Editing League of Nations (section)

===Establishment===
{{multiple image| align=right| total_width=300
| image1=117-119 Piccadilly, October 2022.jpg
| image2=Lombard House, Mayfair, October 2022 03.jpg
| footer = During the creation phase in 1919–1920, the League's staff was temporarily established  in [[London]], at 117 Piccadilly (left) and Sunderland House (later known as Lombard House, on [[Curzon Street]]; right)<ref>{{citation|title=The Library of the League of Nations at Geneva |author=Muriel Hoppes |journal=The Library Quarterly |volume=31 |date=July 1961 |issue=3 |pages=257–268 |doi=10.1086/618894 |s2cid=147989167 |url=https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/618894 }}</ref>}}
[[File:Inter-Allied Women's Conference end.png|thumb|Participants of the Inter-Allied Women's Conference, 1919, "They got Equality for Women in the League of Nations"]]
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 | image1 = Salle de l'Horloge during the Paris Peace Conference.jpg
 | caption1 = The first meeting of the Council took place on 16 January 1920 in the Salle de l'Horloge at the seat of the [[French Ministry of Foreign Affairs]] at [[Quai d'Orsay]] in Paris.
 | image2 = No-nb bldsa 5c013.jpg
 | caption2 = The first meeting of the Assembly took place on 15 November 1920 at the [[Calvinium|Reformation Hall]] in Geneva.
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[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 102-00678, Genf.- Haus des Völkerbundrates.jpg|thumb|In 1924, the headquarters of the League in Geneva (formerly {{lang|fr|Hôtel National}}) was named "[[Palais Wilson]]" after Woodrow Wilson, credited as the "Founder of the League of Nations"]]

At the [[Paris Peace Conference, 1919|Paris Peace Conference]] in 1919, Wilson, Cecil and Smuts all put forward their draft proposals. After lengthy negotiations between the delegates, the [[Cecil Hurst|Hurst]]–[[David Hunter Miller|Miller]] draft was finally produced as a basis for the [[Covenant of the League of Nations|Covenant]].<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/draftingofcovena0000mill|url-access=registration|title=The drafting of the Covenant|author=David Hunter Miller|year=1969|publisher=Johnson Reprint Corp.}}</ref> After more negotiation and compromise, the delegates finally approved of the proposal to create the League of Nations ({{langx|fr|Société des Nations}}, {{langx|de|Völkerbund}}) on 25 January 1919.{{sfn|Magliveras|1999|p=8}} The final [[Covenant of the League of Nations]] was drafted by a special commission, and the League was established by Part I of the [[Treaty of Versailles]], signed on 28 June 1919.{{sfn|Magliveras|1999|pp=8–12}}{{sfn|Northedge|1986|pp=35–36}}

French women's rights advocates invited international feminists to participate in a parallel conference to the Paris Conference in hopes that they could gain permission to participate in the official conference.<ref name="Sydney Herald">{{cite news |title=Inter-Allied Women's Conference in Paris |url= https://www.newspapers.com/clip/13469530/the_sydney_morning_herald/ |access-date=31 August 2017 |newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald |date=23 May 1919 |page=5 |via=[[Newspapers.com]]|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20170901030613/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/13469530/the_sydney_morning_herald/ |archive-date=1 September 2017|url-status=live}} {{open access}}</ref> The [[Inter-Allied Women's Conference]] asked to be allowed to submit suggestions to the peace negotiations and commissions and were granted the right to sit on commissions dealing specifically with women and children.<ref>{{cite news |title=Women and the Peace Conference |url= https://www.newspapers.com/clip/13469815/women_and_the_peace_conference_the/ |access-date=31 August 2017 |newspaper=The Manchester Guardian |date=18 February 1919 |page=5 |via=[[Newspapers.com]] |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20170901031301/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/13469815/women_and_the_peace_conference_the/|archive-date=1 September 2017|url-status=live}} {{open access}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Drexel |first1=Constance |title=Women Gain Victory at Paris Conference |url= https://www.newspapers.com/clip/13469357/the_los_angeles_times/ |access-date=31 August 2017 |newspaper=Los Angeles Times |date=15 March 1919 |page=2 |via=[[Newspapers.com]] |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20170901031443/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/13469357/the_los_angeles_times/|archive-date=1 September 2017 |url-status=live}} {{open access}}</ref> Though they asked for enfranchisement and full legal protection under the law equal with men,<ref name="Sydney Herald"/> those rights were ignored.{{sfn|Wiltsher|1985|pp=200–202}} Women won the right to serve in all capacities, including as staff or delegates in the League of Nations organisation.{{sfn|Meyer|Prügl|1999|p=20}} They also won a declaration that member nations should prevent [[Human trafficking|trafficking]] of women and children and should equally support humane conditions for children, women and men labourers.{{sfn|Pietilä|1999|p=2}} At the [[Zürich]] Peace Conference held between 17 and 19 May 1919, the women of the WILPF condemned the terms of the [[Treaty of Versailles]] for both its punitive measures, as well as its failure to provide for condemnation of violence and exclusion of women from civil and political participation.{{sfn|Wiltsher|1985|pp=200–202}} Upon reading the Rules of Procedure for the League of Nations, [[Catherine Marshall (suffragette)|Catherine Marshall]], a British suffragist, discovered that the guidelines were completely undemocratic and they were modified based on her suggestion.{{sfn|Wiltsher|1985|p=212}}

