Locarno Treaties - Effect

Effect

The Locarno Treaties were regarded as the keystone of the improved western European diplomatic climate of 1924–1930, introducing a hope for international peace, typically called the "spirit of Locarno". This spirit was seen in Germany's admission to the League of Nations, the international organization established under the Versailles treaty to promote world peace and co-operation, and in the subsequent withdrawal (completed in June 1930) of Allied troops from Germany's western Rhineland.

In contrast, in Poland, the public humiliation received by Polish diplomats was one of contributing factors to the fall of the Grabski cabinet. Locarno contributed to the worsening of 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 the words of Józef Beck, "Germany was officially asked to attack the east, in return for peace in the west." The failure at Locarno may be also one of the contributory factors in the decision of Józef Piłsudski to return to power in Poland. With regard to Locarno, Piłsudski would say that "every honest Pole spits when he hears this word ". 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."

One notable exception from the Locarno arrangements was, however, the Soviet Union, which foresaw western détente as potentially deepening its own political isolation in Europe, in particular by detaching Germany from its own understanding with Moscow under the April 1922 Treaty of Rapallo. Political tensions also continued throughout the period in eastern Europe.

In both 1925 and 1926, the Nobel Peace Prize was given to the lead negotiators of the treaty, going to Sir Austen Chamberlain (with Charles Dawes) in 1925 and jointly to Aristide Briand and Gustav Stresemann in 1926. In 1930, after the death of Stresemann the year before, German politics became less cooperative again. In 1933, Hitler came to power; he believed in bilateral, not multilateral negotiations. Proposals in 1934 for an "eastern Locarno" pact securing Germany's eastern frontiers foundered on German opposition and on Poland's insistence that its eastern borders should be covered by any western guarantee of her borders. Germany formally repudiated its Locarno undertakings by sending troops into the demilitarized Rhineland on 7 March 1936.