WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.740 Welcome in, everyone. Pull up a chair. Yes. So 00:00:02.740 --> 00:00:05.339 glad you could join us today. It is Monday, March 00:00:05.339 --> 00:00:08.980 9, 2026, and we are just so happy you are here 00:00:08.980 --> 00:00:10.720 at the table with us. We really are. We've got 00:00:10.720 --> 00:00:13.859 a great one today. We do. So for this deep dive, 00:00:14.060 --> 00:00:17.300 our mission is to explore a comprehensive Wikipedia 00:00:17.300 --> 00:00:20.320 source detailing the history of the League of 00:00:20.320 --> 00:00:24.160 Nations. Right. Now, I know I know what you might 00:00:24.160 --> 00:00:26.160 be thinking when you hear that name. Sounds a 00:00:26.160 --> 00:00:30.320 bit dry. Exactly. A century -old diplomatic organization. 00:00:30.539 --> 00:00:32.759 It sounds like the absolute dustiest of history 00:00:32.759 --> 00:00:35.859 lessons. Oh, but it isn't. Not at all. No, I 00:00:35.859 --> 00:00:38.100 promise you. What we have in these sources is 00:00:38.100 --> 00:00:40.679 anything but boring. It really is a captivating 00:00:40.679 --> 00:00:42.840 story when you dig into it. Because when you 00:00:42.840 --> 00:00:45.579 look at the raw history, it is essentially the 00:00:45.579 --> 00:00:49.659 tale of the world's very first incredibly ambitious 00:00:49.659 --> 00:00:52.539 startup for global governance. That is such a 00:00:52.539 --> 00:00:54.359 great way to look at it. Right. Think of it like 00:00:54.359 --> 00:00:57.859 the ultimate wildly idealistic tech startup. 00:00:57.939 --> 00:01:00.219 Yeah. But instead of trying to disrupt, you know, 00:01:00.479 --> 00:01:02.579 taxi cabs or food delivery, they were trying 00:01:02.579 --> 00:01:05.239 to disrupt the very concept of war itself. Which 00:01:05.239 --> 00:01:09.489 is a massive undertaking. Huge. And look. Everyone 00:01:09.489 --> 00:01:12.189 knows this startup ultimately failed to stop 00:01:12.189 --> 00:01:14.489 World War II. Right, that's the headline everyone 00:01:14.489 --> 00:01:17.209 remembers. But the secret hidden in these documents 00:01:17.209 --> 00:01:19.870 is that it actually shaped the modern world you 00:01:19.870 --> 00:01:21.909 live in right now. In ways most people don't 00:01:21.909 --> 00:01:25.030 even realize. We are talking about the foundation 00:01:25.030 --> 00:01:28.189 of the eight -hour workday, the creation of global 00:01:28.189 --> 00:01:32.609 health networks, and even the invention of international 00:01:32.609 --> 00:01:36.420 passports. It serves as a perfect almost cinematic 00:01:36.420 --> 00:01:41.219 study in how grand philosophical ideas collide 00:01:41.219 --> 00:01:43.799 with the messy, complicated reality of human 00:01:43.799 --> 00:01:46.099 nature. And national interests, of course. Oh, 00:01:46.239 --> 00:01:48.519 absolutely. Yeah. We had a lot of fascinating 00:01:48.519 --> 00:01:50.480 ground to cover today. OK, let's unpack this. 00:01:50.519 --> 00:01:52.780 Let's do it. Where does an idea of this massive 00:01:52.780 --> 00:01:54.819 even come from? I assume it didn't just appear 00:01:54.819 --> 00:01:56.819 out of thin air right after the First World War. 00:01:57.120 --> 00:01:59.879 You would be correct. The source actually traces 00:01:59.879 --> 00:02:02.159 the intellectual blueprint all the way back to 00:02:02.159 --> 00:02:05.959 1795. Wow, that early. Yeah, a philosopher named 00:02:05.959 --> 00:02:08.539 Immanuel Kant wrote an essay called Perpetual 00:02:08.539 --> 00:02:11.039 Peace. Kant, okay, I remember him from college 00:02:11.039 --> 00:02:13.680 philosophy. Right, and Kant wasn't advocating 00:02:13.680 --> 00:02:17.479 for some massive dictatorial global government. 00:02:17.599 --> 00:02:20.280 Good to know. Rather, he envisioned a league 00:02:20.280 --> 00:02:22.819 of free states that would respect each other 00:02:22.819 --> 00:02:25.780 as fellow rational entities. Okay, but an idea 00:02:25.780 --> 00:02:28.139 is just an idea until something forces it into 00:02:28.139 --> 00:02:31.479 reality. Exactly. And in this case, it took the 00:02:31.479 --> 00:02:34.419 unprecedented mechanized trauma of World War 00:02:34.419 --> 00:02:38.280 I to finally push the world to act. Because the 00:02:38.280 --> 00:02:39.939 previous way of doing things had just completely 00:02:39.939 --> 00:02:42.719 failed, right? Yeah, spectacularly failed. Before 00:02:42.719 --> 00:02:45.120 World War I, Europe operated on something called 00:02:45.120 --> 00:02:47.360 the Concert of Europe. The Concert of Europe. 00:02:47.639 --> 00:02:49.939 Yeah, you can think of it as a VIP club of empires. 