The Locarno Pacts, 1925: In October representatives from France, Britain, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Poland and Czechoslovakia met in Locarno in Switzerland. They negotiated for a long time and Germany finally accepted the borders with France and Belgium that were laid out in the Treaty Of Versailles. It also accepted that the Rhineland would remain a demilitarised zone.
Kellogg-Briand Pact (Pact of Paris) 1928: it was marked the high point of international relations in the 1920s. In 1926 Germany signed a Treaty of Neutrality with the USSR. This worried the French. In April 1927 Briand appealed to the US Secretary of State, F.B. Kellogg for assistance. A nine power conference met in Paris in August 1928 and eventually 65 nations signed a pact that outlawed war unless a nation acted in self-defence.
Eastern-Pact
The USSR signed the Eastern Pact with six of its neighbouring states agreeing not to use war to settle disputes among themselves. A number of pacts of friendship were made between countries which had recently been in dispute with each other. Greece and Yugoslavia, Chile and Peru, Arabia and Turkey, Iran and Iraq, all settled long standing disputes in 1929
Changes to reparations:
a. Dawes Plan 1924 Germany fell behind in reparation payments to France, so in January 1923, France occupied the Ruhr valley (on the Franco-Germany Rhineland border). France’s intention was to take reparations in the form of coal. France only withdrew her troops after the Dawes Plan was drawn up. Germany still had the same amount to pay in reparations, but received a loan of ฃ40 million and payments were phased in steps: ฃ50 million in the first year, building up to ฃ125 million in the 5th year.
Effects
- The Ruhr was evacuated in July 1925.
- Germany was treated as an equal for the first time, and this paved the way for Locarno (1925) and Germany’s entry to the League (1926)
- Germany’s economy improved under Stresemann’s (died 1929)
Young Plan 1929
Stresemann appealed to the USA for further assistance in paying reparations (to update the Dawes Plan). The Young committee reduced Germany’s liability to 2,000 million pounds (about 1/3 of the original sum), to be paid over 59 years (i.e. Until 1988). It was to start in May 1930. Stresemann’s status as an international statesman grew, as did his popularity at home. The realistic sum to be paid by Germany promised well for future relations between Germany, France and Britain.
The Young Plan collapsed because in October 1929, the Wall Street Crash occurred in America, and this financial crisis spread to Germany, and then other European powers. Germany could not afford to pay reparations 1931-2, and Hitler refused to pay anything after 1933.
Despite the successes of borders disputes between the League’s members and economic recovery of all nations, the League failed to bring about Multilateral Disarmament.
The ‘Stresemann’s years’
While Hitler was in prison, the German government managed to improve the situation in the country. This led to a short period of almost normal life in Germany. The Weimar Germany from 1924-1929 is referred as the “ Golden Age of Weimar” As most of Germany’s problems were concerned with relations with other countries, the job of Foreign Minister was obviously important. For most of this period, this post was held by Gustav Stresemann, a very able diplomat.
At first, Stresemann was Chancellor, and in 1923introduced a new currency of retenmark. This brought inflation under control. French troops left the Ruhr. Germany industry began to pick up, and unemployment declined. had gone and buoyed by American loans, quickly found its economic feet again. In 1928, she had returned to her pre-1914 figures with regards to industrial production. More realistic payments of reparations, confidence restored in foreign investors, house and factory building, and an expanding job market were all signs of a country getting its old strength back again. Berlin became the capital city for those with money to visit. Josephine Baker resided here during the good years. She was one of the most famous female entertainers in the world. Berlin’s night life during 1924 to 1929 was legendary with night clubs providing shows which no other European capital would dare to put on.
greatest achievement was restoring Germany back into the international community. In 1925, he signed with France and Belgium the Locarno Treaties in which each country recognised each others borders as they stood in 1925. This infuriated the Nazi Party and other right wing parties as it meant that it formally recognised the territorial part of the - however, in 1925, their complaints went unheard. Most Germans were ecstatic about the new found relationship with the country that had invaded her in 1922 - France. As a result of this new found friendship, France sponsored Germany’s application to join the which she duly did in 1926.All this apparent peace and stability was to change with the world wide impact of the October 1929 in .
However, the economic boom was precarious. The US loans could be called in at short notice, which could ruin Germany. The people that benefited the boom were the upper class population which controlled bout half of Germany’s industrial production. Despite this, the peasant farmers and sections of the middle classes found themselves overproducing. These people began to feel that the Weimar government offered them little.
