ening and pushing Italy into vengefully siding with Nazi Germany. With Britain trying to yet again appease Mussolini, the sanctions were lifted on July 15 1936. This loss was the fatal blow to the League of Nations because “ the failure undoubtedly influenced the future course of events, encouraging the belief that if a nation were strong enough and ruthless enough it could get away with aggression.” Despite receiving all that they wanted from the League Italy withdrew in December 1937. Appeasement and the indifference of the League of Nations let Hitler, Mussolini, and Japanese forces build up the power they needed to launch a major war and bring the League to their final meeting in 1946.In 1946, the League voted to effect it’s own dissolution, whereupon much of its property and organization were transferred to the United Nations, which had recently been founded. The League achieved some success in ending armed conflicts between small nations. But when a powerful nation was involved, the League seemed to be ineffective. Why the League failed was most dramatically illustrated when Italy attacked Ethiopia. The League did impose some small economic sanctions on Italy, but without the United States, Germany, and Japan these sanctions were worthless. Never truly effective as a peacekeeping organization, the lasting importance of the League of Nations lies in the fact that it provided the groundwork for the United Nations. This international alliance, formed after World War Two, not only profited by the mistakes of the League but also borrowed much of the organizational mechanics of the League of Nations. ...
