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Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Poland, and Czechoslovakia participated in the Locarno Conferences in Switzerland. These conferences opened up a possibility that the biggest threat to the tranquility of Europe, the ever existing hostility between France and Germany, might at last be extinguished. Austin Chamberlain of England, one of the leaders at Locarno, was accurate in calling it "the real dividing point between the years of war and the years of peace". He and the other two leaders at Locarno, Aristide Briand of France and Gustav Stresemann of Germany, were confident that these agreements would give way to an era of peace.

France and Germany wanted more security from each other. Through the Locarno treaties they were able to achieve this by setting Germany's Western border. A central aspect of the treaties was that Germany would not choose combat as a means of resolving differences with France or Belgium. Instead, they would use diplomatic measures in order to sort out their problems. In addition, the other countries would come without delay to the aid of the attacked country should this agreement ever be broken. The treaties would assure that the frontiers between Germany and France and between Germany and Belgium be kept.

France's safety was only modestly improved, however, because the other countries in the agreement would only come to its aid if the act committed against it was considered severe. Moreover, the agreement did not restrict the Eastern border.

The treaties gave way to a sense of global goodwill, known as the "spirit of Locarno". They also helped straighten the way for Germany's admission into the League of Nations the next year. Finally, Germany was being treated as a friendly nation by its enemies.

Soon after joining the League however, the "spirit of Locarno" ran into strong opposition in Germany and France and eventually dissolved completely. The Germans were upset that their borders were so restricted, and many felt that Locarno had brought disgrace and dishonor. France was opposed to it because they felt that they were not well enough protected from Germany. Though its ideals were good and its promises were hopeful, the Locarno treaties could not prevent World War II.

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, 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 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 contributing factor in decision of Józef Piłsudski to overthrow parliamentary democracy in Poland ^[4]. With regards to Locarno, Piłsudski would say "every honest Pole spits when he hear this word [Locarno]".

One notable exception from the Locarno arrangements was, however, the Soviet Union, which saw western détente as potentially deepening its own political isolation in Europe, in particular by detaching Germany from her own understanding with Moscow under the April 1922 Treaty of Rapallo..

The Locarno spirit did not survive the revival of German nationalism from 1930. Proposals in 1934 for an "eastern Locarno" pact securing Germany's eastern frontiers foundered on German opposition and on Poland's insistence that her eastern borders should be covered by any western guarantee of her borders. Germany formally repudiated her Locarno undertakings in sending troops into the demilitarized Rhineland on 7 March 1936.

In both 1925 and 1926 the Nobel Peace Prize was given to the lead negotiators of the treaty, going to Sir Austen Chamberlain in 1925 and jointly to Aristide Briand and Gustav Stresemann in 1926.

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After the " spirit of Locarno " in 1925, the prospects for peaceful resolution of European political problems were never again so bright. In that year, the combination of economic recovery and political cooperation - clearly manifested in the personal goodwill among the English, French, and German foreign ministers - suggested a Europe on the way to recovery in several domains. But the soon-following economic depression and its related political feature, the rise of the Nazis to power, altered the general European situation. One of the major reasons for German economic recovery was rearmament: the marketplace became the parade field.

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