00:02:50.039 --> 00:02:53.580 OK. They relied on shifting alliances and these 00:02:53.580 --> 00:02:56.400 secret backroom diplomatic deals to constantly 00:02:56.400 --> 00:02:59.039 balance each other's military power. Sounds incredibly 00:02:59.039 --> 00:03:01.900 fragile. It was. And once that system collapsed 00:03:01.900 --> 00:03:04.319 into the absolute slaughter of the Great War, 00:03:04.759 --> 00:03:07.000 people finally realized that allowing sovereign 00:03:07.000 --> 00:03:10.639 states unchecked freedom to wage war well, it 00:03:10.639 --> 00:03:12.280 was literally going to destroy the world. So 00:03:12.280 --> 00:03:14.020 who were the people actually pushing to change 00:03:14.020 --> 00:03:16.180 this? Was it just, you know... Politicians in 00:03:16.180 --> 00:03:18.780 suits sitting in drawing rooms? Not at all. And 00:03:18.780 --> 00:03:20.960 that is a crucial part of the story here. You 00:03:20.960 --> 00:03:24.520 had incredibly passionate grassroots groups springing 00:03:24.520 --> 00:03:27.060 up everywhere. Really? Like who? Well, in the 00:03:27.060 --> 00:03:29.800 UK, you had the Bryce Group and the Fabians. 00:03:30.139 --> 00:03:33.120 The Fabians? Right. They were essentially British 00:03:33.120 --> 00:03:36.259 intellectual societies advocating for gradual 00:03:36.259 --> 00:03:38.939 democratic reform rather than violent revolution. 00:03:39.120 --> 00:03:42.460 OK. In the US, there was the League to Enforce 00:03:42.460 --> 00:03:45.479 Peace. which was actually championed by former 00:03:45.479 --> 00:03:47.740 president William Howard Taft. Oh, interesting. 00:03:47.840 --> 00:03:50.460 But perhaps the most remarkable push came from 00:03:50.460 --> 00:03:52.500 women's groups. What were they doing while the 00:03:52.500 --> 00:03:54.800 war was still going on? It's amazing, really. 00:03:55.280 --> 00:03:57.719 In 1915, while the trenches were still completely 00:03:57.719 --> 00:04:00.840 active, over 1 ,000 women from neutral nations 00:04:00.840 --> 00:04:03.080 managed to gather at The Hague. In the middle 00:04:03.080 --> 00:04:05.740 of a global war. Yes. This was coordinated by 00:04:05.740 --> 00:04:08.099 organizers like Mia Boisevain, Aletta Jacobs, 00:04:08.580 --> 00:04:10.900 and Rosa Manos. Okay. And it was directed by 00:04:10.900 --> 00:04:12.780 the famous American social worker Jane Addams. 00:04:12.919 --> 00:04:15.060 I've heard of Jane Addams, so they hold this 00:04:15.060 --> 00:04:17.139 conference. But they didn't just hold a conference 00:04:17.139 --> 00:04:19.160 to go home, that's the thing. What did they do? 00:04:19.379 --> 00:04:21.779 They actively dispatched delegations to meet 00:04:21.779 --> 00:04:24.639 face -to -face with reluctant European heads 00:04:24.639 --> 00:04:27.019 of state. You're kidding? No, they went right 00:04:27.019 --> 00:04:29.300 to them, demanding a neutral mediating body. 00:04:29.579 --> 00:04:32.439 This effort eventually formed the Women's International 00:04:32.439 --> 00:04:35.620 League for Peace and Freedom, or Will .P .F. 00:04:35.899 --> 00:04:38.379 That is incredible. They are literally crossing 00:04:38.379 --> 00:04:41.459 war -torn continents to lobby kings and prime 00:04:41.459 --> 00:04:44.079 ministers. Exactly. So how does that grassroots 00:04:44.079 --> 00:04:47.139 energy finally translate into the official League 00:04:47.139 --> 00:04:49.560 of Nations? It ultimately found its champion 00:04:49.560 --> 00:04:52.959 in American President Woodrow Wilson. Ah, Wilson. 00:04:53.100 --> 00:04:55.319 Right. He took these idealistic concepts from 00:04:55.319 --> 00:04:57.319 the public, combined them with drafts written 00:04:57.319 --> 00:05:00.079 by British and South African statesmen. Like 00:05:00.079 --> 00:05:03.100 who? Specifically, Lord Robert Cecil and Jan 00:05:03.100 --> 00:05:05.899 Smuts. Got it. And Wilson... made the creation 00:05:05.899 --> 00:05:08.720 of the League his single biggest objective at 00:05:08.720 --> 00:05:11.600 the 1919 Paris Peace Conference. Which brings 00:05:11.600 --> 00:05:14.519 us to what might be the most massive glaring 00:05:14.519 --> 00:05:17.079 historical irony of this whole endeavor. It's 00:05:17.079 --> 00:05:19.199 a big one. Woodrow Wilson is the chief architect. 00:05:19.480 --> 00:05:22.480 He literally wins the 1919 Nobel Peace Prize 00:05:22.480 --> 00:05:25.279 for his role in creating the League. But the 00:05:25.279 --> 00:05:27.540 United States never actually joins it. Never. 00:05:27.779 --> 00:05:30.339 How does the architects own country back out? 00:05:30.759 --> 00:05:33.339 It came down to a bitter political fight over 00:05:33.339 --> 00:05:36.800 sovereignty. Back in the U .S. Senate Republicans 00:05:36.800 --> 00:05:40.279 led by Henry Cabot Lodge pushed back hard against 00:05:40.279 --> 00:05:42.139 Wilson. They didn't want any part of it. They 00:05:42.139 --> 00:05:44.720 were terrified that joining the league would 00:05:44.720 --> 00:05:47.300 force the U .S. military into European conflicts 00:05:47.300 --> 00:05:50.279 without Congress having a say. So a constitutional 00:05:50.279 --> 00:05:53.750 issue. Exactly. They demanded a reservation ensuring 00:05:53.750 --> 00:05:56.110 only Congress could take the U .S. into war. 00:05:56.509 --> 00:05:59.550 And Wilson. Wilson, being notoriously stubborn, 00:06:00.029 --> 00:06:02.790 refused to compromise a single word. Wow, not 00:06:02.790 --> 00:06:05.589 a single word. Nope. So the Senate voted it down 00:06:05.589 --> 00:06:07.769 and the U .S. stayed out. Just incredible. If 00:06:07.769 --> 00:06:10.709 we connect this to the bigger picture, that American 00:06:10.709 --> 00:06:13.750 absence was a foundational crack in the League's 00:06:13.750 --> 00:06:16.329 architecture. Because they needed the U .S. power. 