Editing United Nations (section)

=== Background (pre-1941) ===
[[File:Emperor_Haile_Selassie_League_of_Nations_speech.png|thumb|[[Haile Selassie|Haile Selassie I]] at the [[League of Nations]] appealing Italy's invasion in 1936 which the League failed to intervene]]
In the century prior to the UN's creation, several [[international organization]]s such as the [[International Committee of the Red Cross]] were formed to ensure protection and assistance for victims of armed conflict and strife.<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://www.icrc.org/en/document/history-icrc|title=Red Cross-History-Objective |journal=International Committee of the Red Cross |access-date=28 November 2018 |date=11 September 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180623005302/https://www.icrc.org/en/document/history-icrc |archive-date=23 June 2018 |url-status=live}}</ref>

During [[World War I]], several major leaders, especially U.S. president [[Foreign policy of the Woodrow Wilson administration|Woodrow Wilson]], advocated for a world body to guarantee peace. The winners of the war, the [[Allies of World War I|Allies]], met to decide on formal peace terms at the [[Paris Peace Conference (1919–1920)|Paris Peace Conference]]. The [[League of Nations]] was approved and started operations, but the [[United States]] never joined. On 10 January 1920, the League of Nations formally came into being when the [[Covenant of the League of Nations]], ratified by 42 nations in 1919, took effect.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/league-of-nations-instituted|title=League of Nations instituted|website=[[history.com]]|date=9 February 2010 |access-date=3 December 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181204005625/https://www.history.com/.amp/this-day-in-history/league-of-nations-instituted|archive-date=4 December 2018|url-status=live}}</ref> The League Council acted as an executive body directing the Assembly's business. It began with four permanent members—the [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland|United Kingdom]], [[France]], [[Italy]], and [[Japan]].

After some limited successes and failures during the 1920s, the League proved ineffective in the 1930s, as it failed to act against the [[Japanese invasion of Manchuria]] in 1933. Forty nations voted for Japan to withdraw from [[Manchuria]] but Japan voted against it and walked out of the League instead of withdrawing from Manchuria.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.johndclare.net/EL5.htm|title=League of Nations and Manchuria invasion|website=www.johndclare.net|access-date=30 November 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181127143657/http://www.johndclare.net/EL5.htm|archive-date=27 November 2018|url-status=live}}</ref> It also failed to act against the [[Second Italo-Ethiopian War]], after the appeal for international intervention by [[Ethiopian Emperor]] [[Haile Selassie|Haile Selassie I]] at Geneva in 1936 went with no avail, including when calls for economic sanctions against Italy failed. Italy and other nations left the League.<ref>Nault, Derrick M., 'Haile Selassie, the League of Nations, and Human Rights Diplomacy', Africa and the Shaping of International Human Rights (Oxford, 2020; online edn, Oxford Academic, 21 January 2021), https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198859628.003.0004,</ref>

When [[Causes of World War II|war broke out in 1939]], the League effectively closed down.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://johndclare.net/league_of_nations8.htm|title=Why the League failed|website=johndclare.net|access-date=3 December 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180803231709/http://johndclare.net/league_of_nations8.htm|archive-date=3 August 2018|url-status=live}}</ref>