League of Nations

On January 8, 1918, President Woodrow WilsonWoodrow WilsonWoodrow Wilson (1856–1924) was an American scholar and politician who served as president of Princeton University and governor of New Jersey and was the 28th president of the United States from 1913 to 1921, leading the country through World War I and proposing the League of Nations.Open the full entry presented his Fourteen Points to Congress; the last of them called for a “general association of nations.”⁠[1]

In January 1919 Wilson traveled to the Paris Peace Conference, the first sitting U.S. president to travel abroad in an official capacity. The Covenant of the League of Nations was drafted by Wilson, Georges Clemenceau and David Lloyd George, and on April 28, 1919, the Peace Conference unanimously adopted the draft Covenant.⁠[1][2]

On June 10, 1919, the League Secretariat was set up in London; Eric Drummond, a Scot, was Secretary-General from 1919 to 1933. The Treaty of Versailles was signed on June 28, 1919, with the Covenant of the League of Nations as its Part I (Articles 1–26).⁠[2][3]

The Treaty of Versailles and the Covenant entered into force on January 10, 1920, when the League officially came into existence; the Council held its first session in Paris on January 16, 1920.⁠[2][4]

Senate Majority Leader Henry Cabot Lodge led the opposition, fearing entanglement in European politics. In March 1920 the Senate defeated the Treaty and the Covenant by a vote of 49 to 35, and nine months later Warren G. HardingWarren G. HardingWarren G. Harding (1865–1923) was an American newspaper publisher and politician who served as lieutenant governor of Ohio and as a U.S. senator before becoming the 29th president of the United States in March 1921; he died in office in August 1923.Open the full entry won the presidency on a platform opposing the League. The United States never joined.⁠[1]

On November 1, 1920, the seat of the League moved from London to Geneva, and on November 15 the first Assembly opened in Geneva with 41 member states.⁠[2][4]

On September 8, 1926, Germany was admitted to the League and made a permanent member of the Council. That year an Extraordinary Assembly launched an architectural competition for a new headquarters, in which nine plans were chosen from 377 submissions; in 1927 John D. Rockefeller Jr.John D. Rockefeller Jr.John D. Rockefeller Jr. (1874–1960) was an American philanthropist and the only son of Standard Oil founder John D. Rockefeller. He devoted most of his life to philanthropy and public affairs, giving away about $537 million in total; he led the restoration of Colonial Williamsburg, built Rockefeller Center in New York and paid for the land for the United Nations headquarters in New York. In 1914 the Ludlow Massacre at the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company, controlled by his family, brought him nationwide criticism.Open the full entry donated US$2 million to endow a library, which was added to the new building.⁠[2][5]

The foundation stone of the new headquarters was laid in Ariana Park, Geneva, on September 7, 1929; its architects were Julien Flegenheimer (Switzerland), Camille Lefèvre and Henri-Paul Nénot (France), Carlo Broggi (Italy) and József Vágó (Hungary).⁠[5]

Japan gave notice of withdrawal from the League on March 27, 1933; Germany withdrew from the Conference for the Reduction and Limitation of Armaments on October 14, 1933, and gave notice of withdrawal from the League on October 21. Japan ceased to be a member on March 27, 1935, and Germany on October 21, 1935. In 1933 Joseph Avenol of France succeeded Drummond as Secretary-General.⁠[2][3]

The USSR was admitted to the League on September 18, 1934, and the Assembly approved its permanent seat on the Council.⁠[2]

From February 17 to 22, 1936, the Secretariat moved from the Palais Wilson into the new League buildings in Geneva, the Palais des Nations, whose construction was completed in 1938. On May 9, 1936, Italy proclaimed sovereignty over Ethiopia.⁠[2][5]

Italy gave notice of withdrawal from the League on December 11, 1937, and left the International Labour Office on December 14. On April 9, 1938, Britain asked for the situation in Ethiopia to be placed on the Council agenda.⁠[2]

The Secretariat adopted a wartime structure from 1939 and did not close that year. Avenol resigned in August 1940 and his deputy Seán Lester, an Irishman, took over, heading a skeleton staff of about one hundred until the League’s end. The Treasury moved to the London branch office, parts of the Economic and Financial Organization went to the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton UniversityPrinceton UniversityPrinceton University is a private university and Ivy League member in Princeton, New Jersey. Chartered on October 22, 1746 as the College of New Jersey, it moved to Princeton in 1756 and adopted its present name in 1896. Undergraduate education leads to A.B. and B.S.E. degrees and emphasizes small-group discussion, independent research and residential college life. Graduate education spans the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences and engineering. As of October 2026, Christopher L. Eisgruber was president. Its 2026–27 operating budget was $3.407 billion, including $342 million for undergraduate aid.Open the full entry, and the Permanent Central Opium Board Secretariat and part of the Drug Control Service moved to Washington, D.C.⁠[6][3]

The League’s last (21st) Assembly met in Geneva from April 8 to 18, 1946. On April 18 it adopted the resolution dissolving the League, and that day the League signed an agreement transferring all its assets to the United NationsUnited NationsThe United Nations is an international organization founded in 1945 under the Charter of the United Nations. It has 193 Member States, and its headquarters are in New York City.Open the full entry, signed by Wlodzimierz Moderow and Seán Lester, the last Secretary-General; from April 19 the League was declared closed except for its liquidation.⁠[6][2][5]

The Palais des Nations and the League’s central services passed to United Nations control in August 1946, followed by its technical activities in August and September. The Board of Liquidation created by the 21st Assembly met 42 times between April 1946 and July 1947 and dissolved itself on July 23, 1947; Lester retired in August 1947, and the Secretariat’s final work concluded on October 25, 1947.⁠[6]

The League’s main organs were an Assembly of all members, a Council of five permanent and four rotating members, and the Secretariat. The Secretary-General was required to attend all meetings of the Assembly and the Council and appointed the Secretariat staff with the Council’s approval.⁠[1][3]

Membership was open to “any fully self-governing State, Dominion or Colony” that met the requirements and won a two-thirds majority vote; at most 60 states were members at the same time.⁠[4]

The 1919 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Woodrow Wilson “for his role as founder of the League of Nations.”⁠[7]

The State Department’s Office of the Historian notes that most historians hold that the League operated less effectively without U.S. participation.⁠[1]

The United Nations has officially no connection with the League, but it received some League assets such as the Palais des Nations and took over or continued League work on refugee protection, global health, drug-trafficking control, intellectual cooperation and social and economic development, and some former League staff and diplomats played significant roles in the UN’s formative years. The League required unanimity, whereas the UN generally works by majority and its Security Council can take binding decisions in certain circumstances. Robert Cecil remarked that “but for the great experiment of the League, the United Nations could never come into existence.”⁠[8]

United Nations Office at Geneva: Official website: https://www.ungeneva.org/ (opens in a new window).⁠[5]