920 of the victorious Allies after the end of World War I to set the peace terms for the defeated Central Powers.

The British Air Section at the conference

The Australian delegation, with Australian Prime Minister Billy Hughes in the center

Woodrow Wilson, Georges Clemenceau, and David Lloyd George confer at the Paris Peace Conference (Noël Dorville, 1919)

From left to right: Marshal Ferdinand Foch, Clemenceau, Lloyd George and the Italians Vittorio Emanuele Orlando and Sidney Sonnino

The Japanese delegation at the Paris Peace Conference

The Japanese delegation at the Conference, with (seated left to right) former Foreign Minister Baron Makino Nobuaki, former Prime Minister Marquis Saionji Kinmochi, and Japanese Ambassador to Great Britain Viscount Chinda Sutemi

"The Big Four" made all the major decisions at the Paris Peace Conference (from left to right, David Lloyd George of Britain, Vittorio Emanuele Orlando of Italy, Georges Clemenceau of France, and Woodrow Wilson of the United States).

Ukraine map presented by the Ukrainian delegation at the Paris Peace Conference in a bid that was ultimately rejected, which led to the incorporation of Ukraine into the Soviet Union. The Kuban was then mostly Ukrainian.

European Theatre of the Russian Civil War and three South Caucasian republics in the summer of 1918

The Zionist state claimed at the conference

British memorandum on Palestine before the conference

Proposal of the autonomous or independant region by the Aromanian delegation, known as "Terra Vlachorum", "Vlach" being another term used by the Aromanian to identify themselves

Its major decisions were the creation of the League of Nations and the five peace treaties with the defeated states; the awarding of German and Ottoman overseas possessions as "mandates", chiefly to Britain and France; the imposition of reparations upon Germany; and the drawing of new national boundaries, sometimes involving plebiscites, to reflect ethnic boundaries more closely.

Arbitration

Way to resolve disputes outside the judiciary courts.

Arbitration treaties were negotiated after the war, but attracted much less attention than the negotiation mechanism created by the League of Nations.

European diplomatic alignments shortly before the World War I. Germany and the Ottoman Empire allied after the outbreak of war.

Collective security

[[File:Major Military Alliances.svg|thumb|375px|Major security alliances

In 1938, France betrayed Czechoslovakia and signed the Munich Agreement with Nazi Germany, effectively dishonoring the French-Czechoslovak alliance.

The leaders of some of the SEATO nations in Manila, hosted by Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos on 24 October 1966

The term "collective security" has also been cited as a principle of the United Nations and earlier the League of Nations.