USA HISTORY

AMERICAN IMPERIALISM 1890 1919

TREATY OF VERSAILLES

Question [CLICK ON ANY CHOICE TO KNOW THE RIGHT ANSWER]
After the war, the German government began printing more and more money to try to pay their workers’ wages, as well as the reparations they were forced to pay to the Allies. What happened as a result of Germany printing more money?
A
They were able to easily pay back the reparations
B
German money became worthless
C
Germany became the wealthiest nation in Europe
D
Germany no longer needed to borrow money from the United States
Explanation: 

Detailed explanation-1: -To fix this problem and pay the striking Ruhr workers, the government again printed more money. This led to hyperinflation . By the autumn of 1923 a loaf of bread cost 200, 000, 000, 000 marks.

Detailed explanation-2: -In order to pay the striking workers the government simply printed more money. This flood of money led to hyperinflation as the more money was printed, the more prices rose. 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.

Detailed explanation-3: -The Weimar government was still in a position to get a grip on the economy; instead, it chose to print yet more money in order to pay the reparation debt. By July 1922 prices had risen by some 700 percent, and hyperinflation had arrived. The government had to print million-mark notes, then billion-mark notes.

Detailed explanation-4: -Germany had suspended the gold standard and financed the war by borrowing. Reparations further strained the economic system, and the Weimar Republic printed money as the mark’s value tumbled. Hyperinflation soon rocked Germany. By November 1923, 42 billion marks were worth the equivalent of one American cent.

Detailed explanation-5: -Hyperinflation affected the German Papiermark, the currency of the Weimar Republic, between 1921 and 1923, primarily in 1923. It caused considerable internal political instability in the country, the occupation of the Ruhr by France and Belgium, and misery for the general populace.

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