The spirit of Locarno

Did the agreements of the 1920’s make the world a safer place?
Washington 1921-1922
The USA had refused to support the League of Nation.America ignored the League and organised conferences of its own in
Washington in 1921 and 1922.The idea of the conferences was to try to limit tension in Pacfic Ocean between Japan and
USA.

The Washington conferences showed the world the limited of the authority of the League. Treaty of Washington was signed in
February 1922.The USA and Britain agreed to have navies of equal size. The Japanese navy was limited to three fifths of the
size of each of the USA and Britain navy. : 5:5:3
The outcasts club together:Rapallo 1922
The British Prime Minister Lloyd George , organized an international conference in Genoa in 1922.The idea was to
find a solution to the argument between Germany and France over the payment of reparations.The conference was
disastrous failure.The americans refuse to attend and disagreement between France and Germany continue.

Germany and Soviet Union had not been invited to join the League of Nations.While the main conference was
taking place in Genoa,the German delegation had discussions with the Soviets in the nearby town of Rapallo.

The two governments signed a treaty on april 16 1922.They agree to establish friendly relations and secretly agreed
to cooperate on military planning.This allowed the Germans to get hold of the most of the weapons banned under
the treaty of Versailles.
Locarno:1925
After the failure of the occupation of Ruhr,France looked for compromise with
Germany.In 1925 the three foreign ministers of Britain,Germany and France take part in
conferences in Locarno,Switzerland. The talks produces treaties that were greeted with
wild enthusiasm.Many people sow Locarno as an end of the bitterness of the war and the
start of a new period of peace.
Aristide Briand(France) Austen Chamberlain(Britain) and Gustav Stresemann(Germany)
won nobel prize for peace in 1925.
Locarno:1925
In September 1926 the German delegates took there place at League’s Assembly Hall in
Geneva.People saw this as a very historic and hopeful moment.The french leaders gave
the Germans an enthusiastic welcome speech. Locarno was seen as a symbol of a new
period of peace and stability.Some talked enthusiastically for the Spirit of Locarno.

Only some people in Britain were much more suspicious of the Locarno settlement.