Paper 1 Activity

• 1
  • a) Tell about the purpose of the Locarno Pact
    • to acknowledge and reaffirm the territorial boundaries among Belgium, Germany, and France set at Versailles.
    • to stop any occupation or fighting or prevent war among Belgium, Germany, and France
    • to lay out consequences and warn what will happen if Belgium, Germany, and France continue fighting. Create a third party arbiter to work out any issues that will arise.
  • b) what is the message portrayed by source c?
    • The Locarno Pact was the biggest obstacle to world peace, and France, Belgium, Germany, and Great Britain are gazing on peace.
    • Czechoslovakia and Poland which represent Eastern Locarno are still climbing on their way to Peace.
• 2
  • Source D uses some vague language to support their claims for example, "... and no thought of it in German hearts,"while Source E supports their claims using specific technological language: "He called Lacarno an 'armistice' and outlined the task for German foreign policy..."
  • Source D says that France should naturally fear what Germany might do when she recovers her strength, while Source D says that there was never a possibility of Germany going to war with France.
  • Both sources agree that the Western Locarno was supported, and the Eastern Locarno was left largely unsupported.
• 3
  • Source A
    • Origin: Primary Document from 1925, the text from the Locarno Treaty
    • Purpose: Illustrate terms and aims of first 3 Articles of Locarno
    • Limitation: Neutral Language of Multi party treaty
    • Value: Without bias it might be hard to discern motives of individual states; there is no analysis.
  • Source B
    • Origin: Secondary document from a German historian writing in London. Written about 10 years after Locarno
    • Purpose: to create an academic book that explains the motivations of Germany
    • Limitation: A German historian who may be sympathetic to the British. His last name causes me to speculate that the author is Jewish.
    • Value: Provides an interesting perspective after Locarno, but the Holocaust starts. Also, since its for a historical book its most likely as neutral as possible.
• 4 "Locarno resulted form a desire for peace on the part of the nations involved." Using the sources and your own pitiful knowledge, to what extent do you agree with this statement?
  • Though most countries in Europe 1925's motivation was to create and keep the peace at all costs, there were definitely other motives involved at Locarno:
    • The British as always were very concerned with the balance of power in Europe, and preferred to maintain an isolationist perspective.
    • France is extremely insecure at this time, and are trying to gain as much support from European countries in the case that German would start another war.
    • Since Belgium has territory at stake, they want to secure their borders and ensure that the conditions from Versailles remain.
    • Germany feels that Versailles has been incredibly harsh, and wants to redraw boundaries, and ultimately be respected enough to join the League of Nations.
    • Poland, like France, seeks security for the borders set between her and Germany during Versailles.
  • The language in the question suggests that the Locarno pact either 1. would stop immediate fighting, or 2. prevent a war in the near future. Since the war has obviously already ended, we can assume that a desire for peace means a desire to prevent further armed conflicts.
    • The French perspective of a war in the future is that German retaliation is inevitable. The French perspective is probably tainted by an irrational fear of revenge, which she had sought from Germany for so long. The French now fear the German version of revanchism, unleashed against them. The Polish have a more removed perspective on the issue since they aren't a part of the German/French rivalry. Their position is that war between France and Germany is impossible, since both nations are so devastated from total war production, which is true. Source B mentions that the Germans going to war with France would be "mad."
    • Given that there is no immediate fighting, and that the probability of another war due to the devastation of "The War," I conclude that all countries involved in Locarno were interested in advancing their own personal interests primarily, although in some cases personal interests may be keeping the peace.