The Weimar culture was colourful and exciting. However, , in many of German ‘s villages or country towns, the culture of the cities seemed to represent a moral decline, made worse by American immigrants and Jewish artists and musician. Nationalists attacked Stresemann for joining the league and for singing the Locarno Pact, seeing it as an acceptance of the Treaty of Versailles. Communists also attacked the Locarno; see it as a plot against the communist government in the USSR. Germany was still a troubled place.
Modern Lifestyle
The causes of The Great Depression
The introduction of new technology increased food production in Europe, Australia and America, but the demand for food stayed the same. This led to falling food prices, and forced many farmers out of business.
An international economic crisis was also made more likely by the imbalance in world trade. The problem was that the USA was exporting more goods than it was importing. The countries would buy US goods often borrowed from US banks and pay for them. This meant that any collapse in the US economy would be felt all over the world.
Another reason for the imbalance was that the old industrial countries such as Britain and France were producing goods made from steel and cotton, which other countries bought in the same quantities. Electrical goods, chemicals and cars had replaced them as the most popular imports. In the 1920s, people wanted electrical goods, like vacuum cleaner.
By 1929 he Wall Street crash in the USA and the great depression hit the world. It affected almost every economy in the world. Australia, Austria, Poland, Canada, Latin America and the Netherlands were all severely hit.
In Europe, the development of motor vehicles was initially driven by the concern for their military potential, with Germany and France keen rivalry. Britain was content to rely on foreign imports to provide what was, at first seen as being an expensive toy for the rich. Motor taxis and buses almost completely replaced horse-drawn vehicles in London for passengers.
The rise of fascism In the early 1920s, fascists fought communists in industrial disputes, and gained popular support, in October 1922, fascists marched to Rome, where they forced the king, Victor Emmanuel III, to make Mussolini prime minister.
Mussolini soon built up a dictatorship. He passes the Acerbo Laws, giving his party more seats in parliament, and used violence against his opponents. In 1926, he banned new political parties and declared the parliament was to be made up from list of candidates drawn up by him. The fascists controlled all levels of society. Workers and bosses were forced to join the union run by them. A major plan of public works was put into action, in the hope that it would lead to economic recovery.
Mussolini claimed that he would make Italy strong and powerful. Fascism was seen as protection against communism, and so was especially appealing to the most powerful group in Italy: the industrialists and the Catholic Church.
IN THE USA
In this decade, America became the wealthiest country in the world with no obvious rival. Yet by 1930 she had hit a depression that was to have world-wide consequences. But in the good times everybody seemed to have a reasonably well paid job and everybody seemed to have a lot of spare cash to spend. Hire-purchase was easy to get and people got into debt without any real planning for the future. In the it just seemed to be the case that if you wanted something then you got it. But simply buying something had a major economic impact. Somebody had to make what was bought. This was the era before robot technology and most work was labour. The person who made that product would get paid and he (as it usually was in the ) would not save all that money. He, too, would spend some of it and someone somewhere else would have to make that and so he would get paid. And so the cycle continued. This was the money flow belief of John Maynard Keynes. If people were spending, then people had to be employed to make things. They get paid, spent their money and so the cycle continued.
A good example was the motor car industry. The 3 big producers were Ford, Chrysler and General Motors.
A boom in the car industry came from Ford’s with the legendary
Ford Model -T.
This was a car for the people. It was cheap; mass production had dropped its price to just $295 in 1928. The same car had cost $1200 in 1909. By 1928, just about 20% of all Americans had cars. The impact of Ford meant that others had to produce their own cheap car to compete. The benefits went to the consumer. Hire-purchase made cars such as these very affordable. But there were major spin-offs from this one industry as 20% of all American steel went to the car industry; 80% of all rubber; 75% of all plate glass and 65% of all leather. 7 billion gallons of petrol were used each year and, of course, motels, garages, restaurants etc. all sprung up and all these outlets employed people and these people got paid. Not only were cars popular. Radios (10 million sold by 1929), hoover’s, fridge’s and telephones sold in huge numbers. By 1928 even the president, Hoover, was claiming that America had all but rid itself of poverty. The nation was fulfilling a previous president's pronouncement: "The business is America is business" - Calvin Coolidge.
