Historians traditionally blame the failure of the League of Nations — the post-World War I, Versailles-era dream of President Woodrow Wilson — on many things.

Its membership was small (58 nations). The League’s utopian rhetoric lacked commensurate force.

The postwar ascendant United States refused to join.

The winners of World War I, like France and Britain, were terrified of rearming, while the losers, such as Germany and Austria, were eager to.

Consequently, the League in the mid-1930s allowed fascist powers to make a mockery of the Versailles Treaty. It could never even enforce its own embargoes and sanctions.

Without big-power backup, the League soon watched the Axis powers prey on weak nations and start another world war.

In response, the post-World War II United Nations was s

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