League of Nations:

founded as a result of the Treaty of Versailles (1919-1920).

Objectives:

-Rights of Man (1791) by Thomas Paine

-disarmament

-preventing war through collective

security

-negotiation

-diplomacy

-improving global quality of life

Regional Powers- 21st century

Origins:

-Concert of Europe

-1st Geneva Convention

-International Hague Convention

(1899,1907)

Postcard of France - French Army - Honor with the nurses of the Red Cross - Year 1915

Languages

-French, English, Spanish (from 1920)

-Esperanto

Palace of Nations, Geneva, Switzerland (since 1938)

Esperanto: ‘one who hopes’

L. L. Zamenhof, 1887.

First book on Esperanto’s grammar. Published in Warsaw, 1887. Unua Libro

28 letter alphabet:

a b c ĉ d e f g ĝ h ĥ i j ĵ k l m n o p r s ŝ t u ŭ v z

League’s Members

4 Permanent: Great Britain, France, Italy and Japan

4 non-permanent: elected by the Assembly for a 3 year period.

Other bodies:

-Permanent Court of International Justice

-Disarmament Commission

-The Health Organization

-The International Labour Organization

-The Mandates Commission

-The International Commission on Intellectual Cooperation (precursor to UNESCO)

-The Permanent Central Opium Board

-The Commission for Refugees, and the Slavery Commission.

International Labour Organization

-8 hour work day/ 48 hour working week

-end child labour

"Recently photographed in Kamerun, the last of the German provinces in Africa to surrender to the Allies. Illustrating child labor at the lowest possible cost.” 1919

-increase the right of women in the workplace

-make shipowners liable for accidents

British Poster, World War I ‘Women of Britain say, Go!’, British Poster, World War I.

"Four Years in the Fight: The Women of France: We Owe Them Houses of Cheer" [United War Work Campaign and YWCA], Lucien Jonas, Litho. Co., 1918; 42x27.

"I Want You for the Navy: Promotion for Anyone Enlisting," Howard Chandler Christy, Forbes, 1918; 41x27.

League of Nations Mandates

"A" MandatesThe "A" Mandates (applied to parts of the old Ottoman Empire) were 'certain communities' that had

...reached a stage of development where their existence as independent nations can be provisionally recognised subject to the rendering of administrative advice and assistance by a Mandatory until such time as they are able to stand alone. The wishes of these communities must be a principal consideration in the selection of the Mandatory.

– Article 22, The Covenant of the League of Nations

The Class A mandates were:

-'Mesopotamia (United Kingdom), 10 August 1920–3 October 1932, which became the independent kingdom of Iraq. -'Palestine' (United Kingdom), from 25 April 1920 (effective 29 September 1923–15 May 1948). In April 1921, 'Transjordan' was incorporated as an autonomous area under the mandate.

It eventually became the independent Hashemite Kingdom of Transjordan (later Jordan) on 22 March 1946. Following the termination of the remainder of the Palestine mandate, most of the territory became part of the State of Israel, other parts, until 1967, forming the West Bank of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, the Egyptian-occupied Gaza Strip and small slivers of territory east and south of the Sea of Galilee held by Syria.

-'Syria' (France), 29 September 1923–1 January 1944, including 'Lebanon'; Hatay (a former Ottoman Alexandretta sandjak) broke away from it and became a French protectorate, until it was ceded to the new Republic of Turkey. Following the termination of the French mandate, two separate independent republics were formed, Syria and Lebanon.

"B" MandatesThe "B" Mandates were applied to the former German Colonies that the League took responsibility for after the First World War. These were described as 'peoples' that the League said were

...at such a stage that the Mandatory must be responsible for the administration of the territory under conditions which will guarantee freedom of conscience and religion, subject only to the maintenance of public order and morals, the prohibition of abuses such as the slave trade, the arms traffic and the liquor traffic, and the prevention of the establishment of fortifications or military and naval bases and of military training of the natives for other than police purposes and the defence of territory, and will also secure equal opportunities for the trade and commerce of other Members of the League.– Article 22, The Covenant of the League of Nations

The Class B mandates were :

-Ruanda-Urundi (Belgium), formerly two separate German protectorates, joined as a single mandate from 20 July 1922, but 1 March 1926–30 June 1960 in administrative union with the colony Belgian Congo. After 13 December 1946, this was a United Nations Trust Territory (till the separate independence of Rwanda and Burundi on 1 July 1962)

-Tanganyika (United Kingdom) from 20 July 1922, 11 December 1946 made a United Nations trust territory; from 1 May 1961 enjoyed self-rule, on 9 December 1961 independence (as dominion), on 9 December 1962 a Republic, in 1964 federated with Zanzibar, and soon renamed together Tanzania.

and two former German territories, each split in a British and a French League of Nations mandated territory, according to earlier military occupation zones:

-Kamerun was split on 20 July 1922 into British Cameroons (under a Resident) and French Cameroun (under a Commissioner until 27 August 1940, then under a Governor), on 13 December 1946 transformed into United Nations Trust Territories, again a British (successively under senior district officers officiating as Resident, a Special Resident and Commissioners) and a French Trust (under a Haut Commissaire)

-the former German colony of Togoland was split in British Togoland (under an Administrator, a post filled by the colonial Governor of the British Gold Coast (present Ghana) except 30 September 1920–11 October 1923 Francis Walter Fillon Jackson) and French Togoland (under a Commissioner) (United Kingdom and France), 20 July 1922 separate Mandates, transformed on 13 December 1946 into United Nations trust territories, French Togo Associated Territory (under a Commissioner till 30 August 1956, then under a High Commissioner as Autonomous Republic of Togo) and British Togoland (as before; on 13 December 1956 it ceased to exist as it became part of Ghana)

