Reparations and changes made to them in 1919-1932

Summary 

Reparations were the payments which required Germany to pay to repair all the damage of the war.  

The first problem was to work out how much.   The figure was changed many times during 1919–1921.   Eventually, in April 1921, the League of Nations agreed a sum of £6.6 billion.  

Reparations ruined Germany’s economy, but when Germany failed to make its January 1923 payment, French troops invaded the Ruhr.   This led to hyperinflation, and the Munich Putsch.   Germany was falling apart, and the Allies realised that they would have to do something.   In April 1924, an American banker called Charles Dawes prepared the Dawes Plan, which gave Germany longer to pay and gave Germany a £45m. loan to get its economy going.

For five years, this worked well, but in 1929, the Depression started.   So the Young Plan of 1929 reduced the total amount of reparations, and gave Germany longer to pay.   Finally, as the crisis got worse, in 1932, the Allies ended reparations.

 What are reparations and why were they in the terms of the Treaty of Versailles:

•  Reparations were the payments required by the Treaty of Versailles, by which Germany had to pay to repair all the damage of the war.

•  Germany had caused – and in Clause 231 had accepted the…