Editing League of Nations (section)

==Membership==
{{See also|Member states of the League of Nations}}
[[File:LN member states animation.gif|thumb|upright=1.6|right|A map of the world in 1920–45, which shows the League of Nations members during its history]]

The League consisted of 42 founding members in November 1920. Six other states joined in its founding year (by December 1920), and seven more joined by September 1924, bringing the League's size to 55. Costa Rica withdrew in December 1924, making it the member to have most quickly withdrawn, and Brazil became the first founding member to withdraw in June 1926. Germany (under the [[Weimar Republic]]) was admitted to the League of Nations through a resolution passed on 8 September 1926.<ref>{{cite web|title=Chronology of the League of Nations|publisher=United Nations Office at Geneva|access-date=9 October 2018|url=https://www.unog.ch/80256EDD006B8954/%28httpAssets%29/3DA94AAFEB9E8E76C1256F340047BB52/$file/sdn_chronology.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170525212944/http://www.unog.ch/80256EDD006B8954/(httpAssets)/3DA94AAFEB9E8E76C1256F340047BB52/$file/sdn_chronology.pdf|archive-date=25 May 2017|url-status=live}}</ref> The League's size remained at 54 for the next five years.

Through the first half of the 1930s, six more states joined, including [[Iraq]] in 1932 (newly independent from a [[League of Nations mandate]]){{sfn|Tripp|2002|p=75}} and the Soviet Union on 18 September 1934,{{sfn|Scott|1973|pp=312, 398}} but the Empire of Japan and Germany (under Hitler) withdrew in 1933. This marked the League's largest extent at 58 member states.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.indiana.edu/~league/nationalmember.htm|publisher=University of Indiana|access-date=15 September 2011|title=National Membership of the League of Nations|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110909020709/http://www.indiana.edu/~league/nationalmember.htm|archive-date=9 September 2011|url-status=live}}</ref>

In December 1920, Argentina quit (being absent from all sessions and votes) without formally withdrawing, on rejection of an Argentine resolution that all sovereign states would be admitted to the League.<ref name=Argentina>[http://www.bartleby.com/67/2242.html South America] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080510160203/http://www.bartleby.com/67/2242.html |date=10 May 2008 }}, Encyclopedia of World History</ref> It resumed its participation in September 1933.<ref name=Chronology>[http://www.unog.ch/80256EDD006B8954/(httpAssets)/3DA94AAFEB9E8E76C1256F340047BB52/$file/sdn_chronology.pdf League of Nations chronology], [[United Nations]]</ref>

The League's membership declined through the second half of the 1930s as it weakened. Between 1935 and the start of World War II in Europe in September 1939, only Egypt joined (becoming the last state to join), 11 members left, and 3 members ceased to exist or fell under military occupation (Ethiopia, Austria, and Czechoslovakia). The Soviet Union was expelled on 14 December 1939{{sfn|Scott|1973|pp=312, 398}} for [[Winter War|invading Finland]], as one of the last acts of the League before it ceased functioning.