USA HISTORY

AMERICAN IMPERIALISM(1890 1919)

TREATY OF VERSAILLES

[SOURCES]
How much did Germany have to pay (current funds)

(A) 150 million gold marks

(B) ** 132 billion gold marks

(C) 90 billion gold marks

(D) 150 billion gold marks

EXPLANATIONS BELOW

Concept note-1: -In the spring of 1921, the Commission set the final bill at 132 billion gold marks, approximately $31.5 billion. When Germany defaulted on a payment in January 1923, France and Belgium occupied the Ruhr in an effort to force payment. Instead, they met a government-backed campaign of passive resistance.

Concept note-2: -The Treaty of Versailles didn’t just blame Germany for the war-it demanded financial restitution for the whole thing, to the tune of 132 billion gold marks, or more than $500 billion today.

Concept note-3: -The Treaty of Versailles (signed in 1919) and the 1921 London Schedule of Payments required Germany to pay 132 billion gold marks (US$33 billion [all values are contemporary, unless otherwise stated]) in reparations to cover civilian damage caused during the war.

Concept note-4: -In January 1921, the total sum due was decided by an Inter-Allied Reparations Commission and was set at 132 billion gold marks, about £6.6 billion or $33 billion (roughly $393.6 billion US dollars as of 2005). This was a sum that many economists believed to be too much.

Concept note-5: -After World War II, according to the Potsdam conference held between July 17 and August 2, 1945, Germany was to pay the Allies US$23 billion mainly in machinery and manufacturing plants. Dismantling in the west stopped in 1950. Reparations to the Soviet Union stopped in 1953.