ABSTRACT
The seeds for the Eastern Locarno negotiations came from unsuccessful Franco-Soviet discussions in fall 1933 that dealt with the creation of "a pact of mutual assistance" that might involve Poland and would necessitate Soviet entry into the League of Nations. Failed Baltic security efforts, however, dovetailed with the heady Era of Locarno that came to symbolize Europe's return to "a more normal period of diplomatic friendship and cooperation." Many of the deeper fears that had driven Baltic diplomats to search desperately for collective means of national security had somewhat dissipated at the same time that many of the nations in the region had begun to mature. After 1923, German officials used the settlement of Baltic German property claims as the quid pro quo "for the conclusion of full-scale trade agreements" with the Baltic states. The continued successes of the Nazis and Adolph Hitler also aroused concerns in the Baltic states about Nazi territorial ambitions.
