League of Nations

The League was the greatest experiment that human beings have yet made in the development of an international organisation. It was defective, however, in that it was not a genuine international government or a superstate but was merely an instrument of cooperation. The nations were still independent and the League had only slight powers over its members. Several attempts were made to stop the loopholes in the covenant (the Kellog Pact was one), but they failed. The League membership suffered when the USA failed to join at the very beginning and the Soviet Union was boycotted by the other powers and only joined in 1934 after Germany had flounced out.