00:06:16.810 --> 00:06:19.529 Precisely. The League didn't have its own standing 00:06:19.529 --> 00:06:21.829 army. It was entirely dependent on the major 00:06:21.829 --> 00:06:24.970 powers to enforce its resolutions. So by missing 00:06:24.970 --> 00:06:27.750 the sheer economic and military weight of the 00:06:27.750 --> 00:06:31.209 United States, and this is important by initially 00:06:31.209 --> 00:06:34.589 banning the defeated Germany and the newly communist 00:06:34.589 --> 00:06:36.870 Soviet Union from joining up. Oh, they banned 00:06:36.870 --> 00:06:39.949 them at first. Yes. So by doing all that, the 00:06:39.949 --> 00:06:42.569 League's credibility was crippled from day one. 00:06:43.509 --> 00:06:46.709 Many smaller nations just viewed it as a league 00:06:46.709 --> 00:06:48.970 of victors looking out for themselves. A league 00:06:48.970 --> 00:06:51.910 of victors. That paints a really vivid picture 00:06:51.910 --> 00:06:54.050 of the starting line. It wasn't a great start. 00:06:54.470 --> 00:06:57.110 So let's look at the actual mechanics of this 00:06:57.110 --> 00:06:59.430 global startup. How did it function day to day? 00:06:59.829 --> 00:07:01.889 The operational structure was laid out in its 00:07:01.889 --> 00:07:04.589 covenant, which was signed as part one of the 00:07:04.589 --> 00:07:07.110 Treaty of Versailles. Okay. It had three main 00:07:07.110 --> 00:07:09.970 parts. First, you had the assembly where every 00:07:09.970 --> 00:07:12.110 member state had a seat and a vote. Like the 00:07:12.110 --> 00:07:14.810 UN General Assembly today. Very similar. Then 00:07:14.810 --> 00:07:17.230 you had the council, which acted as an executive 00:07:17.230 --> 00:07:19.810 body dominated by permanent major powers. Okay. 00:07:20.189 --> 00:07:22.389 And finally, a permanent secretariat, which was 00:07:22.389 --> 00:07:24.250 basically the civil service keeping the lights 00:07:24.250 --> 00:07:26.730 on. And they were based in Geneva, Switzerland. 00:07:26.990 --> 00:07:29.410 Correct. And Geneva makes sense given their long 00:07:29.410 --> 00:07:31.889 history of neutrality and the fact that the International 00:07:31.889 --> 00:07:33.790 Red Cross was already set up there. Exactly. 00:07:33.810 --> 00:07:36.110 It was the perfect neutral ground. But reading 00:07:36.110 --> 00:07:38.980 through the source, There seems to be a massive 00:07:38.980 --> 00:07:42.000 glitch in how the assembly and the council actually 00:07:42.000 --> 00:07:45.720 voted on things. Yes, you are referring to the 00:07:45.720 --> 00:07:49.199 principle of unanimous voting. Yes. For any major 00:07:49.199 --> 00:07:52.339 resolution to pass, every single member voting. 00:07:52.519 --> 00:07:55.620 had to agree. Unanimous. Entirely unanimous. 00:07:55.740 --> 00:07:58.300 Just trying to get everyone in a 50 -person office 00:07:58.300 --> 00:08:00.699 to agree on where to order lunch is impossible. 00:08:01.160 --> 00:08:03.220 How are they supposed to settle a border dispute? 00:08:03.420 --> 00:08:05.560 It sounds absurd to our modern ears. It really 00:08:05.560 --> 00:08:08.279 does. It does. But it reflected the League's 00:08:08.279 --> 00:08:11.519 deep, almost paranoid belief in protecting the 00:08:11.519 --> 00:08:13.560 sovereignty of its member nations. I guess that 00:08:13.560 --> 00:08:15.480 makes sense after the war. Right. They wanted 00:08:15.480 --> 00:08:19.370 solutions by mutual consent, not... Dictation. 00:08:20.029 --> 00:08:21.910 They didn't want a global superpower telling 00:08:21.910 --> 00:08:24.610 a small country what to do. Okay, noble idea. 00:08:24.810 --> 00:08:28.750 Noble, yes. But in practice, this meant that 00:08:28.750 --> 00:08:31.370 if a single country disagreed, nothing happened. 00:08:31.529 --> 00:08:34.090 Nothing at all. It essentially gave every single 00:08:34.090 --> 00:08:37.240 member veto power. which, as you can imagine, 00:08:37.799 --> 00:08:39.960 created endless diplomatic gridlock when it came 00:08:39.960 --> 00:08:42.159 to major political crises. But here's where it 00:08:42.159 --> 00:08:44.899 gets really interesting. Oh yes. Because while 00:08:44.899 --> 00:08:47.279 the political arm was getting hopelessly bogged 00:08:47.279 --> 00:08:50.059 down by that gridlock, the League was quietly 00:08:50.059 --> 00:08:53.419 achieving massive, largely forgotten triumphs 00:08:53.419 --> 00:08:55.700 in other areas. They really were. I want to spend 00:08:55.700 --> 00:08:57.600 some time on this, starting with the International 00:08:57.600 --> 00:09:01.639 Labor Organization or the ILO. The ILO is a great 00:09:01.639 --> 00:09:04.279 example. They were technically autonomous, but 00:09:04.279 --> 00:09:06.519 fully funded by the League. And their work was 00:09:06.519 --> 00:09:09.799 revolutionary. Truly. They actively campaigned 00:09:09.799 --> 00:09:11.860 for and convinced several countries to adopt 00:09:11.860 --> 00:09:14.539 an eight -hour workday. Which is standard now, 00:09:14.559 --> 00:09:16.620 but back then... Back then it was groundbreaking. 