Glossary: League of Nations
DEFINITION:
An international organization whose covenant arose out of the Paris Peace Conference in 1919. It was created for the purpose of preserving international peace and security and promoting disarmament by obligating nations to submit their conflicts to arbitration, judicial settlement, or to the League Council for consid-eration. By not signing the Treaty of Versailles, the United States refused to join. Although the fifty-three-member body considered sixty-six disputes and conflicts between 1920 and 1939, it proved ineffective against German, Italian, Japanese, and Soviet aggression in the 1930s. Formally disbanded in April 1946, its functions were transferred to the United Nations.