Nine

Latin America Latin America or * french: Amérique Latine, link=no * ht, Amerik Latin, link=no * pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived f ...

n nations became charter members of the

League of Nations The League of Nations (french: link=no, Société des Nations ) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference that ...

when it was founded in 1919. The number grew to fifteen states by the time the first League Assembly met in 1920 and later, several others joined in the decade that followed. Although only

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

had any participation in

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

(and a minor role at that), these nations supported the idealistic principles of the League and felt it offered some measure of juridical protection from the interventionist policies of the United States in the period between the

Spanish–American War , partof = the Philippine Revolution, the decolonization of the Americas, and the Cuban War of Independence , image = Collage infobox for Spanish-American War.jpg , image_size = 300px , caption = (cloc ...

(1898) and the proclamation of the non-interventionist

Good Neighbor Policy The Good Neighbor policy ( ) was the foreign policy of the administration of United States President Franklin Roosevelt towards Latin America. Although the policy was implemented by the Roosevelt administration, President Woodrow Wilson had prev ...

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...

in 1933. Latin American nations also felt that being members of the League would bring prestige and notoriety to Latin America. All twenty Latin American countries were members of the League at one point, yet they were never all members at the same time. To guarantee Latin American representatives in the Assembly and Council, an unofficial bloc was established early on. This movement, in turn led to the creation of a special Latin American Liaison Bureau. Latin American delegates emphasized their contributions and hopes for world peace which eventually would anticipate their actions in the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoniz ...

. The Latin American nations became increasingly disillusioned with the League in the 1920s. This was partly due to the failure of the United States to join the League, and partly because the major powers in the League paid little attention to Latin America's problems. The League did have some role in two conflicts in South America in the 1930s: the Leticia dispute between Colombia and Peru, and the

Chaco War The Chaco War ( es, link=no, Guerra del Chaco, gn, Cháko Ñorairõ

References

Literature

* Atkins, G. Pope, ''Latin America and the Caribbean in the International System''. Boulder (CO): Westview Press, 1999. * Fischer, Thomas, ''Die Souveränität der Schwachen. Lateinamerika und der Völkerbund, 1920–1936''. Stuttgart: Steiner, 2012. * Tenenbaum, Barbara, ed., ''Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture''. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1996, 5 volumes, p. 395. * Walters, F. P., ''A History of the League of Nations'', Oxford University Press, 833 pages, 1952
Freely available on the site of the United Nations Office in Geneva.
Latin America League of Nations {{history-stub