The period between the Anglo-American return to Europe in late 1923 and the opening of the London reparations conference in mid-July 1924 can be seen as the first of two fulcrum periods in the history of post-World War I international politics. The second was the pre-phase of Locarno in 1925. For this period cleared not only the path for the London proceedings. It also determined the future of Germany's relations with the west and, in a wider perspective, the shape of central Europe for the remainder of the 1920s. More importantly, the shape of the international system that by the mid-1920s underpinned Europe's ‘relative stabilisation’ became manifest. Or did the developments of 1924 rather have a different significance? Did they rather, as has been argued, initiate the erosion of Europe's postwar order, ultimately preparing the ground for World War II?

A comparison of what impact American and British policies had in 1924 sheds light on the complex process of intergovernmental and inter-elite accommodation that not merely ended the Ruhr crisis. In fact, two processes of change have to be examined to gauge how the path to London was cleared. Both were indeed mutually reinforcing. The first, economically orientated ‘expert process’, spurred by the United States, overcame the previous deadlock of European diplomacy. It thus spurred a second, political accommodation process, fostered by MacDonald's mediation vis-à-vis France and flanked by financial elites. It would take centre-stage after the publication of the Dawes report in early April.