All of these terms are what led Germany to economic and political instability in the years 1919-23. One of the terms of the treaty, which caused economic instability, were the reparations Germany had to pay for the war. The figure was set at £6.6 billion and undoubtedly Germany would not be able to pay this figure. The English economist, John Maynard Keynes, feared in 1919 that the reparation set would fundamentally weaken the economy of Germany with consequences for the whole of Europe. George Clemenceau aimed to cripple the German economy with the high reparations figure.
Although the conditions of the agreement seemed extremely severe, the allied countries had no sympathy for the Germans. They were forced to pay excessive amounts of money as reparation fees to make up for all the damage and destruction that was caused during the war. 13% of German territory was given away and many important industrial areas were controlled by western allies. This caused a major impact on the economy and had many affects to not only the government, but German citizens as well. Many people became unemployed and were no longer able to support their families.
What Evans means by this is that the desperation of the people led them to polarising their votes and seeing radical leaders like Hitler as a solution to the mess that Germany had become. Hitler took advantage of this, and from there was able to play a huge role in the collapse of the Weimar Republic. The economic strain that Germany was placed under was also a major impact of the Depression on the collapse of the Republic. Firstly, the Depression had the obvious impact of the debt rising and the banking crises however, there were a number other impacts. Germany relied heavily on international trade for resources; almost one third of their resources came from overseas.
In turn this would destroy Britain commercially and their industrial economy allowing Napoleon to take over Britain however did not work and left Napoleon worse off then he was before. His next mistake was the Peninsular war and as a result weakened his empire even more by the Spanish guerrillas, Germans, and Italians turning against him. Lastly his third mistake lost him most of his soldiers and the tactic used to defeat him was the scorched-earth policy, by the Russians. These mistakes greatly weakened Napoleons Empire. The empire was then declared war on by Britain, Russia, Prussia, Sweden, and Austria.
Treaty of Versailles was the peace treaty which officially ended World War I. it was very burdensome on the German economy. Germany was just a devastated by the war as anyone else, but they were very hard pressed to rebuild with the massive reparation payments they were required to make. But the reason why they did soo debt on them is because of Germany made a great destruction on countries, especially on French. I think the reasons for WW2 were: Treaty of Versailles, Hitler’s rise to power and Militarism. Treaty
This proved to be very costly for the Germans as they were forced to move through Belgium alone. Source A is a clear indication of the bottleneck this caused for German soldiers passing through Belgium. This Source reveals that strong Belgian resistance slowed German advances drastically. Further acknowledgement of this alteration causing problems for German troops can be found within Source B where it is stated that Germany “...paid insufficient heed to the problems of...the fatigue of troops” This source reveals that this specific change to the Schlieffen ultimately caused more problems for Germany than anticipated. Because of the fatigue of troops and lack of supplies the bottleneck in Liege caused, the Germans had to divert East towards the River of Marne.
One thing the Germans were not happy in the treaty of Versailles is the War Guilt Clause, take blame for the war. Because of this they had to the reparation to the big three. The German government didn’t have the money to pay for the reparation as the country just lost a war and the factory are destroy and the environment is in a poor state. So then the USA banks lend Germany government loans. Its was all going well as Germany was getting in a better state and they are paying their reparation until 1929.
There were a number of factors throughout the period 1919-1934 which were responsible for the downfall of the Weimar Republic. The Weimar Republic's inability to deal with the increasingly dominant economic and social issues in Germany caused discontent throughout the country and consequently caused the German citizens to doubt the Republic. The actions of Hitler and the Nazi party were also a significant contributing factor to the destruction of the Weimar Republic, as as they gained support through their use of legality, propaganda and violence support for the Weimar Republic decreased. However the Weimar Republic's inability to deal with the problems of Germany was a more significant factor than the rise of the Nazis, as their failures were the main reason behind why the Nazis were able to gain power, demonstrating the Weimar Republic was mainly responsible for its own destruction. The failure of the Weimar Republic to fix the increasingly pressing problems of Germany consequently contributed massively to their downfall, as it demonstrated their weakness.
On the other hand, the anguished effects of WWI were still enduring in the Germanic collective memory. Many Germans perceived The Versailles Treaty, signed by the Allies in 1919, as a humiliation. The treaty contained a number of heavy impositions to Germany which were socio-economically unbearable to a once great and powerfu l nation. The amount that had to be paid to the Allies as war damage 2 made the Mark lost all its value, causing a hyperinflation so severe that the prices increased by over 100 times in just one year (Bresciani -Turroni, 1968.). The hyperinflation crisis, which was only solved in 1924, lasted enough time to ruin thousands of Germanic families, thus worsening the general feeling of rage against the treaty.
Ruhr Crisis Essay What were the causes and the consequences of the Ruhr Crisis in Germany? The reparations to be made by Germany, Hyperinflation, what the actual Ruhr Crisis was, the French departure, Dawes Plan and the Locarno treaties and the League of Nations. After WW1 and The Treaty Of Versailles the Germans were forced to pay a total of £6.6 Billion in reparations. This caused a lot of trouble for Germany, as they did not have that kind of money available to pay out after spending so much on military expenses during WW1. Subsequently this caused the Ruhr Crisis, as the Germans were unable to pay the reparations on time so the French decided to invade Ruhr, as it was a major coal-mine of Germany providing a lot of their economy at the time.