League of Nations

League of Nations is an international association of the governments of member nations (1919-1946). Proposed during World War I by President Woodrow Wilson of the United States, the League's covenant was incorporated in the Versailles Peace Treaty (1919). Its headquarters were at Geneva, Switzerland. Apart from its attempts to bring about order and lasting peace in international relations, it served as a collector of statistics, a preparer of reports and a meeting place for discussions by nationalist minded representatives of its member governments. It lacked the spirit of liberalism and thus failed to solve the major international problems of its era such as colonialism, political restrictions on international trade and investments and domestic interventionisms which led to international conflicts. Its failure to solve the Manchurian Crisis of 1931 led to the withdrawal of Japan (1933) and the League's gradual disintegration before World War II. It was formally dissolved in 1946, after the formation of the United Nations. The United States never joined the League, although it did participate in many of its subsidiary activities, such as the International Labor Organization (1934), an organ for the promotion of "pro-labor" interventionism which has been continued under the United Nations.