Successes+of+the+League+of+Nations

=Successes of the League of Nations=
 * By: Leena Walia**

Although the League of Nation is recognized for its failures, there were some successes throughout its time.

**The Aaland Islands**
A dilemma between Finland and Sweden arose in 1921 over the possession of the Islands. The Islands were located equally between the two countries. Originally they belonged to Finland but the people wanted to be governed by Sweden. The countries were unable to come to a solution so they turned to the League of Nations for help. The League decided to keep it under Finland control but there was no weapons allowed within the premises of the Islands. The countries agreed to this and the decision has been in effect till today.

**Upper Silesia**
The Treaty of Versailles declared a referendum in 1921 for the people living in Upper Silesia to decide if they wanted to be apart of Germany or Poland. Through a vote 700,000 wanted Germany and 500,000 for Poland. This was a very close result which caused the people to riot because some wanted to be a part of Germany and some part of Poland. This conflict was turned to the League. The league came to a decision to divide Upper Silesia in half. One half was given to Germany and the other to Poland. The people and the two countries were satisfied with this solution.

**Memel**
Memel was a port in Lithuania. The majority of population was Lithuanians. Therefore, the Lithuanian government believed they should govern it. However, the lands around the port was under the control of the League of Nations according to the Treaty of Versailles. The French governor was in charge of the port until the Lithuanians invaded it in 1923. The League then stepped in and gave the outsides of Memel to Lithuania. But the port remained an international zone. Lithuania accepted these actions.The significance of the Leagues actions in this dispute was their ability to act peacefully to aggression by the Lithuanians.



**Turkey**
In 1923 a war took place in Turkey which created a large amount of refugees to appear. Of the 1,400,000 eighty-percent of these refugees were women and children. Typhoid and cholera were diseases spreading violently among these people. The League sent doctors from the Health Organization to check the spread of the disease. They also spent 10 million aiding the refugees by building farms, homes and any other necessities. They also invested money in seeds,wells and digging tools which would employ 600,000 people

**Greece and Bulgaria**

Greece and Bulgaria share a border between the countries. In 1925 the border guards fired at each other and a Greek soldier was killed. This caused Greece to invade Bulgaria. As a result of this, the Bulgarians turned to the League Of Nations for help. The league took action by ordering the armies to stop fighting and for Greece to remove themselves from Bulgaria. The League sent experts to determine who was at fault and it was concluded to be Greece because they invaded. Therefore Greece was fined £45,000. Both countries were okay with this.

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