IB History Golden Era Under Gustav Stresemann Key Definitions

An international agreement brokered by American banker Charles Dawes and accepted by Germany, France, and Britain in August 1924. It restructured Germany's reparations payments by introducing a new schedule of annual payments that began at low levels and increased gradually. More importantly, it arranged substantial American loans to Germany, which allowed the German economy to recover and pay reparations. The Dawes Plan ended the immediate Ruhr crisis and inaugurated the "Golden Twenties" of relative Weimar stability. However, it left Germany dependent on American capital, which flowed out rapidly when the Great Depression began in 1929.

A series of agreements signed at Locarno, Switzerland in October 1925, negotiated by Germany's Foreign Minister Gustav Stresemann, France's Aristide Briand, and Britain's Austen Chamberlain. The most important was the Rhineland Pact, by which Germany, France, Belgium, Britain, and Italy mutually guaranteed the western European borders established by the Treaty of Versailles. Germany also agreed to arbitration for disputes with its eastern neighbors (Poland and Czechoslovakia), though these eastern borders were not guaranteed in the same way. The Locarno Treaties represented Germany's reintegration into the international community and led to Stresemann and Briand winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 1926.