The League would be made up of a Assembly (representing all member states), a Council (with membership limited to major powers), and a permanent Secretariat. Member states were expected to "respect and preserve as against external aggression" the territorial integrity of other members and to [[Disarmament|disarm]] "to the lowest point consistent with domestic safety." All states were required to submit complaints for [[arbitration]] or [[judicial inquiry]] before going to war.<ref name="northedge"/> The Council would create a [[Permanent Court of International Justice]] to make judgements on the disputes.

Despite Wilson's efforts to establish and promote the League, for which he was awarded the [[Nobel Peace Prize]] in October 1919,{{sfn|Levinovitz|Ringertz|2001|p=170}} the United States never joined. Senate Republicans led by [[Henry Cabot Lodge]] wanted a League with the reservation that only Congress could take the U.S. into war. Lodge gained a majority of Senators and Wilson refused to allow a compromise. The Senate voted on the ratification on 19 March 1920, and the 49–35 vote fell short of the [[Treaty Clause|needed 2/3 majority]].<ref>{{Cite journal |jstor = 985951|title = Henry Cabot Lodge and the League of Nations|journal = Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society|volume = 114|issue = 4|pages = 245–255|last1 = Hewes|first1 = James E.|year = 1970}}</ref>

The League held its first council meeting in Paris on 16 January 1920, six days after the Versailles Treaty and the Covenant of the League of Nations came into force.{{sfn|Scott|1973|p=51}} On 1 November 1920, the headquarters of the League was moved from London to [[Geneva]], where the first General Assembly was held on 15 November 1920.{{sfn|Scott|1973|p=67}}<ref>[http://www.unog.ch/80256EDD006B8954/(httpAssets)/3DA94AAFEB9E8E76C1256F340047BB52/$file/sdn_chronology.pdf League of Nations Chronology] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150404121418/http://www.unog.ch/80256EDD006B8954/(httpAssets)/3DA94AAFEB9E8E76C1256F340047BB52/$file/sdn_chronology.pdf |date=4 April 2015 }}, The United Nations Office at Geneva</ref> Geneva made sense as an ideal city for the League, since Switzerland had been a neutral country for centuries and was already the headquarters for the International Red Cross. Its strong democracy and location in central Europe made it a good choice for the nations of the world. Support for Geneva as the selection came from Swiss Federal Councillor Gustave Ador and economist William Rappard.<ref>Marabello, Thomas Quinn (2023) "Challenges to Swiss Democracy: Neutrality, Napoleon, & Nationalism," ''Swiss American Historical Society Review'': Vol. 59, No. 2. Page 54–56. Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/sahs_review/vol59/iss2/5</ref> The [[Palais Wilson]] on Geneva's western lakeshore, named after Woodrow Wilson, was the League's first permanent home.

====Mission====
The covenant had ambiguities, as Carole Fink points out. There was not a good fit between Wilson's "revolutionary conception of the League as a solid replacement for a corrupt alliance system, a guardian of international order, and protector of small states," versus Lloyd George's desire for a "cheap, self-enforcing, peace, such as had been maintained by the old and more fluid Concert of Europe."<ref>Carole Fink, "The great powers in the new international system, 1919–1923," in Paul Kennedy and William I. Hitchcock, eds, ''From War to Peace'' (Yale University Press, 2000) pp  17 – 35 at page 24</ref>
Furthermore, the League, according to Carole Fink, was, "deliberately excluded from such great-power prerogatives as freedom of the seas and naval disarmament, the [[Monroe Doctrine]] and the internal affairs of the French and British empires, and inter-Allied debts and German reparations, not to mention the Allied intervention and the settlement of borders with Soviet Russia."<ref>Fink, p. 24</ref>

Although the United States never joined, unofficial observers became more and more involved, especially in the 1930s. American philanthropies became heavily involved, especially the [[Rockefeller Foundation]]. It made major grants designed to build up the technical expertise of the League staff. Ludovic Tournès argues that by the 1930s the foundations had changed the League from a "Parliament of Nations" to a modern think tank that used specialised expertise to provide an in-depth impartial analysis of international issues.<ref>{{Cite journal |doi=10.1057/s41311-017-0110-4|title=American membership of the League of Nations: US philanthropy and the transformation of an intergovernmental organisation into a think tank |year=2018 |last1=Tournès |first1=Ludovic |journal=International Politics |volume=55 |issue=6 |pages=852–869 |s2cid=149155486 }}</ref>