00:09:17.019 --> 00:09:19.970 And a 48 -hour work week. They fought to end 00:09:19.970 --> 00:09:22.889 child labor globally. Amazing. They even successfully 00:09:22.889 --> 00:09:25.190 pushed to restrict the addition of lead to paint. 00:09:25.649 --> 00:09:28.230 And the source highlights one specific project 00:09:28.230 --> 00:09:31.289 that blew my mind, the Tanganyika Railway in 00:09:31.289 --> 00:09:34.629 Africa. Yes. That is a staggering humanitarian 00:09:34.629 --> 00:09:36.570 achievement. Can you walk us through those numbers? 00:09:37.129 --> 00:09:39.460 Before the League's intervention. The death rate 00:09:39.460 --> 00:09:43.000 of workers constructing that railway was an appalling 00:09:43.000 --> 00:09:47.159 55%. 55 %? More than half the workers were dying 00:09:47.159 --> 00:09:49.820 from brutal conditions and disease. That is just 00:09:49.820 --> 00:09:53.179 horrific. It was. So the League stepped in, demanded 00:09:53.179 --> 00:09:55.740 better working conditions, instituted medical 00:09:55.740 --> 00:09:58.360 care, and provided strict oversight. And what 00:09:58.360 --> 00:10:00.679 was the result? They successfully dropped that 00:10:00.679 --> 00:10:04.009 mortality rate down to just 4%. From 55 down 00:10:04.009 --> 00:10:07.330 to four. Yes. It's hard to even fathom how many 00:10:07.330 --> 00:10:10.370 lives that saved. Thousands upon thousands. And 00:10:10.370 --> 00:10:12.549 they didn't stop at labor. Let's talk about the 00:10:12.549 --> 00:10:15.309 health organization. Another huge success story. 00:10:15.409 --> 00:10:18.850 Because long before we had the WHO, these folks 00:10:18.850 --> 00:10:21.230 were out there launching international campaigns 00:10:21.230 --> 00:10:24.389 to exterminate mosquitoes, to fight malaria and 00:10:24.389 --> 00:10:26.929 yellow fever. They were pioneers in global public 00:10:26.929 --> 00:10:29.470 health. They set up research centers for leprosy. 00:10:29.570 --> 00:10:31.990 And perhaps their most surprising diplomatic 00:10:32.080 --> 00:10:34.519 was partnering with the Soviet government. Right, 00:10:34.519 --> 00:10:36.379 because the Soviet Union wasn't even in the League 00:10:36.379 --> 00:10:38.940 at this point. Exactly. Remember, they were banned 00:10:38.940 --> 00:10:41.720 initially, and the West was deeply suspicious 00:10:41.720 --> 00:10:44.220 of them. So how did that partnership happen? 00:10:44.440 --> 00:10:46.779 The health organization recognized a simple truth. 00:10:47.860 --> 00:10:50.419 Diseases do not respect political borders. Right. 00:10:50.679 --> 00:10:52.919 A virus doesn't care about a treaty. Exactly. 00:10:53.320 --> 00:10:55.399 So they partnered with the Soviets to launch 00:10:55.399 --> 00:10:58.159 a massive education and sanitation campaign. 00:10:58.320 --> 00:11:02.320 To fight what? Typhus. And it successfully prevented 00:11:02.320 --> 00:11:04.879 typhus epidemics from sweeping across Europe. 00:11:05.519 --> 00:11:07.799 They proved that public health could and really 00:11:07.799 --> 00:11:11.240 must be managed internationally. That is a phenomenal 00:11:11.240 --> 00:11:13.659 point. And speaking of people crossing borders, 00:11:14.080 --> 00:11:16.500 we have to talk about the refugee crisis after 00:11:16.500 --> 00:11:19.480 World War I. Yes. And a man named Fridtjof Nansen. 00:11:19.600 --> 00:11:22.259 Nansen. He led the Commission for Refugees. And 00:11:22.259 --> 00:11:24.659 the scale of the problem he faced was just daunting. 00:11:24.840 --> 00:11:26.779 How bad was it? At the end of the war, there 00:11:26.779 --> 00:11:28.860 were an estimated two to three million prisoners 00:11:28.860 --> 00:11:31.539 of war dispersed throughout Russia, facing starvation 00:11:31.539 --> 00:11:34.240 and disease. Millions of people just stranded. 00:11:34.519 --> 00:11:37.820 Stranded. Yet within just two years, Nansen's 00:11:37.820 --> 00:11:40.940 commission helped 425 ,000 of them return home. 00:11:41.139 --> 00:11:43.919 That is incredible logistical work. They set 00:11:43.919 --> 00:11:47.539 up camps in Turkey to feed refugees and aggressively 00:11:47.539 --> 00:11:50.259 fought the spread of cholera and smallpox in 00:11:50.259 --> 00:11:52.259 those camps. But the thing that really stands 00:11:52.259 --> 00:11:55.179 out to me in the source is the creation of the 00:11:55.179 --> 00:11:59.440 Nansen passport. What exactly was that? OK, imagine 00:11:59.440 --> 00:12:01.960 being caught in the aftermath of a fallen empire. 00:12:02.139 --> 00:12:04.379 Like the Ottoman Empire or the Austro -Hungarian 00:12:04.379 --> 00:12:07.000 Empire? Exactly. The country you were born in 00:12:07.000 --> 00:12:10.299 literally no longer exists. Wow. Which means 00:12:10.299 --> 00:12:14.070 you have no citizenship. no passport, and therefore 00:12:14.070 --> 00:12:17.889 no legal right to cross a border to find safety 00:12:17.889 --> 00:12:20.289 or work. You're just trapped. You are completely 00:12:20.289 --> 00:12:23.210 stateless. So what did Nansen do? He created 00:12:23.210 --> 00:12:25.789 an internationally recognized identity card for 00:12:25.789 --> 00:12:28.139 these people. If you didn't have a country anymore, 00:12:28.700 --> 00:12:30.899 this piece of paper gave you a legal identity 00:12:30.899 --> 00:12:33.120 and the freedom to move. It was revolutionary. 