The Failure of Disarmament

Since it was formed at the Paris Peace Conference, one of the League's most important aims was disarmament. 

By joining the League of Nations, members committed to the aim of reducing their armaments, however, by 1930, Germany was to only country who had kept to their commitment (although this is because it was a term of the Treaty of Versailles).

To address the issue, the World Disarmament Conference was organised on the League and conducted in February 1932.

Prior to the conference, a Preparatory Commission was established in 1925 and 1931. They reported that members of the League were so minded to discuss the issue of disarmament.

The conference was led by former British Foreign Secretary Arthur Henderson and was attended by representatives of over 60 nations, including the USA and the USSR.

By 1933, it was evident that negotiations had broken down. On the 14th of October 1933, Adolf Hitler pulled Germany out of the World Disarmament Conference and the League of Nations. 


Despite the amount of time spent negotiating, the Conference had failed to settle any problems regarding disarmament. There were three main reasons for this. 


In the end, the World Disarmament Conference was a failure.

Two major world powers, Germany and Japan, had both committed to rearmament and left the League of Nations.  Many countries felt that this threatened their own security and national interest. Therefore, many countries, especially Europe and the USA, began to increase their arms.