In 1929 the German foreign minister Gustav Stresemann proposed that France, Germany and Belgium should recognize as permanent their frontiers that was agreed at Versallies. This included the promise not to send German troops into the Rhineland and the acceptance that Alsace-Lorraine was permantely part of France. The French foreign minister, Aristide Briand, agreed with Stressemann's proposals and signed the treaty. However, as Germany refused to guarantee its eastern frontiers France sought to give Poland and Czechoslovakia they security they required by signing treaties with them.

The Treaty of Locarno was signed in October 1925. This enabled Germany to be admitted to the League of Nations. However, Adolf Hitler tore up the treaty when he sent in the German Army into the Rhineland in 1936.

A cartoon by David Low showing Aristide Briand, Austin Chamberlain
and Gustav Stresemann signing the Locarno Treaty (1925)