The World Showing the States Members of the League of Nations

The World Showing the States Members of the League of Nations

From 1920 the League of Nations constructed a new international geography of the world. Resulting from the Paris Peace Conference and written in to the 1919 Treaty of Versailles, the League sought to guarantee international peace and cooperation. This map from a 1927 school manual designed for the use of University students and teachers of Secondary Schools in India, Burma and Ceylon shows the world divided in to League members (yellow), mandates (red), colonial dependencies (brown) and nations outside the League (green). The extent of the League’s coverage marks the enthusiasm for internationalism that emerged from the 1914-18 war. Its failings, however, are mapped here in anticipation. The USA never joined the League, while the USSR was a member only between 1934 and its expulsion in 1939 (Germany joined in 1926 but left in 1933, shortly after Adolf Hitler’s rise to power). Mandates were territories in Asia, Africa and the Pacific that were annexed from Axis powers (Germany and the Ottoman Empire) after the war and handed over to the victorious powers for trusteeship. Like the colonial dependencies, mandates were denied self-representation in Geneva. For mandates and dependencies the League’s internationalism was felt to perpetuate imperialism. Note that India is shaded yellow. Despite being a non-self-governing part of the British Empire, having signed the Treaty of Versailles it became a founding member of the League. The anomaly between its domestic and international status was widely commented upon at the India Round Table Conference held in London between 1930-32.

Hall, C. and Sen, J. (1927) The League of Nations: a manual for the use of University students and teachers of Secondary Schools in India, Burma and Ceylon. Macmillan and Co. Ltd: Calcutta, Madras, Bombay and London