Locarno Pact

Locarno Pact 1925, concluded at a conference held at Locarno, Switzerland, by representatives of Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, and Poland. The request of Gustav Stresemann for a mutual guarantee of the Rhineland met with the approval of Aristide Briand ; under the leadership of Briand, Stresemann, and Austen Chamberlain , a series of treaties of mutual guarantee and arbitration were signed. In the major treaty the powers individually and collectively guaranteed the common boundaries of Belgium, France, and Germany as specified in the Treaty of Versailles of 1919. Germany signed treaties with Poland and Czechoslovakia, agreeing to change the eastern borders of Germany by arbitration only. Germany also signed arbitration treaties with France and Belgium, and mutual defense pacts against possible German aggression were concluded between France and Poland and France and Czechoslovakia. As an adjunct, Germany was promised entry into the League of Nations. The "spirit of Locarno" symbolized hopes for an era of international peace and goodwill. In 1936, denouncing the Locarno Pact, Hitler remilitarized the Rhineland.

Locarno Pact (1925) Group of international agreements that attempted to solve problems of European security outstanding since the Treaty of Versailles of 1919. The pact established Germany's w borders and enabled Germany to enter the League of Nations. Adolf Hitler's violations of the Treaty of Versailles disturbed the general peace established at Locarno.

Locarno, Treaties of (1925) A series of international agreements discussed in October 1925, and signed in December, which greatly stabilized Europe. In the main agreement, Germany recognized its frontier with France and Belgium as specified in the Treaty of Versailles, along with the demilitarized status of the Rhineland. This treaty was guaranteed by the UK and Italy. Meanwhile, Germany agreed with Poland and Czechoslovakia that, although it did not regard its borders with them as settled, it would not seek to revise them by force. France also signed treaties of mutual guarantee with Poland and Czechoslovakia. In return for its pledges, Germany was admitted to the League of Nations as a permanent member of its council. The main figures at the Locarno Conference were Austen Chamberlain, Gustav Stresemann, and Aristide Briand, the latter two receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of the treaty in 1926.