Locarno Treaties

The Locarno Treaties were seven agreements negotiated in Locarno, Switzerland, during 5 to 16 October 1925 and formally signed in London on 1 December, in which the First World War Western European Allied powers and the new states of Central and Eastern Europe sought to secure the post-war territorial settlement, in return for normalising relations with the defeated German Reich (the Weimar Republic). It also stated that Germany would never go to war with the other countries. Locarno divided borders in Europe into two categories: western, which were guaranteed by the Locarno Treaties, and eastern borders of Germany with Poland, which were open for revision. German foreign minister Gustav Stresemann made his highest priority the restoration of German prestige and privileges as a leading European nation. Allied withdrawal from the northern zone of the Occupation of the Rhineland was originally scheduled for January 1925 in the Treaty of Versailles. However, France and Britain, citing Germany's lack of compliance with the disarmament provisions in the Treaty of Versailles, refused to withdraw in January 1925. Having realized that France deeply desired a British guarantee of its postwar borders, but that London was reluctant, Stresemann came up with a plan whereby all sides would get what they wanted: through a series of treaties that promised these guarantees. Upon hearing this proposal, British Foreign Minister Austen Chamberlain enthusiastically agreed. France realized that its occupation of the Ruhr had caused much financial and diplomatic damage. The foreign ministers then convened in the Swiss resort of Locarno in October 1925, where they came to an agreement on the treaties. The first treaty was the most critical: a mutual guarantee of the frontiers of Belgium, France, and Germany, guaranteed by Britain and Italy. The second and third treaties called for arbitration between Germany and Belgium, and Germany and France, regarding future disputes. The fourth and fifth were similar arbitration treaties between Germany and Poland, and Germany and Czechoslovakia.