00:12:33.240 --> 00:12:36.240 It absolutely was. So these technical and humanitarian 00:12:36.240 --> 00:12:39.120 side quests were incredibly successful. Highly 00:12:39.120 --> 00:12:41.639 successful. They are quietly building the infrastructure 00:12:41.639 --> 00:12:43.899 of the modern world while nobody is looking. 00:12:44.259 --> 00:12:46.779 Exactly. While the League's political machinery 00:12:46.779 --> 00:12:50.559 was failing to prevent war, These auxiliary agencies 00:12:50.559 --> 00:12:53.019 were so effective that they were directly inherited 00:12:53.019 --> 00:12:55.419 by the United Nations after World War II. They 00:12:55.419 --> 00:12:57.580 survived the collapse. They did. They eventually 00:12:57.580 --> 00:13:00.960 became the institutions, you know, today, like 00:13:00.960 --> 00:13:02.639 the World Health Organization and the modern 00:13:02.639 --> 00:13:05.379 ILO. OK, so they were transforming global health 00:13:05.379 --> 00:13:08.200 and labor. But we have to address their main 00:13:08.200 --> 00:13:10.700 job, preventing another world war. Right. The 00:13:10.700 --> 00:13:13.519 political side. To understand how that unraveled, 00:13:13.679 --> 00:13:16.279 we need to look at how they handled territory. 00:13:16.679 --> 00:13:19.460 It was a very complicated issue. The Paris Peace 00:13:19.460 --> 00:13:22.460 Conference left a lot of messy borders, and the 00:13:22.460 --> 00:13:24.220 empires that lost the war had to give up their 00:13:24.220 --> 00:13:27.740 colonies. How did the League handle that? They 00:13:27.740 --> 00:13:29.659 created something called the Mandate System, 00:13:30.120 --> 00:13:32.879 which was a very messy compromise. Between who? 00:13:33.080 --> 00:13:35.519 Well, on one side you had Woodrow Wilson. He 00:13:35.519 --> 00:13:37.879 insisted that the former colonies of the German 00:13:37.879 --> 00:13:40.000 and Ottoman empires shouldn't just be swallowed 00:13:40.000 --> 00:13:42.480 up by the winners. OK. He wanted them assisted 00:13:42.480 --> 00:13:44.820 toward eventual self -governance. And the other 00:13:44.820 --> 00:13:47.769 side? On the other side, you had Britain, France, 00:13:48.129 --> 00:13:50.830 and South Africa, who very much wanted to annex 00:13:50.830 --> 00:13:52.970 those territories to protect their trade routes 00:13:52.970 --> 00:13:55.570 and expand their empires. Of course they did. 00:13:55.789 --> 00:13:58.309 So how did they compromise? By creating Class 00:13:58.309 --> 00:14:02.500 A, B, and C mandates. Break those down for us. 00:14:02.539 --> 00:14:04.980 Class A territories were deemed nearly ready 00:14:04.980 --> 00:14:07.720 for independence, needing only administrative 00:14:07.720 --> 00:14:11.159 advice. OK, so a light touch. Right. Class B 00:14:11.159 --> 00:14:13.620 mandates required more direct intervention. And 00:14:13.620 --> 00:14:16.279 Class C. Class C mandates like Southwest Africa 00:14:16.279 --> 00:14:18.960 or certain Pacific Islands were essentially handed 00:14:18.960 --> 00:14:21.659 over to be administered as integral portions 00:14:21.659 --> 00:14:24.659 of the conquering nations territory. Wait, so 00:14:24.659 --> 00:14:27.039 basically? Basically, they were treated as colonies. 00:14:27.440 --> 00:14:30.179 As the source points out, this structure deeply 00:14:30.179 --> 00:14:33.039 enshrined racial hierarchies and effectively 00:14:33.039 --> 00:14:35.879 prevented actual decolonization for decades. 00:14:36.179 --> 00:14:37.860 It sounds like a bureaucratic way of putting 00:14:37.860 --> 00:14:40.899 a new label on old imperialism. That's exactly 00:14:40.899 --> 00:14:43.080 how many historians view it today. But when it 00:14:43.080 --> 00:14:45.480 came to actual sovereign nations shooting at 00:14:45.480 --> 00:14:47.840 each other, did the leagues ever step in and 00:14:47.840 --> 00:14:50.659 actually stop a war? They did, actually, but 00:14:50.659 --> 00:14:53.120 with a major caveat. It only worked when the 00:14:53.120 --> 00:14:55.600 countries involved were relatively small. Interesting. 00:14:55.779 --> 00:14:58.789 Give us an example. Well, in the early 1920s, 00:14:58.909 --> 00:15:01.169 there was a fierce dispute between Sweden and 00:15:01.169 --> 00:15:04.629 Finland over the Eiland Islands. The League stepped 00:15:04.629 --> 00:15:08.070 in, investigated, and ultimately left the islands 00:15:08.070 --> 00:15:10.970 with Finland. But did Sweden just accept that? 00:15:11.230 --> 00:15:13.909 They did because the League strictly guaranteed 00:15:13.909 --> 00:15:16.210 demilitarization and language protections for 00:15:16.210 --> 00:15:18.889 the Swedish -speaking islanders. It was a peaceful, 00:15:19.370 --> 00:15:21.669 accepted resolution. And there was a border clash 00:15:21.669 --> 00:15:24.830 in 1925, right? Between Greece and Bulgaria. 