Why didn't USA join the League of Nations?

Answer 1

The League of Nations was an international organization created after the First World War. The Covenant establishing the League was part of the Treaty of Versailles. The League of Nations formally came into existence on January 10, 1920.

As a result of the decision by the US Congress not to ratify the Versailles Treaty, the United States never joined the League of Nations.

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Answer 2

President Woodrow Wilson was the most ardent proponent of the League of Nations but he had opponents in Congress, especially the Senate, which has to ratifiy foreign treaties to be signed by the United States. Some of his opponents were Isolationists, who, following the hoary advice of George Washington, did not wish to get entangled in alliances with others, including European powers. Isolationism was a powerful force in the nation at that time. What finally proved to be the sticking point was a clause in the League of Nations Charter, in drafting which Wilson, an expert political scientist, played a major part, a clause which, some leading Senators argued, would have meant the compromise or abrogation of American sovereignty over its own affairs, particularly international affairs. Other nations, they said, could determine American policy. Many Senators could not accept that clause, and Wilson refused to take it out, for he believed in a new international order. It was probably the tragedy of Wilson's life, for he suffered a major stroke soon thereafter. He said despairingly of his foes in the Senate, "Senators do not grow, they swell," meaning they are full of their own importance and unable to comprehend the necessities of a new world. Wilson hoped to resolve all conflicts through the machinery of the League of Nations: no more world wars. The majority in the Senate saw the problem differently and rebuffed him.

Answer 3

1. Wilson did not take an entirely unbiased entourage with him to France and left out many Republican senators and they believe Wilson was trying to bypass them and whenever Wilson would speak he would be greeted with approval . After ha had left the Republicans and opponents of the league would sow the seed f dissension
2. It was clear to the US that this was a faulty treaty in basing all the blame on Germany alone and making them responsible for all wartime reparations which they would never be able to pay
3. We believed that the League was going to be weak international force to avoid future difficulties.
4. After WWI ended the US desired to go to a isolationistic foreign policy and let Europe handled their own problems
5. We were also entering a new era of financial prosperity the roaring 20's and the less the government intervention the better on a worldwide scale.

Answer 4

By 1919 the islands were being administered by Japan as a mandate under the newly created League of Nations and remained under Japanese colonial jurisdiction until 1944. Being a colony of Spain from 1521 until taken from the Japanese in 1944 and then for a period under the U.N.’s Trust Territory administration, the islands were without their own elected government for more than 450 years.

At the conclusion of the Pacific war the United States, not desiring to appear as having annexed the islands by virtue of “victor’s rights,” (which it could have easily done), the U.S. placed the islands, including the Northern Marianas, under the supervision of the Security Council of the newly formed United Nations. For a nation to acquire additional territory, a government must either annex an area by force of arms or by purchase from a sovereign government. The Northern Marianas was not a permanent legal possession of Japan at the time of the war as it had only been entrusted to Japan under a mandate by a group of countries through their organization-the League of Nations. Therefore, the United States could not strip the territory from defeated Japan at the conclusion of hostilities since the islands were never recognized as a permanent legal possession of Japan. The rationale being you can't take something from someone if you hold that they didn't own it in the first place, and the United States did not recognize Japanese sovereignty over the islands. As a result of the encouragement, indeed, insistence of island leaders in the late '60s and early '70s, eventually the people of the Northern Marianas-by 78.8 percent of the votes cast in a plebiscite-elected to accept a negotiated Covenant with the United States. This became U.S. Public Law 94-241 when enacted by the U.S. Congress and became effective little more than a generation ago on April 1, 1976. Ten years later on Nov. 4, 1986, U.S. citizenship was conferred upon those who met the qualifications and on Dec. 22, 1990, the Security Council of the U.N. dissolved the trusteeship over the CNMI.

Answer 5

It was probably as useless as the United Nations is today.

Answer 6

Woodrow Wilson wasn't cool enough.