United Nations

The League of Nations was created in 1919 after the First World War, to prevent a repetition of that devastating war. It was the first permanent international organisation whose main task was to maintain world peace.

Despite some early successes in the 1920s, the League of Nations was unable to prevent Japan's invasion of Manchuria in 1931, Italy's annexation of Ethiopia in 1936, or Germany's annexation of Austria in 1938. The inability of the League of Nations to prevent further world conflict, the alienation of some of its member states and the outbreak of war itself contributed to its demise in 1940.

It was replaced by the United Nations at the end of World War II which inherited a number of agencies and organisations created by the League.

341.121: League of Nations