00:15:25.049 --> 00:15:28.129 Yes. An incident involving border sentries escalated, 00:15:28.509 --> 00:15:31.230 and Greek troops actually invaded Bulgaria. A 00:15:31.230 --> 00:15:33.950 full invasion. Yes. But the League immediately 00:15:33.950 --> 00:15:37.129 condemned it. Greece actually listened, withdrew 00:15:37.129 --> 00:15:39.710 its troops, and paid compensation to Bulgaria. 00:15:39.870 --> 00:15:42.289 Wow. They even managed to step into South America 00:15:42.289 --> 00:15:44.850 in the early 1930s. What happened there? Business 00:15:44.850 --> 00:15:47.470 leaders from the Peruvian rubber industry organized 00:15:47.470 --> 00:15:50.509 an armed takeover of a border town called Leticia. 00:15:50.649 --> 00:15:52.889 Leticia, OK. Which had been ceded to Colombia. 00:15:53.769 --> 00:15:56.149 The Peruvian army backed them up, but the League 00:15:56.149 --> 00:15:58.769 mediated. They actually took provisional control 00:15:58.769 --> 00:16:01.409 of the territory. The League took control. Temporarily, 00:16:01.629 --> 00:16:04.250 yes. Yeah. And brokered a final peace agreement 00:16:04.250 --> 00:16:06.990 where Leticia was returned to Colombia. So the 00:16:06.990 --> 00:16:09.980 system could work? Arbitration was actually possible. 00:16:10.120 --> 00:16:13.220 It was possible for the sparrows. The sparrows. 00:16:13.379 --> 00:16:16.559 As Benito Mussolini famously called them. Mussolini 00:16:16.559 --> 00:16:18.799 once stated regarding the league's attempts to 00:16:18.799 --> 00:16:21.600 enforce rules that the league is very well when 00:16:21.600 --> 00:16:24.519 sparrows shout, but no good at all when eagles 00:16:24.519 --> 00:16:27.080 fall out. And those eagles were about to fall 00:16:27.080 --> 00:16:30.279 out in a spectacular way. They were indeed. Let's 00:16:30.279 --> 00:16:32.320 talk about the major powers going rogue, starting 00:16:32.320 --> 00:16:35.240 with Japan in 1931. This is the Mukden incident. 00:16:35.519 --> 00:16:38.000 What happened? The Japanese Kwantung Army, acting 00:16:38.000 --> 00:16:40.019 completely rogue and contrary to orders from 00:16:40.019 --> 00:16:42.659 Tokyo, lightly damaged a section of their own 00:16:42.659 --> 00:16:45.279 railway in the Chinese region of Manchuria. Their 00:16:45.279 --> 00:16:48.080 own railway? Yes. They used this staged sabotage 00:16:48.080 --> 00:16:51.440 as a pretext to invade all of Manchuria and set 00:16:51.440 --> 00:16:54.320 up a puppet government. How does the League respond 00:16:54.320 --> 00:16:57.100 to a major power just taking over a massive region 00:16:57.100 --> 00:17:00.440 of another country? They sent observers and issued 00:17:00.440 --> 00:17:03.470 the Lytton Report. which firmly demanded Manchuria 00:17:03.470 --> 00:17:05.490 be returned to China. Did the assembly vote on 00:17:05.490 --> 00:17:08.950 it? The assembly voted 42 to 1 to adopt the report. 00:17:09.630 --> 00:17:12.529 The single dissenting vote was, of course, Japan. 00:17:13.029 --> 00:17:14.890 Right. So they voted, but what did they actually 00:17:14.890 --> 00:17:18.950 do? Nothing. Because the League had no army and 00:17:18.950 --> 00:17:21.750 the other major powers were too preoccupied with 00:17:21.750 --> 00:17:23.569 the Great Depression to send their own troops, 00:17:23.970 --> 00:17:26.589 there was no enforcement. So Japan just ignores 00:17:26.589 --> 00:17:29.950 it. Worse. Yeah. Rather than submit to the judgment, 00:17:30.410 --> 00:17:32.849 Japan simply walked out of the assembly and withdrew 00:17:32.849 --> 00:17:35.009 from the League of Nations altogether. They just 00:17:35.009 --> 00:17:37.410 left. Just packed up and left. And once Japan 00:17:37.410 --> 00:17:39.190 showed that the League was essentially a paper 00:17:39.190 --> 00:17:42.430 tiger, the other Eagles took notes. They absolutely 00:17:42.430 --> 00:17:46.289 did. Which brings us to Italy in 1935 and the 00:17:46.289 --> 00:17:48.630 invasion of Abyssinia, which is modern -day Ethiopia. 00:17:48.950 --> 00:17:52.150 Right. Mussolini sent 400 ,000 troops into Abyssinia. 00:17:52.329 --> 00:17:55.049 And the details provided in the source are just 00:17:55.049 --> 00:17:57.769 horrific. They are. The modern Italian army didn't 00:17:57.769 --> 00:17:59.869 just fight a conventional war against them. What 00:17:59.869 --> 00:18:02.930 did they do? They used mustard gas, poisoned 00:18:02.930 --> 00:18:06.049 local water supplies, and deliberately targeted 00:18:06.049 --> 00:18:09.069 undefended villages and Red Cross medical dens. 00:18:09.369 --> 00:18:12.769 Pure atrocities? Yes. The emperor of Ethiopia, 00:18:13.250 --> 00:18:16.150 Hale Selassie, actually traveled to Geneva. To 00:18:16.150 --> 00:18:18.329 speak to them directly? He spoke to the assembly 00:18:18.329 --> 00:18:20.960 in person. giving a heartbreaking appeal for 00:18:20.960 --> 00:18:23.279 the League to protect his country as they had 00:18:23.279 --> 00:18:25.279 promised in the Covenant. Did the