Essay Sample on Collaboration: Key to Global Success and Stability

Introduction

The success of a continent and the world as a whole depends on the degree of collaboration that the countries have on addressing pertinent challenges affecting its people. Although coming up with an organization or several grouping may be a challenge due to the different interests of each nation, some of the most powerful nations have succeeded in influencing the formation of these organizations. The environmental preservation challenges, absence of peace at countries' borders. The period during and after the first world war was marked with several meetings and treaties and the formation of organizations that aimed at ensuring that the war was stopped (Kolb, 2017). The countries involved were taken through peace treaties to avoid the adverse implications associated with the battles. Such organizations are the League of Nations and the United Nations. The paper discusses the two organizations with a significant focus on the weaknesses of the League of Nations that led to the formation of United Nations, which aimed at sealing the loopholes that the formers could not address.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

League of Nations

The League of Nations was formed when the First World War came to an end. As the war came to an end, several countries started making decisions about the conditions of the postwar. Several nations at the time focused on the promotion of international peace and ensuring that the events experienced during the First World War will not reoccur. The emphasis was, therefore, to maintain peace. The most powerful countries then formed the League of Nations and focused on maintaining international peace with the use of collective security as their strategy. The organization made several achievements despite its failure to accomplishing the significant goals.

Successes of League of Nations

The League of Nations had several achievements that it attained during its tenure. The organization was formed to promote international cooperation in social and economic affairs, a strategy that was aimed at ensuring peaceful coexistence of nations. The council was able to protect the rights of employees. The organizations' goal of providing fair and humane working conditions became the central focus of its attention and emphasized protecting all individuals in the labor force (Irish, 2019). Even though the different workers were in their states, the organization reached to the heads of stets and recommended for fair treatment of the employees. The organization also succeeded in setting up a slavery commission whose mission was to end slavery in the member states. They also developed conventions that aimed at stopping women and children trafficking.

Sweden and Finland Conflict

Several decisions passed by the League of Nations council were successful in protecting the rights of the minority groups in Europe. For instance, in the case of Sweden and Finland, most of the island dwellers made proposals to be governed by Sweden even though Finland had traditionally governed them. The two nations came into war with each other even though none of them stood to claim of owning the island and they requested the League of Nations to settle the matter. The organization succeeded in resolving the dispute by proposing that Finland should govern the island but went ahead, banning any form of weapons on the island (Ferreira, 2006). The two countries agreed to the organization's decision, and it remains in force up to date. Although the minorities failed to be granted their request, they were allowed to speak to the organization for help, a factor that led to the continued peace that is experienced to date.

Turkey's War Of 1923

Furthermore, the organization's response to the turkey's war of 1923 was remarkable and highly recognized across the globe. Even though it failed to end the bloody conflict in the nation, it positively responded to the suffering that people were going through as a result of the war. , and the majority of these were children and women. The crisis also resulted in high incidences of diseases such as cholera and typhoid. In response, the League of Nations sent healthcare practitioners from the health organization to provide humanitarian assistance to the affected people and ensure that they prevented further spread of the diseases.

Bulgaria and Greece Conflict

Bulgaria and Greece are two nations that border each other. In 1925, a war began in these nations after the sentries in charge of the boarders fired at each other killing one of the Greek soldiers. In response to the attack, the Greek army invaded Bulgaria, a factor that instigated a war between the two countries. Bulgaria sent a request to the League of Nations for assistance in stopping the war. The organization was successful in its response since it ordered the concerned parties to stop fighting and requested the Greek armies to move out of Bulgaria (Dragostinova, 2009). Several arbitrators were sent in the region and confirmed that Greece was to be blamed for the war and fined was fined PS45,000. The decision was accepted, leading the peace that is enjoyed up to date.

Upper Silesia Agreement

Another success that can be attributed to the League of Nations is the successful arbitration of the Upper Silesia dispute of 1921. The Versailles treaty had made a referendum proposal for the residents of Upper Silesia in deciding whether they should be part of Poland or Germany. The referendum results showed that 500,000 and 700,000 people voted for Poland and Germany, respectively (Mazower, 2009). However, the close results were not well received, and riots were experienced between the opposing parties. The league of nations was requested to arbitrate in the matter. The organization proposed the sharing of the Upper Silesia by the two countries. The decision was accepted by the states and by the people of Upper Silesia leading to peace that is experienced till today.

