The Green Papers Worldwide
Independent Nation-States

Note

Sorting the dates of United Nations and/or League membership will not yield all the countries which have been members of those organizations. Sorting will only yield the chronological order of current members of the United Nations or still-existing countries that were once members of the League. For a complete list of current and no longer existing Nation-States which are or were once members of each organization, follow the links to the "Historical Rosters" at the bottom of this page.

UNITED NATIONS

*) indicates those countries that were signatories of the United Nations Charter (all belligerents in World War II on the side of the so-called "Allies" [opposed to the so-called "Axis" during that war]) at the close of the Conference on International Organization in San Francisco on 26 June 1945 (with the exception of POLAND, which formally signed the Charter on 15 October 1945) who actually brought the United Nations into being through their subsequent ratifications of that Charter.

The UN was to come into formal existence when all 5 Permanent Members of the UN Security Council (CHINA, Republic of; FRANCE; the UNION OF SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLICS; the UNITED KINGDOM [BRITAIN]; the UNITED STATES [of AMERICA]) plus one more than half of the remaining 46 UN Charter signatories (that is, 24 "non-permanent" members) had formally ratified the United Nations Charter via their own respective constitutional procedures for ratifying treaties and thereafter deposited the instruments of (in other words, documents officially certifying) such ratifications according to the terms of the UN Charter-- this, therefore, meant that a minimum of 29 Member States (so long as this at least 29 included all 5 Permanent Members) needed to ratify the UN Charter in order for the United Nations to formally come into being.

This 5 + 24 ratification requirement was met on 24 October 1945 and, on that date, the United Nations- as an organization- was born. All 29 Member States which formally ratified the Charter by that date are considered Original Member States of the UN and officially date their membership in that organization from that date; however, in the chart above, the date given for these countries is that of the formal deposit of their ratifications of the Charter with the organization.

#) indicates those countries that were signatories of the United Nations Charter (all belligerents in World War II on the side of the so-called "Allies" [opposed to the so-called "Axis" during that war]) at the close of the Conference on International Organization in San Francisco on 26 June 1945 who ratified the Charter after the UN had formally come into existence on 24 October 1945.

While also considered Original Member States of the UN, these 22 countries date their official membership in that organization as the date of the formal deposit of their ratifications of the Charter with the organization, which is the date given in the chart above for these countries.

LEAGUE OF NATIONS

*) indicates those countries that were considered to be Original Member States of the League of Nations. The date given in the table for these Original League Member States is that of the deposit of their declarations of accession to the Covenant of the League of Nations (adopted 28 April 1919) with the organization, which formally came into existence upon the effective date of the post-World War I Treaty of Versailles signed on 28 June 1919 (to which the Covenant of the League of Nations was appended), that effective date being 10 January 1920. The date of said deposit is that given in the chart above for these 42 countries.

#) in addition, 13 of the 42 Original Member States of the League of Nations were Neutrals (countries that had been non-belligerents during World War I) which, as a result of their status, were not signatories to the Treaty of Versailles on 28 June 1919 but which were specifically invited to accede to the Covenant of the League in the Annex to the Covenant. In order to be considered Original Member States of the League, these Neutrals had to deposit their declarations of accession to the Covenant no later than two months after the formal coming into existence of the League(that is, no later than 10 March 1920).

[The remaining 29 Original Member States of the League (all belligerents in World War I on the side of the so-called "Allies and Associated Powers" [opposed to the so-called "Central Powers" during that war]) were considered to be Original Member States because they declared their accession to the Covenant of the League prior to the close of the First Session of the League Assembly on 18 December 1920... three signatories of the Treaty of Versailles- ECUADOR, the HEJAZ and the UNITED STATES of AMERICA (all belligerents in World War I on the side of the "Allies and Associated Powers")- failed to accede to the Covenant of the League of Nations and, therefore, were not considered to be Original Member States of the League even though they were named in the Annex to the Covenant. (Only one of these three- ECUADOR- would even subsequently join the League.)]