Practice Paper 1:

1. a) The significance of the Locarno treaty, according to source E, demilitarized the Rhineland a hostile area of land. The Rhineland would be completely evacuated by 1930. It was a move towards peace. Germany was willing to agree to the terms, they also agreed to become part of the League of Nations, this is significant because Germany would have to run their plans by the League, hopefully avoid war.

b) Source B is depicting an agreement between Briand, Chamberlain, and Streseman. They are agreeing to strengthen the League of Nations, as well as creating alliances between the fellow members within the League.

2. Source B states that the Treaty of Locarno created security, this is because other larger countries will back up the smaller countries that mare being attacked, a sort of alliance within the League. It states that the Locarno Treaty is mainly concerned with peaceful settlements. It says that with both the Locarno and the Geneva an agreement was not far off.

Source C states that the treaty of Locarno was a defeat for France, they had wanted a renewed alliance with Britain. It states that a military alliance became unlikely between Britain and France. However, it also stated that the Treaty of Locarno helped to create more agreements between France and Britain.

Source B states that the Treaty created more of an alliance between nations while source C believed it was not an alliance but rather merely a frontier. Source B believed that if one country was attacked other countries would come to its aid because they were both members of the League of Nations, Source C states that this plan was simply "impractical". Source B believed that the treaty would lesson the hostilities and create a stronger military bond between Britain and France. However, source c stated the exact opposite. The two sources had almost opposite opinions on the Treaty of Locarno.

3. Source A is an extract from a speech by Gustav Stresemann, after the signing of the Treaty of Locarno on 16 October 1925. The purpose of the source is to justify the signing of the Treaty and to outline its importance in order to bring about peace in the world, and overall an agreement between nations. The value of this source is that Stresemann signed the Treaty of Locarno and he seemed to fully believe in his opinion, he was also alive during the time period so he had a better historical perspective. The limitation of this source is that is is bias, it only shows the perspective of pro treaty people, not the people against the treaty, nor the people who will have to live by the rules of the treaty.

Source C is an extract from the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office website. The purpose of the source is to outline their stance on the Treaty of Locarno and to show that is was not a large move towards world peace, its other purpose is to show that the terms of the treaty were unrealistic. The value of this source is that it represents a somewhat anti Treaty of Locarno point of view. The other value of this source is that is is distributed by important individuals in the British government. The limitation of the source is that it is bias and only shows an opinion that is partially against the Treaty of Locarno.

4. During the time when the Treaty of Locarno was created the world,especially Europe, was in a state of turmoil. The world was still experiencing the repercussion of World War One. The world went into a state of financial crisis.

Sources A, B, and E supports the opinion that the Treaty of Locarno was an important step towards world peace. Source C however stated that it was not a move towards peace and it in fact hindered the alliances in Europe. Source D shows that while there was an agreement between important figures in Europe the treaty was both a move towards peace but it was not as strong of a treaty as some thought.

The Treaty of Locarno helped to create an alliance system within Europe. It hoped to lesson the hostilities after World War One. It was important because it outlined the demilitarization of the Rhineland, an important and hostile area between Germany and France. It was also significant because it promised to give the League of Nations more power, this was not effective because later the League was not as powerful or as people had previously hoped. The league did not truly protect the countries later on prior to World War Two. In conclusion, the treaty was created in an attempt to move towards peaceful relations in Europe.