League do anything 00:18:25.279 --> 00:18:27.980 to help him? They condemned Italy and imposed 00:18:27.980 --> 00:18:30.359 economic sanctions, but here is the critical 00:18:30.359 --> 00:18:33.680 failure. The sanctions were disastrously weak. 00:18:33.859 --> 00:18:36.640 How weak? They purposefully did not ban the sale 00:18:36.640 --> 00:18:39.740 of oil to Italy. Wait. Nor did they close the 00:18:39.740 --> 00:18:42.859 British -controlled Suez Canal to Italian supply 00:18:42.859 --> 00:18:45.700 ships. Wait. If they're trying to stop a mechanized 00:18:45.700 --> 00:18:47.799 invasion, cutting off the oil seems like the 00:18:47.799 --> 00:18:50.420 most obvious and effective lever to pull. Why 00:18:50.420 --> 00:18:52.200 would they leave that off the table? Because 00:18:52.200 --> 00:18:55.200 of profound political self -interest. Britain 00:18:55.200 --> 00:18:57.799 and France were terrified that imposing truly 00:18:57.799 --> 00:19:00.579 crippling sanctions would anger Mussolini so 00:19:00.579 --> 00:19:02.720 much that he would form an alliance with Adolf 00:19:02.720 --> 00:19:05.279 Hitler in Germany. Oh, I see. They tried to walk 00:19:05.279 --> 00:19:08.619 a middle path to keep Italy somewhat friendly. 00:19:08.960 --> 00:19:12.559 Imagine knowing the exact lever to pull to stop 00:19:12.559 --> 00:19:15.460 a war, but refusing to pull it because you are 00:19:15.460 --> 00:19:18.079 scared of the political fallout back home. That's 00:19:18.079 --> 00:19:19.759 exactly what happened. And the result of that 00:19:19.759 --> 00:19:22.119 middle path is that Italy conquers Abyssinia 00:19:22.119 --> 00:19:25.200 anyway and the League loses whatever shred of 00:19:25.200 --> 00:19:28.720 credibility it had left. Precisely. The weak 00:19:28.720 --> 00:19:32.859 sanctions were quietly lifted in 1936, and Italy 00:19:32.859 --> 00:19:36.000 formally withdrew from the League in 1937. At 00:19:36.000 --> 00:19:37.960 this point, it sounds like a mass exodus. It 00:19:37.960 --> 00:19:41.180 was. Japan and Germany had both left in 1933, 00:19:41.539 --> 00:19:45.460 Italy in 37, Spain left in 39. By the late 1930s, 00:19:45.519 --> 00:19:47.559 the membership was just plummeting. What about 00:19:47.559 --> 00:19:50.400 the Soviet Union? Weren't they in by then? Interestingly, 00:19:50.640 --> 00:19:52.859 yes. The Soviet Union, which had finally been 00:19:52.859 --> 00:19:55.779 allowed to join in 1934, holds a unique distinction 00:19:55.779 --> 00:19:57.740 here. What's that? They were the only member 00:19:57.740 --> 00:19:59.579 to ever be formally expelled from the League. 00:20:00.160 --> 00:20:02.980 Expelled? What? Which happened in December 1939 00:20:02.980 --> 00:20:05.700 after they unprovokedly invaded Finland. Wow, 00:20:05.759 --> 00:20:07.660 so they actually kicked them out. What's fascinating 00:20:07.660 --> 00:20:09.599 here is the core contradiction of collective 00:20:09.599 --> 00:20:12.099 security. Say more about that. The League's entire 00:20:12.099 --> 00:20:14.720 foundational premise was that an attack on one 00:20:14.720 --> 00:20:17.750 member was an attack on all. Right, all for one, 00:20:17.910 --> 00:20:20.150 one for all. But this required nations to act 00:20:20.150 --> 00:20:22.490 against states they considered friendly or to 00:20:22.490 --> 00:20:24.390 risk their own national treasury and the lives 00:20:24.390 --> 00:20:26.789 of their citizens to support a country they had 00:20:26.789 --> 00:20:30.150 no historical affinity for. It is the ultimate 00:20:30.150 --> 00:20:33.910 test of theory versus reality. Exactly. Because 00:20:33.910 --> 00:20:36.069 it is easy to sign a piece of paper in Geneva, 00:20:36.230 --> 00:20:38.150 but it is entirely different to tell your own 00:20:38.150 --> 00:20:40.849 citizens they have to go die to protect a border 00:20:40.849 --> 00:20:43.210 thousands of miles away. Especially following 00:20:43.210 --> 00:20:46.029 the immense unmatched bloodshed of World War 00:20:46.029 --> 00:20:49.369 I. You have to remember, Britain and France were 00:20:49.369 --> 00:20:53.390 gripped by a profound societal pacifism. Nobody 00:20:53.390 --> 00:20:56.039 wanted another war. The British Prime Minister 00:20:56.039 --> 00:20:58.539 at the time, Stanley Baldwin, observed that collective 00:20:58.539 --> 00:21:01.019 security ultimately failed because no country, 00:21:01.519 --> 00:21:03.900 except the aggressor, was actually ready or willing 00:21:03.900 --> 00:21:06.640 to go to war. Because the League lacked an independent 00:21:06.640 --> 00:21:09.579 military force. Exactly. The major powers were 00:21:09.579 --> 00:21:11.799 simply unwilling to use their own militaries 00:21:11.799 --> 00:21:14.900 to enforce the rules. And so the fences fall 00:21:14.900 --> 00:21:17.779 down and the world slides inevitably into the 00:21:17.779 --> 00:21:19.880 absolute devastation of the Second World War. 00:21:20.039 --> 00:21:21.940 It was unavoidable at that point. What happens 00:21:21.940 --> 00:21:24.599 to the League while WWI is actually raging? It 00:21:24.599 --> 00:21:27.220 was largely inactive. Its massive headquarters 00:21:27.220 --> 00:21:29.640 at the Palace of Nations in Geneva sat mostly 00:21:29.640 --> 00:21:32.619 unoccupied for nearly six years. Just a big empty 00:21:32.619 --> 00:21:35.500 building? Pretty much. Finally, when the dust 00:21:35.500 --> 00:21:39.799 settled in April 1946, delegates from 34 nations 00:21:39.799 --> 00:21:43.039 gathered in Geneva for one last somber session. 