League of Nations - 1938
League of Nations - 1938
1918 January 8
The President of the United States of America, Woodrow Wilson, in his message on the Conditions of Peace delivered at a Joint Session of the Two Houses of the American Congress, identifies the “fourteen points” intended to serve as the basis for world peace. Point 14 says:
“A general association of nations should be formed on the basis of covenants designed to create mutual guarantees of the political independence and territorial integrity of States, large and small equally.”
The League of Nations, what is today the United Nations, was conceived by Woodrow Wilson, while the USA did not intent to become a signatory.
The league was just a mouthpiece of member states. The League decided nothing; the individual states carried all responsibilities. The Covenant was written in the assumption the United States of America would be a signatory. The League turned out to be ineffective because the participating states lacked a policeman, the United States.
In 1933, Germany and Japan withdrew from the League.
The brief history of the League may be divided into there periods. Until the Treaty of Locarno in 1925 it was for the most part the instrument of victorious powers. Then till 1933, when Germany departed, it struggled with the problem of disarmament: The allied powers refused to obey their pledges and to disarm. Since 1933 the major issue had been “collective security,” meaning an attempt to bring Germany into a security system on the basis of more or less equal rights.
In retrospect, just like today’s United Nations, the League of Nations was totally ineffective in avoiding a major conflict.
The best reference book I found is Inside Europe by John Gunther, a time capsule, the 1938 edition. 
