The Growth of the Modern World Via The League of Nations

.
The Growth of the Modern World Via The League of Nations

A Review of Susan Pedersen's The Guardians: The League of Nations and the Crisis of Empire

By KJ Mullins-Toronto

History Today:  For historian Susan Pedersen the League of Nations was a fascinating period of restructuring the Imperial World to Nation States while attempting to maintain old school ideals of how to govern the masses.
Susan Pedersen (middle) wins the Cundill Prize Nov. 2015

Pedersen was in Toronto this November as part of the shortlist for the 2015 Cundill Prize in Historical Literature.  Just hours before she took the prize we sat down to discuss her book The Guardians: The League of Nations and the Crisis of Empire.  "I didn't write my book as a comment to current affairs, that is for the reader to draw on." Pedersen stresses that she is a true hardcore research historian and that her focus is on the world prior to 1945, not on the present day. Narrowing in on the mandate system Pedersen spent 10 years researching the League in depth. When asked what she does during her free time a sly smile comes into play, “Academics are academics all the time. I write history in my spare time.” She also travels with her family and summers in Berlin but history is her true passion.

In The Guardians: The League of Nations and the Crisis of Empire  Pedersen explores the transformation from empires to nation states that took place within the League of Nations that took place after the Great War. Founded in 1921 the Geneva based League of Nations helped to bring debate and compromise for the emerging nation states after centuries of Empire rule. Pedersen contends that although it is widely thought that the League was created to be a transition of the old to new ways of governing the organization was more an attempt, in part, to bring Imperial standards to this new world of Nation States.  In doing so it ensured that the old ways of Imperial rule would in fact not completely die.

"What I try to do in my book is show the role that the League of Nations played in International debate," Pedersen says. Geneva was a place of appeals and argument but protests were not a beginning function for the League of Nations. By using the power of sanctions and International pressure nations often agreed to the mandates that came down from the League. While these bargaining chips didn't change the rules completely it did make countries at odds with other powers more cautious to take on the wrath of the International community. Not every super power cared what the rest of the world thought. For instance when Mussolini invaded Ethiopia in 1935 using poison and chemical weapons to kill hundreds the League openly condemned Italy's actions. As the League readied the use of sanctions for Italy's actions Mussolini simply left the League thumbing his nose to the rest of the world. Of course Mussolini was not the norm for the League. 


As Pedersen researched the League she was surprised to discover how closely involved Germany was both pre-Nazi and during the Nazi years. Germany intensely felt the loss of their colonies and often campaigned for ways of having those lands returned. It was not just the lost lands that Germany was wanting but the economic interests that they had held along with trading in Africa.  “All members of the League could trade freely under the mandates,” Pedersen explained the importance of these wants.

“A system like the League will fall apart if too many great powers are not in agreement,” Pedersen states adding that the League was not NATO. 

"When people think of International organizations it is when something complicated or bad happens in the world and they (the organizations) will go in. But International organizations like the League is actually a space where a lot of people enter, you have states and in some case empires,  along with humanitarian interests, all in this one space vying for something. They are all trying to get what they want," Pedersen says. Intervening, while one aspect of the League was far from the overall core of the Leagues mandates. More important for the international community was the actual time spent debating and discussing issues among the members instead of their nations going to war to solve differences. “Talk brings understanding,” says Pedersen, “ Reasonable people often have different ideas. Compromise is a good thing bringing a multiplicity of voices.” 

Toronto's KJ Mullins is one of Canada's most important on-line journalists. She is also the Editor of http://newz4u.net  


VIDEO INTERVIEW WITH SUSAN PEDERSEN (George Socka)

Susan Pedersen Wins The Cundill Prize
https://youtu.be/zjRKMkOMFsg

Susan Pedersen Talks About The Prize
https://youtu.be/zjRKMkOMFsg








Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sublimnos - Muse for James Cameron

Image
. . Sublimnos No Longer Out Of Sight … And Definitely Not Out of Mind By Stephen Weir It will take a long long time for a piece of Canadian dive history to rust into dust. Given the hard feelings surrounding the historic Sublimnos Project, the deteriorating, remains of that underwater habitat could well be an above-water Lake Ontario eyesore for years until rust indeed becomes dust. Back in the summer of 1969 Sublimnos was set down in the waters of Georgian Bay near Tobermory, Ontario the self-described "fresh water scuba diving capital of the world" .It was a bargain basement underwater research station. Constructed from a railroad tanker for just $10,000.00, Sublimnos became Canada’s first subsurface research laboratory. From 1969 to 1971 the Sublimnos project, funded and spearhead by physician, author, explorer and frequent Diver Magazine contributor Dr. Joe McInnis, was headline news around the world. Built to accommodate up to four divers at a time, in its first two-ye...
Read more

America Wild. The name of a movie, a metaphor for the star!

Image
. Recent Huffington Post Film Story by Stephen Weir   http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/../../stephen-weir/america-wild-interview_b_11397002.html Rachel Pohl - photo by George Socka “ I don’t work out.   I don’t diet.   I don’t prepare before climbing,” confessed 23-year old mountain climber Rachel Pohl.   “ Why can I (climb up a near vertical rock face) do it?   Thank my mother and father for their DNA!” The modest adventurer is starring in   "America Wild: National Parks Adventure".   She doesn’t simply climb mountains, she preternatural ly finds pinkie sized breaks in sheer rock faces. One foot on one side of a stone crevice, the other on a different rock face altogether. And between her legs? The great abyss.   publicity still - Devil's Tower America Wild, a new Imax movie narrated by Robert Redford, recently had its Canadian premiere in Toronto.   It has begun showing at museums, galleries and Science Centres all acro...
Read more

SCUBA DIVING INSPIRES UNDERWATER TATTOOS (AND TOE NAIL POLISH)

Image
 . Chasing Ink With Camera! One Day On A Little Cayman Dive Boat The compass has a dive flag. Celtic ink with 3 waves for the dive world Stripping down in Little Cayman's only food store Little Cayman Island, population 200, attracts only two types of visitors.  Ornithologists. Experienced Scuba Divers. Ornithologists because of the birds. The largest colony of Red Footed Boobies in the Caribbean is found on Little Cayman's Booby Pond. Scuba Divers go there because of the sheer wall of coral found in the island's underwater preserve, just north of the island. My wife and I returned from Little Cayman Island on Sunday.  We weren't there for the birds. Flamingo is the logo for dive haven Bonaire. We spent most of our week on a couple of dive boats. One large scuba boat was operated by Reef Divers out of the Little Cayman Resort.  The other, a small Boston Whaler operated by three divers, was out on the reef hunting the invasive lionfish...
Read more