00:21:43.380 --> 00:21:45.759 What was their goal? Their job was to liquidate 00:21:45.759 --> 00:21:48.700 the League entirely. Wow. They transferred their 00:21:48.700 --> 00:21:52.119 massive archives and about 22 million U .S. dollars 00:21:52.119 --> 00:21:54.819 in assets to the newly formed United Nations. 00:21:54.980 --> 00:21:57.839 A passing of the torch. Yes. And at the final 00:21:57.839 --> 00:22:00.480 session, Lord Robert Cecil, one of the original 00:22:00.480 --> 00:22:02.059 architects who had directed the documents back 00:22:02.059 --> 00:22:05.259 in 1919, addressed the room and delivered the 00:22:05.259 --> 00:22:07.839 epitaph. What did he say? He said, The League 00:22:07.839 --> 00:22:10.920 is dead. Long live the United Nations. Shills. 00:22:11.180 --> 00:22:13.500 So what does this all mean? It's a heavy question. 00:22:13.720 --> 00:22:16.359 When you look back at this sweeping, complicated 00:22:16.359 --> 00:22:19.460 story, how does it change your view of history? 00:22:20.440 --> 00:22:22.839 Because growing up, it is so easy to just label 00:22:22.839 --> 00:22:25.380 the League of Nations as a total failure because 00:22:25.380 --> 00:22:27.279 World War II happened. Sure, it's the easy narrative. 00:22:27.799 --> 00:22:30.259 But digging into these sources, the truth feels 00:22:30.259 --> 00:22:33.519 so much more layered. It absolutely is. Contemporary 00:22:33.519 --> 00:22:35.960 historians widely agree that the League wasn't 00:22:35.960 --> 00:22:38.420 just a failed peacekeeper. What was it then? 00:22:38.519 --> 00:22:41.359 It was a completely necessary prototype. Before 00:22:41.359 --> 00:22:44.000 the League, the idea of an international public 00:22:44.000 --> 00:22:47.000 sphere barely existed. It was just empires fighting 00:22:47.000 --> 00:22:49.640 empire. Right. The League normalized the very 00:22:49.640 --> 00:22:52.740 concept of international law. It proved that 00:22:52.740 --> 00:22:56.319 incredibly complex global issues like labor standards, 00:22:56.859 --> 00:22:59.619 disease control, and refugee crises could actually 00:22:59.619 --> 00:23:02.299 be managed on a transnational scale. Things we 00:23:02.299 --> 00:23:04.930 take for granted today. Furthermore, It gave 00:23:04.930 --> 00:23:07.130 smaller nations a voice on the world stage for 00:23:07.130 --> 00:23:09.690 the very first time, permanently changing the 00:23:09.690 --> 00:23:12.230 dynamics of global diplomacy. It paved the way. 00:23:12.309 --> 00:23:14.910 It really did. It showed the world what was possible, 00:23:15.049 --> 00:23:17.089 and the United Nations was designed specifically 00:23:17.089 --> 00:23:19.990 to address the structural weaknesses of the League. 00:23:20.430 --> 00:23:23.450 Exactly. Like restricting veto power only to 00:23:23.450 --> 00:23:25.930 the five permanent members of the Security Council 00:23:25.930 --> 00:23:28.869 to keep the major powers at the table. And ensuring 00:23:28.869 --> 00:23:31.750 the UN had more robust enforcement mechanisms. 00:23:32.369 --> 00:23:34.579 This raises an important question. Let's hear 00:23:34.579 --> 00:23:37.240 it. The League of Nations ultimately collapsed 00:23:37.240 --> 00:23:41.640 because individual countries refused to prioritize 00:23:41.640 --> 00:23:45.819 collective global security over their own immediate 00:23:45.819 --> 00:23:48.359 self -interested national security. They wouldn't 00:23:48.359 --> 00:23:50.880 sacrifice. They desperately wanted the benefits 00:23:50.880 --> 00:23:53.880 of peace without the sacrifice required to actually 00:23:53.880 --> 00:23:56.400 enforce it. Right. When we look around at the 00:23:56.400 --> 00:23:59.400 complex, deeply interconnected global crises 00:23:59.400 --> 00:24:02.559 we face today. From regional conflicts to massive 00:24:02.559 --> 00:24:04.859 environmental changes, have we actually learned 00:24:04.859 --> 00:24:07.019 the ultimate lesson of the league? That is the 00:24:07.019 --> 00:24:09.480 big question. Or a century later, are we still 00:24:09.480 --> 00:24:11.559 just a world of sparrows trying desperately to 00:24:11.559 --> 00:24:14.079 negotiate with eagles? That is a very heavy, 00:24:14.440 --> 00:24:16.599 very real thought to hold onto as we look at 00:24:16.599 --> 00:24:18.420 the news today. It gives you a lot to think about. 00:24:18.640 --> 00:24:21.160 It really does. Thank you so much for joining 00:24:21.160 --> 00:24:23.380 us at the table for this deep dive. We hope you 00:24:23.380 --> 00:24:25.660 walk away with a totally new perspective on the 00:24:25.660 --> 00:24:27.779 hidden history of how our modern world was built. 00:24:28.240 --> 00:24:29.859 Until next time, take care.