Excluding Revolutionary States: Russia, Mexico and the League of Nations

Abstract

In his opening address at the Paris Peace Conference, the president of France welcomed the assembled nations and introduced the idea of the League of Nations with stirring words. With these phrases the president spoke of the Allied Powers’ plan to establish a new organisation – one based on the principles of universality and freedom. Nevertheless, while this association would not ‘shut out anybody’, it was clear that the terms of its creation would be dictated by a limited group – the delegates of the states who would constitute the Commission on the League of Nations.