Abstract
Before the euphoria engendered by the Locarno meetings had time to fade, another episode heightened the illusion that peace had arrived and that henceforth conciliation would reign. Scarcely a week after Locarno concluded, skirmishes on the Greco-Bulgarian frontier erupted into a Greek military invasion of Bulgaria, who appealed to the League of Nations. Ensuing events gave the League a much-needed but illusory success.
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Notes and References
On this episode, see James Barros, The League of Nations and the Great Powers: The Greek -Bulgarian Incident, 1925 (Oxford, 1970).
Stephen Bonsal, Unfinished Business (Garden City, NY, 1944) p. 26.
Cf. Stresemann, Diaries, III, pp. 17–26, Suarez, VI, pp. 219–27, and the fuller, less tactful version of Stresemann’s account in AA, T-120, 7332H/3146/H162515–29. The French version is inaccurate, Briand having much exceeded his instructions, for Poincaré opposed any territorial quid pro quo. Stresemann’s fuller version is probably essentially accurate in most particulars–with a bit of spin. Jacques Bariéty, ‘Finances et relations internationales: à propos du “plan de Thoiry”; septembre 1926’, Relations Internationales 21 (1980) 51–70, especially 65–9.
On the Belgian and Polish crises, see Richard H. Meyer, Bankers’ Diplomacy (New York, 1970).
On Stresemann’s eastern manoeuvres, see Robert Mark Spaulding, ‘The Political Economy of German Frontiers, 1918, 1945, 1990’, in Christian Baechler and Carole Fink (eds), The Establishment of European Frontiers after the Two World Wars (Bern, 1996), pp. 229–48.
On the French situation, see Jon Jacobson, Locarno Diplomacy (Princeton, NJ, 1972), pp. 84–90. While inclining habitually to Stresemann’s view, Jacobson provides a valuable study of the period 1926–9.
See Ervin Hexner, The International Steel Cartel (Chapel Hill, NC, 1943).
On Coudenhove-Kalergi and the pan-European movement, see Carl H. Pegg, Evolution of the European Idea, 1914–1933 (Chapel Hill, NC, 1983).
On Franco-Italian relations from the French side, see William I. Shorrock, From Ally to Enemy: The Enigma of Fascist Italy in French Diplomacy, 1920–1940 (Kent, OH, 1988).
For France’s relations with the Little Entente and Poland, see Piotr Wandycz, The Twilight of French Eastern Alliances, 1926–36 (Princeton, NJ, 1988).
On Mussolini’s east European revisionism, see H. James Burgwyn, Italian Foreign Policy in the Interwar Period, 1918–1940 (Westport, CT, 1997) especially pp. 35–41, 51–5.
The negotiations may be traced in DBFP, Series IA, III. On Anglo-American naval policy in general and the Geneva conference in particular, see S. W. Roskill, Naval Policy between the Wars, 2 vols (London, 1968; Annapolis MD, 1976) I.
R. H. Ferrell, The American Secretaries of State and their Diplomacy, XI: Frank B. Kellogg, Henry L. Stimson (New York, 1963) pp. 171–2.
See DIA, 1930, for texts. The negotiations may be traced in DBFP, Second Series, I. A good account of the London conference may be found in David Carlton, MacDonald versus Henderson (New York, 1970) ch. 6.
J. Korbel, Poland between East and West (Princeton, NJ, 1963), p. 223.
The negotiations may be traced in Cmd. 3109 (1928) and Cmd. 3153 (1928). For final text, see Cmd. 3410 (1929) or DIA, 1928. The leading study is R. H. Ferrell, Peace in their Time (New Haven, CT, 1952).
For French policy, see Philipp Heyde, ‘Frankreich und das Ende der Reparationen’, Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte XLVIII (2000) 37–73.
The handiest compendium, containing background, text, analysis, account of subsequent events through the Hague Conferences, and conference documents, is Denys P. Myers, The Reparations Settlement (Boston, 1929 [1930]).
David Carlton, MacDonald versus Henderson: The Foreign Policy of the Second Labour Government (New York, 1970) provides a clear narrative of both the Labour government’s response to the Young Plan (ch. 2) and the restoration of relations with Russia (ch. 7).
Though erratic, Cornelia Navari, ‘The Origins of the Briand Plan’, Diplomacy and Statecraft III (1992) 74–104 provides information on this topic and its links to the pan- European movement, business interests and fears of American economic dominance.
For details, see Nicholls, pp. 100–01, or K. D. Bracher, The German Dictatorship (New York, 1970) pp. 160–2.
John Hiden, Republican and Fascist Germany (London, 1996) p. 27.
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© 2003 Sally Marks
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Marks, S. (2003). The Years of Illusion. In: The Illusion of Peace. The Making of the 20th Century. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-230-62949-3_4
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