THE LOCARNO TREATIES

VENUE: LOCARNO(HENCE THE NAME) SWITZERLAND

ON 5-16 1925
IT WAS SIGNED OFFICIALLY ON 1 DECEMBER 1925 IN LONDON
COUNTRIES INVOLVED TOGETHER WITH THE REASONS
FOR THE TREATIES

• Great Britain, France, Germany ,Italy , Belgium, Poland, and Czechoslovakia.

• The Locarno discussion arose from exchanges of notes between the British Empire.
• The Locarno Treaties were meant to improve this tense post-war situation by reaching compromises in
order to help prevent future wars from happening.
WHAT THE TREATIES WOULD ASSURE
• What were Locarno treaties meant to do ?
• -Prevent future wars
• How ?
• -By setting up the borders between Germany and France (western Border)
• Butttt , does France feel save enough ?
• -Nope
• Germany joined the LON ( =_=) ?
• -Yep, they were treated as a friendly country.
• did it stop the future war ?
• - Noooo Lah …
THE BRITISH ACTUALLY PROMOTED THE LOCARNO
TREATIES

• One of the main reasons Britain promoted the Locarno Pact of 1925 was because of the understanding
that if Franco-German relations improved, France would gradually abandon the Cordon sanitaire(france
alliance system).
• As if France were to abandon its allies in Eastern Europe, the Poles and Czechoslovaks, having no Great
Power to protect them from Germany, would be forced to adjust to German demands.
• In the British viewpoint this way, this promoted territorial revisionism in Eastern Europe in Germany’s
favour was one of the principal British objects of Locarno, making Locarno an early instance of
appeasement.
EFFECTS OF THE TREATIES

• The Locarno Treaties were regarded as the keystone of the improved western European diplomatic
climate of 1924–1930, introducing a hope for international peace . Germany's admission to the League
of Nations in 1926, the international organization established under the Versailles treaty to promote
world peace and co-operation.
• In contrast, in Poland Locarno contributed to the worsening of the atmosphere between Poland and
France (despite the French-Polish alliance), and introduced distrust between Poland and Western
countries. Locarno divided borders in Europe in two categories: those guaranteed by Locarno, and
others, which were free for revision.
IN BRIEF:SUMMARY
• In the words of Józef Beck(Polish Militant and Diplomat), "Germany was officially asked to attack the
east, in return for peace in the west.“
• It also did no favors to Poland [As Piłsudski would say that "every honest Pole spits when he hears this
word [Locarno]". Later, when a French ambassador assured him that France would always back Poland
and stand up to Germany, Piłsudski, foreseeing the appeasement, would say: "No, no, believe me, you
will back down, really, you will.“]

The treaty was, in some ways, a bluff by Austen Chamberlain(Britain's secretary at the time). He
announced publicly that Britain's defensive frontier was no longer the English Channel but on the Rhine.
However, British Chiefs of Staff privately informed him that Britain did not have sufficient military power
to back up the treaty.