The+'New+Era'+-hopes+for+peace+in+1929

= =
 * League Of Nations || an association of countries established in 1919 by the Treaty of Versailles to promote internationalcooperation and achieve international peace and security. It was powerless to stop Italian, German, and Japanese expansionism leading to World War II and was replaced by the United Nations in 1945 ||
 * Locarno Treaties || The Locarno Treaties were seven agreements negotiated at Locarno, Switzerland on 5 October - 16 October 1925 and formally signed in London on December 1 ||
 * Kellogg-Briand Pact || The Kellogg–Briand Pact (also called the Pact of Paris) was a multinational treaty that prohibited the use of war as "an instrument of national policy." ||
 * Treaty Of Versailles || a treaty signed in 1919 that brought a formal end to World War I. ||
 * reparations || the making of amends for a wrong one has done, by paying money to or otherwise helping those who have been wronged ||
 * pact || a formal agreement between individuals or parties ||

__**The Locarno Treaties**__ When World War I ended, the Treaty of Versailles was signed in Paris in 1919. In this treaty, the Germans lost land and were also required to make reparations of material goods and cash payments. Germany was not happy with this. They did not even want to sign the treaty at first, but were convinced because of threats from the Allied nations, England, France and Russia. The Locarno Treaties were meant to improve the awkward post-war situation by reaching compromises in order to help prevent future wars.

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 in Europe, the unfriendliness between France and Germany, might at last be gone. Austin Chamberlain of England, one of the leaders at Locarno 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. They sorted out their problems by talking and negotiating. In addition, the other countries would come to help if 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. The agreement did not restrict the Eastern border though.



Relations between the United States and France had died in the aftermath of World War I. A number of issues had driven the former allies apart, including: residual tensions from hard bargaining at Versailles the continuing effort of the U.S. to collect the full amount of war debts happened in France the embarrassment felt by France because of being given a lesser naval role at the Washington Conference in 1921 the recent failure, regretted by both nations, of the Geneva Conference in 1927. An effort was made by French foreign minister Aristide Briand to warm-up relations between the two former allies. The Coolidge government was not interested and offered no response. Secretary of State Frank B. Kellogg was neutral to the idea. A leader in this effort was Senator William E. Borah of Idaho, who secured the support of the National Grange, its petitions supporting the proposed agreement contained more than two million signatures and increased the pressure on the government. Kellogg began to see advantages in such an agreement, but required that the concept be expanded to encompass many nations. The Kellogg-Briand Pact was notable for the following: No enforcement mechanism was provided for changing the behavior of warring signatories. The agreement was interpreted by most of the signatories to permit “defensive” war. No expiration date was provided. No amending the agreement was included. The pact was signed in August 1928 by 15 nations. In the following months, more than 60 countries joined in this.
 * __Coolidge and Foreign Affairs (Kellogg-Briand Pact) (Pact of Paris)__**



__**League of Nations**__ The League of Nations came into being after the end of World War One. The League of Nation's task was simple - to ensure that war never broke out again. After the trouble caused by the Versailles Treaty, many looked to the League to bring stability to the world. America entered World War One in 1917. The country was horrified by the slaughter that had taken place in what was meant to be a civilised part of the world. The only way to avoid a repeat of such a disaster, was to create an international body whose sole purpose was to maintain world peace and which would sort out international disputes as and when they occurred. This would be the task of the League of Nations. After the devastation of the war, support for such a good idea was great.

__**The League Of Nations**__ The League of Nations was to be based in Geneva, Switzerland. This choice was natural as Switzerland was a neutral country and had not fought in World War One. No one could dispute this choice especially as an international organisation such as the Red Cross was already based in Switzerland. If a dispute did occur, the League could do three things: It could call on the states in dispute to sit down and discuss the problem in an orderly and peaceful manner. This would be done in the League’s Assembly, which was essentially the League’s parliament which would listen to disputes and come to a decision on how to proceed. If one nation was seen to be the offender, the League could introduce verbal sanctions, warning an aggressor nation that she would need to leave another nation's territory or face the consequences. If the states in dispute failed to listen to the Assembly’s decision, the League could introduce economic sanctions. This would be arranged by the League’s Council. The purpose of this sanction was to financially hit the aggressor nation so that they would have to do as the League required. The logic behind it was to push a nation towards bankruptcy, so that the people in that state would take out their anger on their government forcing them to accept the League’s decision. The League could order League members not to do any trade with a nation in an effort to bring that nation to stop. If this failed, the League could introduce physical sanctions. This meant that military force would be used to put into place the League’s decision. However, the League did not have a military force and no member of the League had to provide one under the terms of joining, unlike the current United Nations Therefore, it could not carry out any threats and any country defying its authority would have been very aware of this weakness. The only two countries in the League that could have provided any military might were Britain and France and both had been severely injured in World War One and could not provide the League with it. Also both Britain and France were not in a position to use their finances to pay for an expanded army as both were financially hit very hard by World War One. The League also had other weaknesses: America refused to join it. As America was the world’s most powerful nation, this was serious to the League. Germany was not allowed to join the League in 1919. As Germany had started the war, according to the Treaty of Versailles, one of it's punishments was that they were not considered to be a member of the international community and, therefore, was not invited to join. Russia was also not allowed to join as in 1917, because they had a communist government that generated fear in western Europe, and in 1918, the Russian royal family, the Romanovs, were murdered. Such a country could not be allowed to take its place in the League. Therefore, three of the world’s most powerful nations (potentially for Russia and Germany) played no part in supporting the League. The two most powerful members were Britain and France, both had suffered financially and militarily during the war and neither was enthusiastic to get involved in disputes that did not affect western Europe. Therefore, the League idea was to end war for good.

=**Analysis Question: What factors caused the Americans not to sign the Treaty?** = After World War One Europe was devastated and many cities were destroyed, so after the War, the Treaty Of Versailles was signed, officially ending the war. And with the war now over in Europe, the countries involved with the war also signed the League Of Nations stating this wouldn't happen again. If so, there will be consequences. Although America was for the League Of Nations they didn't join it because the war was mainly fought between Europe, and America helped their Allies by joining the war in 1917, and the war ended in 1918. So they joined the war to help their Allies but they joined in the last year of the war. So they didn't join because we weren't really a cause or part of the war, because it was really between the war torn Europe. And we didn't want to be part of a cause of a new war because of the League.