On this day: Nazi Germany pulls out of the League of Nations

Developed in 1919 at the Paris peace conference, US President Woodrow Wilson hoped the League would ensure that the First World War truly was “the war to end all wars.”

Based on his Fourteen Points and rooted in the ideology of liberal internationalism, the League was supposed to go further than the Concert of Europe had in the 19th century. Its aim was to give all countries a voice, to promote self-determination and to unite the world.

During the 1920s the League had modest successes, resolving a dispute between Greece and Bulgaria amongst others. But the League was doomed from the outset, as the isolationist US Senate refused to ratify it. It had no military power, and it did not include the powerful Russia, which was by then under Communist control and, was not allowed to join.

In 1926 "peace-loving” Germany joined. The country had been kept out initially, under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles. But it would only be a member for seven years.