"C" Mandates

South-West Africa and certain of the South Pacific Islands were administrated by League members under a C Mandate. These were classified as 'territories‘

...which, owing to the sparseness of their population, or their small size, or their remoteness from the centres of civilisation, or their geographical contiguity to the territory of the Mandatory, and other circumstances, can be best administered under the laws of the Mandatory as integral portions of its territory, subject to the safeguards above mentioned in the interests of the indigenous population.“

– Article 22, The Covenant of the League of Nations

Class C mandates

A final group, the Class C mandates, including South-West Africa and certain of the South Pacific Islands, were considered to be "best administered under the laws of the Mandatory as integral portions of its territory“

The Class C mandates were former German possessions:

-former German New Guinea became the Territory of New Guinea (Australia) from 17 December 1920 under a (at first Military) Administrator; after (wartime) Japanese/U.S. military commands from 8 December 1946 under UN mandate as North East New Guinea (under Australia, as administrative unit), until it became part of present Papua New Guinea at independence in 1975

-Nauru, formerly part of German New Guinea (Australia in effective control, formally together with United Kingdom and New Zealand) from 17 December 1920, 1 November 1947 made into a United Nations trust territory (same three powers) until its 31 January 1968 independence as a Republic - all that time under an Administrator

-former German Samoa (New Zealand) 17 December 1920 a League of Nations mandate, renamed Western Samoa (as opposed to American Samoa), from 25 January 1947 a United Nations trust territory until its 1 January 1962 independence

-South Pacific Mandate (Japan)

-South-West Africa (South Africa) from 1 October 1922 Walvisbaai's administration (still merely having a Magistrate until its 16 March 1931 Municipal status, thence a Mayor) was also assigned to South West Africa Mandate

The territories were governed by "Mandatory Powers" with the exception of the Kingdom of Iraq, which joined the League on 3 October 1932, these territories did not begin to gain their independence until after the Second World War, a process that did not end until 1990. Following the demise of the League, most of the remaining mandates became United Nations Trust Territories.

Resolving territorial disputes

-Silesia: The committee recommended that Upper Silesia should be divided between Poland and Germany according to the preferences shown in the plebiscite and that the two sides should decide the details of the interaction between the two areas.

Polish poster from the plebiscite in Upper Silesia in 1921. Says: "Mother remember me. Vote for Poland“.

-Albania

-Aland Islands

-Hatay

-Memel

-Mosul

-Vilnius

-Colombia and Peru

-Saar

Disarmament and failures en route to World War II

The World Disarmament Conference was convened by the League of Nations in Geneva in 1932 with representatives from 60 states.

Demise and legacy

At the 1943 Tehran Conference, the Allied Powers agreed to create a new body to replace the League: the United Nations.

Many League bodies, such as the International Labour Organization, continued to function and eventually became affiliated with the UN. The structure of the United Nations was intended to make it more effective than the League.

Rose Cohn, journalist Dorothy Day and Charlotte Margolies wearing sashes stating "Keep Out of War" in protest against the US joining the war.

International Women's Day (IWD) - March 8.

1909: US

1911: Austria, Denmark, Germany, Switzerland

1913-14: Russia

1917: Strike for “bread and peace” followed by the Czar abdication and vote for women

The 1932 Soviet poster dedicated to the 8th of March holiday. The text reads: "8th of March is the day of the rebellion of the working women against the kitchen slavery" and "Down with the oppression and narrow-mindedness of the household work!".

Women in the workforce: the industrial revolution

Mill worker, UK. Coal mines

‘Women in Every Country’

The First International Congress of Women’s Rights.Paris, 1878.

-1888 Congress held in Washington D.C. - 1888

-First International Socialist Women’s Conference - 1907

-International Congress of Women at The Hague - 1915

-First UN Conference on Women, Mexico - 1975

-Second UN Conference on Women, Copenhagen - 1980

-Third UN Conference on Women, Nairobi - 1985

-Fourth UN Conference on Women, Beijing - 1995International Council on Women, Berlin,

1904.

Precursor of women’s rights

Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797). UK.

1792, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman

Women at war (1914-1918)

Before:

Domestic labour.

Typical house maid- before outbreak World War I

Munitions factory. US. W W I

During:

Law enforcement

Brick workers. South Wales

Female painters at work on various sections of the exterior of the District Railway, Hammersmith. London.

Three women tar spreaders work in the sunshine on the London roads.

A woman working on an aeroplane propeller at Frederick Tibbenham Ltd in Ipswich. UK

Bus driver. London

As doctors and nurses

Brochure on Women’s Work, Published by the Department of Public Works during the First World War. Canada.

US Yeomen

Chief Yeoman (F), U.S. Naval Reserve Force, World War IPainting by Anne Fuller Abbott, 1925.

Yeoman First Class (F) Joy Bright, USNRFPhotographed in February 1918, while serving tn the Office of the Naval Superintendent of Construction, New York Shipbuilding Corporation, Camden, New Jersey.

Women in combat WWI

Flora Sandes and two Serbian soldiers in 1917. UK

Maria Leontievna Bochkareva (1889-1920)

Russian woman who fought in World War I and formed the Women's Battalion of Death.

The suffragette leader: Emmeline Pankhurst, is arrested outside Buckingham Palace in May 1914.

The Suffragette Movement

British Suffragette (c.a 1910).

Women’s Social and Poilitical Union (WSPU)- U.K