Diplomacy outside the League

• The Locarno Treaties

  • 1925
  • In the early 1920s the relationship between Germany and France was still very hostile; France was rebuilding after being ravaged by war and Germany was rebuilding after the Treaty of Versailles left the country devastated at the insistence of France
  • France had even invaded Germany when it had failed to make a reparations payment in 1923
  • Things couldn't continue like this and in 1925 the German foreign minister, Gustav Stresemann, invited the French foreign minister, Aristide Briand, to meet and sign a treaty to help improve relations between the two old enemies
  • Germany was the country that suggested the Locarno Treaties, and since they were not a member of the League of Nations, the meetings were organised independently
• The Locarno Treaties pt. 2

  • French and German representatives met in Locarno, Switzerland, where they signed seven treaties in which Germany officially accepted the borders that the Treaty of Versailles had defined, giving up any claim they had on areas such as Alsace Lorraine
  • They also agreed to work together to try to settle disputes peacefully
  • The treaty was also signed by Britain, Italy, Belgium and Czechoslovakia
  • Each country agreed not to go to war with any of the others and that if one of the countries broke the treaty, they would support the country that was invaded
  • This was very significant for Germany which feared that the Treaty of Versailles had left them vulnerable to French attack
• The Locarno Treaties pt.3

  • The Locarno Treaties were extremely significant
  • Many felt they represented an end to German resentment of the Treaty of Versailles, and signed voluntarily, unlike the Diktat of 1919
  • Other countries saw this as Germany trying to become a peaceful nation, and relations improved so much that by 1926 Germany was allowed to join the League of Nations
  • However, some historians have said that this important treaty marked a failure for the League of Nations, which should have been at the forefront of any international agreements regarding peace, but had had nothing to do with it
• The Kellogg-Briand Pact


  • 1928
  • 65 countries met in Paris where they signed an agreement stating that they would not use war as a way to solve disputes
  • The first countries that were involved were Germany, France and the USA and since the USA was not a member of the League of Nations this agreement took place outside the League
  • Once again, individual countries acted independently of the League and made it look like it really was just a place for countries to air their problems, without being a place where a practical solution could be found