US in the League of nations

Don’t know if this has ever been done before. If so, me apologies: what if the USA did join the League of Nations? Let’s say that President Wilson wins the debate against, specially, the opposition of Senator Henry Lodge and the US Congress approves the entrance of the United States to the new international organization.

What kind of butterflies are the most probable? Even considering a US not willing to engage in conflicts outside the Western Hemisphere (in spite of their isolationist stance, the US of more than willing to meddle in the internal affairs of their southern neighbours during this time period) their mere presence in the League will surely affect international events...
 

yourworstnightmare

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Well, with the US in LoN we'll see a nice little boost to the League. Perhaps the US could convince France and Britain to allow Weimar Germany to enter the League earlier. Is an American Mandate possible?
 

mowque

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Doubt it would really help anything. American did plenty of its own treaties and such (Kellogg, Washington Naval treaty) and it never held up in the real world. Same with the League, I think.
 
Where would the US get a mandate though? Everything is basically outside of her sphere of influence.

Well, notably there are some indications that the British tried to dump Palestine on the US as a mandate when it got too hot for them. I guess they could probably also take German New Guinea, and maybe Tsingtao.
 

Thande

Donor
Well, notably there are some indications that the British tried to dump Palestine on the US as a mandate when it got too hot for them.

This I would love to see in a TL. And the US thinks they have problems with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in OTL!
 
This I would love to see in a TL. And the US thinks they have problems with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in OTL!

I'll take some time off of my other nascent TL (a redux of my poorly planned and implemented "Land, as Promised") and try and consider this. The problem is, I have no idea how the US would handle the Jewish immigration thing. On the one hand, the Zionist lobby in the US is much stronger than in the UK, but on the other, a large number of American politicians were very much for the realpolitik that said that not pissing off the Arabs was more important than pleasing the Jews. But if we're honest, everything the British did IRL pissed off the Arabs anyway, so it's possible the US would have just said "screw it!"...

Hmm. This requires more thought and reading.
 
This I would love to see in a TL. And the US thinks they have problems with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in OTL!

Shameless plug: It's in the ASB TL in my sig, if that's any consolation :D

edit: And the League in my TL is far, far from perfect. I've been meaning to address the situation in Palestine for quite a while, and hopefully I'll get to it soon.
 
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I love that no one considers for even a moment that U.S. participation in the League might have made things worse and not better.
 

yourworstnightmare

Banned
Donor
I love that no one considers for even a moment that U.S. participation in the League might have made things worse and not better.
It would probably not have made much difference in Europe. The Vilnius crisis will probably go as OTL, as will other border conflicts in Eastern Europe and Southern Europe. The League usually just accepted the facts on the ground (and if the League couldn't really solve issues between small nations, just wait til the big boys get involved). We would probably see some stronger American condemnations on Italy during the Abyssinian war.

I know too little about Latin America to know if US League membership would made any difference on the Chaco war.
 
It would probably not have made much difference in Europe. The Vilnius crisis will probably go as OTL, as will other border conflicts in Eastern Europe and Southern Europe. The League usually just accepted the facts on the ground (and if the League couldn't really solve issues between small nations, just wait til the big boys get involved). We would probably see some stronger American condemnations on Italy during the Abyssinian war.

I know too little about Latin America to know if US League membership would made any difference on the Chaco war.

I think the Ethiopian crisis is the first time in which we'd see a real difference. I suspect that the United States would be vehemently against allowing one League member to conquer another.
 

yourworstnightmare

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Donor
I think the Ethiopian crisis is the first time in which we'd see a real difference. I suspect that the United States would be vehemently against allowing one League member to conquer another.
On the other hand the Italian propaganda that they are conquering a pariah state that create anarchy in Africa and allow slavery might kick in.
 
Well, notably there are some indications that the British tried to dump Palestine on the US as a mandate when it got too hot for them. I guess they could probably also take German New Guinea, and maybe Tsingtao.
Well that would make Billy Hughes throw a fit.
 
On the other hand the Italian propaganda that they are conquering a pariah state that create anarchy in Africa and allow slavery might kick in.

Propaganda or not, I suspect that the U.S. would see the issue in absolute terms as one member trying to conquer another, thereby violating the entire purpose of the League.
 
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