Member states of the League of Nations

The League's greatest extent was from 28 September 1934 (when Ecuador joined) to February 1935 (when Paraguay withdrew) with 58 countries.

By then, only Costa Rica (December 1924), Brazil (June 1926), Japan (March 1933), and Germany (October 1933) had withdrawn, and only Egypt joined later (on 26 May 1937).

The Covenant of the League of Nations was part of the Treaty of Versailles, signed on 28 June 1919 between the Allies of World War I and Germany.

[3] All but three of the remaining signatories (the United States, Ecuador, and the Kingdom of Hejaz) had ratified by the time the Assembly first met on 15 November 1920.

It had refused to sign the Treaty of Versailles due to it giving the previously-German-controlled Shandong colony in China to the Empire of Japan.

In practice, a withdrawing country quit the League immediately, and was absent from all sessions and votes for the last two years of its formal membership.

However, it is unclear if abstentions or absences were permitted for expulsion votes (though it is undisputed that they were allowed for non-expulsion unanimous Council decisions).

The Soviet Union had already declared nine days earlier that it would be absent from the League until further notice; it acknowledged its expulsion[48] and made no move to challenge it on the disputed grounds.

[9] Some of the European microstates, namely Liechtenstein, Monaco, and San Marino, also applied for membership but were denied, explicitly due to their "small size".

[citation needed] Iceland was given the opportunity to join the League of Nations in 1920, but opted not to, primarily due to limited administrative resources.

[50] Some relatively-isolated sovereign states in Asia also did not join, including Bhutan, Nepal, and Yemen, at least in part due to having no diplomatic relations with the major powers.

[51] Several member states were occupied or annexed during World War II, during which the League was largely paralyzed and held no sessions or votes.

[54] During this last session, 35 out of 44 League members attended, with Albania, Bulgaria, Ethiopia, Iraq, Liberia, Thailand, and the Baltic states not present.