USA HISTORY

War reparations are payments made after a war by the vanquished to the victors. They are intended to cover damage or injury inflicted during a war. Generally, the term war reparations refers to money or goods changing hands, but not to the annexation of landGermany had to pay $33 billion dollars in ____

(A) land

(B) military

(C) ** reparations

(D) weapons

Concept note-1: -Allied victors took a punitive approach to Germany at the end of World War I. Intense negotiation resulted in the Treaty of Versailles’ “war guilt clause, ” which identified Germany as the sole responsible party for the war and forced it to pay reparations.

Concept note-2: -reparations, a levy on a defeated country forcing it to pay some of the war costs of the winning countries. Reparations were levied on the Central Powers after World War I to compensate the Allies for some of their war costs.

Concept note-3: -Hans Mommsen wrote “Germany financed its reparation payments to Western creditor nations with American loans", which the British and French then used to “cover their long-term interest obligations and to retire their wartime debts with the United States."

Concept note-4: -Answer: The German people saw reparations as a national humiliation; the German Government worked to undermine the validity of the Treaty of Versailles and the requirement to pay. British economist John Maynard Keynes called the treaty a Carthaginian peace that would economically destroy Germany.