24 - The Remarkable Consolidation of the Nascent Pax Atlantica of the 1920s

Summary

Chapter 24 shows how the Atlantic peace order of the 1920s was consolidated and developed to a remarkable degree in the era of London and Locarno (1926–1929), which witnessed a revitalisation of the League of Nations after Germany’s entry in 1926, advances towards an Atlantic concert which found expression in the war-renunciation pact of 1928, and concerted efforts to pursue a pacification and accommodation process between the western powers – notably France – and Germany. It analyses the forces and reorientations that buttressed this incipient transformation and examines its impact on Europe, the United States and the world. Yet it also, finally, sheds new light on the question of why the nascent Pax Atlantica of the post-World War I era disintegrated so rapidly under the impact of the World Economic Crisis.