ABSTRACT
Military sanctions were voluntary. If the covenant's dispute-settlement procedures were disregarded by one of the parties, the League of Nations Council was obliged "to recommend to the several Governments concerned what effective military, naval or air force the Members of the League shall severally contribute to protect the covenants of the League." The League of Nations had its successes during the interwar period in spite of the caution of its members, the absence of the world's major military powers, and, after 1929, the nationalist pressures of a world depression. Like the League Covenant before it, the United Nations Charter system was an effort to deal with the kinds of aggression and appeasement that had led to a war that was in progress when the charter was drafted. With the withdrawal of the sanctions against Italy in mid-1936 and Japan's invasion of China proper a year later, the League of Nations ceased to be significant factor in international politics.