Lastly, the League of Nations boasts of managing to settle the Memel dispute of 1923. Memel is a strategic port found in Lithuania. Majority of the citizens who lived in the seaport argued that they should be given the freedom to manage the port. The Versailles treaty had placed Memel and the surrounding land under the management of the League of Nations. A French governor controlled the port for three years until 1923, when the Lithuanians invaded the port demanding to be given powers to control it (Hiden & Smith, 2006). The organization intervened by granting the Lithuanians their requests but went ahead to make the port an international asset. The Lithuanians agreed to the decision leading to an end of the conflicts.

Failures of the League of Nations

Even though the organization was successful in the implementation of boundary changes proposed by the Versailles treaty in the 1920s and other political disputes, it failed in resolving international crises. It is therefore right to argue that the league failed due to poor implementation of its policies. The Wilson's fourteen points, effects of the Versailles treaty, failure of the United States to participate in dispute resolution and promotion of peace, the implications of the peace conference held in Paris as well as the policies on collective security significantly led to the collapse of the League of Nations.

Wilson's Fourteen Points

Woodrow Wilson proposed a few months before the world war came to an end. His proposal was aimed at restoring peace and preventing future occurrence of conflicts not only in Europe but also in other regions. His proposal concerned fourteen points whose objectives were to abolish secret treaties, advocate for the freedom of the island citizens and adjustment of the territorial boundaries. In his proposal, Woodrow was thought of eliminating the hindrances to trade among European nations and the development of collective security systems for all countries (Eloranta, 2011). During this time, Germany was running weary due to the prolonged period of war and had sought armistice which they believed would be inclined in the fourteen points.

However, the agreement that was proposed for the help was harsher than what they had been promised hence refused to continue with the fight. German developed great fear for the occurrence of social unrest within their nation since they had signed a treaty whose impacts were harsh. Instead of being the beneficiaries of the fourteen point's proposal, the country was blamed for instigating the war in the Versailles treaty. Even though Wilson had a strong desire to implement its aspects, his allies opposed the ideas since some of them were not in terms with the conditions in the points while others like France had plans of punishing Germany (Mathias, 2015). Before the end of the war, there were already signs that the League of Nations could not meet its mandate since nations did not agree to the proposed points while some proposed their strategies of addressing the war challenges. The disagreement widened the gap between the countries at the forefront of ensuring peace, thus posing a future risk of emergence of another war.

Versailles Treaty

The treaty of Versailles was aimed at bringing the conflicting nations together to settle their differences and prevent further war occurring. Even though an approximated thirty countries attended the Paris peace conference to develop terms that should be adhered to by the conflicting nations, only big three countries were at the forefront of making decisions of the Versailles treaty (Jeong, 2017). At the start, United Kingdom, Japan, Italy, France, and the United States were the big five at the forefront of decision making.it was concluded that the countries played little role in making a decision thus leading the Italian prime minister to withdraw from the conference since the state did not gain the promised territories.

Furthermore, Japan wanted recognition in decision making, as well as being equally treated since it felt it was subjected to discrimination. Also, Russia and Germany did not attend the conference, yet the League of Nations was formed to look into the issues raised by these conferences. The meeting was formed for the signing of peace agreements between Germany and its allied powers, and the withdrawing of the countries from the conference was a blow to the organization's mission. The negotiations during the treaty were focused on restricting the German's powers and ensuring security through disarmament initiatives. The citizens of Britain and France pressured their leaders to settle the agreement and ensure that Germany was heavily punished; a decision that not only crippled Germany but also restricted its air force. The country's citizens believed having lost in the war due to failure to participate in the treaties (Henrikson, 2013). Also, Germany felt insulted since it was not involved in the conference as well as being sidelined from being a member of the League of Nations.

Lack of Participation by the United States

The United Nations took part in the designing of Wilson's fourteen points but failed to participate in the league. During the time, the United States was exceedingly focused on interfering with the affairs in Europe. It was thought that the inclusion of the US in the league would lead to more conflicts hence isolated it. The failure of the US to be a member of the organization weakened its collective security (Grant, 2015). Also, the economy of the US would have played a significant role in strengthening the sanctions that the several nations were subjected to. The withdrawal of the US meant that the organization was to be controlled majorly by the European countries an aspect that led to the loss of relativity of the League of Nations.