It is accurate to suggest that the Treaty of Versailles was mainly responsible for the political and economic instability in Germany in the years 1919-23. The treaty led to political and economic problems because of the terms included in it. The German government was seen by many to surrender to the dictation of Britain, France and America. Forcing the country to submit a lot of land, losing a huge percentage of their population and having their military force. All of these terms are what led Germany to economic and political instability in the years 1919-23.
Known also as Black Tuesday, October 29th left stockholders shattered with recorded losses reaching $40 billion dollars (Kelly, n.d.). Many banks and financial institutions began collapsing which led to irretrievable, uninsured deposits and savings. Fearing further loss, people began spending less which led to a decrease in production and an increase in unemployment. As companies began to fail, the government devised the Smoot-Hawley Tariff in order to protect American businesses. The Tariff placed high taxes on imports leading to a decline in international trade.
The Great Depression was a severe period of poverty and tragedy. It effected many other countries not just America; especially in Europe, where many countries had not fully recovered from the aftermath of World War I. The cost of World War I weakened the ability of the world to respond to a major crisis. America alone had ten billon dollars of debt from the war. In Germany America’s economic failure contributed to the rise of Adolf Hiltler, so the Stock Market Crash had a domino effect on our country and others.
Describe the effects of hyperinflation on Germany in 1923. (9) The Weimar government was short of money after the First World War and so began to print more and more banknotes. The sudden flood of paper money into the economy, on top of the general strike - which meant that no goods were manufactured, so there was more money, chasing fewer goods - combined with a weak economy ruined by the war, all resulted in hyperinflation. Prices ran out of control, for example, a loaf of bread, which cost 250 marks in January 1923 had risen to 200,000 million marks in November 1923. German's currency became worthless.
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.
10th grade Social Studies assignment The failings of the democracy in Germany between 1918 and 1923 Why was the new democratic system in Germany unpopular by 1923, and how was Hitler able to take advantage of that unpopularity? After their defeat in the First World War, Germany and its government faced many harsh consequences which had a great impact on the entire country and its political system. Each consequence created a substantial change in German history which made a chain of events that led to the rein of Adolf Hitler. Because the new democratic system proved to be unsuccessful, the people of Germany blamed their government and after that, things began to get chaotic and everyone suffered. The problems began after the 1st World War, and after the German government signed the papers at the Treaty of Versailles, agreeing to its conditions and punishments, the government was very much resented by the people.
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. By the early 1930s the German people were resentful of their government because of the economic issues caused by the Great Depression and Wall Street Crash. For example industrial production in 1930 had dropped by 13% of what it was in 1928, and by 1932 it had dropped by 42%. This combined with the fact many Germans still had the effects of the economic problems of the early 1920s fresh in their minds caused declining support for moderate parties and therefore the Republic. This can evidently be seen from the election results as in 1928 the SPD had 29.8% of the vote and by 1932 this had dropped to 20.4%.
When people realized this, they quickly got rid of their stocks. This caused the prices of stock to drop drastically, and continue to drop. This completely ruined the economy, and was a main cause for the stock market crashing, and the Great Depression. Through the United States’ tariff policies, the American way of spending money, and by the gambling of stocks, the Great Depression began. Each economic failure led to the next, and ended up destroying America’s economy.
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.
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.