What were the provisions of the Dawes Plan?
B, D, C, A
Was the Young Plan specifically targeted at preventing the rise of communism in Germany after the wall street crash?
No. The Young Plan intended to keep Germany afloat and was the second attempt, the first being the Dawes Plan of 1924, to mitigate the strain and pressure on Germany as a result of the Treaty of Versailles demands for reparations and war guilt clause. The Young Plan started out in Paris on February 11, 1929 when a committee was formed to make revisions to the Dawes Plan of 1924. Clearly the Young Plan preceded the Stock Market Crash of 1929. There was an interesting German referendum, 1929 about the "Liberty Law" ('Law against the Enslavement of the German People') that would set Germany free from debt slavery (clearly inspired by the ideas of Gottfried Feder) and it would make it illegal for any German Official to collaborate in any way to make payments of reparations to the Allies. The referendum, which was held on December 22, was a pyrrhic victory for newspaper publisher Alfred Hugenberg and the Nazis despite a majority of 94.5 percent in favor of the law thus in favor of a complete rejection of the Young Plan. This was due to the low voter participation 14.9 percent as a 50 percent voter turnout was required to make it into law so it never passed and the Young Plan was subsequently adopted in 1930. Why was the voter turnout so low, 14.9 percent, at the Liberty Law referendum in Germany on December 22, 1929?German War reparations payments were completely stopped anyway at the Lausanne Conference of 1932.The question whether the Dawes and the Young Plans were somehow motivated by a fear of communism I can only speculate that this was not the case. Russia and the USSR were in a state of chaos and severely weakened after the Bolshevik Revolution and World War I and it wasn't until the 1930's and 1940's when the USSR became a Global Superpower under Stalin.It's hard to see that Germany or any other country viewed communism as a serious threat in the 1920s after the failure of the Spartacist uprising in Germany and the Hungarian Soviet Republic. The Bolshevik focus on world revolution was subdued in the mid 1920s. Lenin's and Trotsky's antiimperialist Communist International ambitions were gradually fading away as Grigory Zinoviev was fired by Stalin in 1926 and Comintern was eventually dissolved in 1943. The focus on domestic issues and the defense of the motherland became even greater under Stalin after Lenin's death. The Stalin Policy Socialism in One Country was put forth in 1924 and eventually became official Soviet State Policy.
How was the Dawes Plan beneficial to the United States?
I was reading my history textbook and it explains that after World War I, to repay loans, France and Britain wanted to collect reparations from Germany because the Fordney-McCumber Tariff prevented them from selling enough goods to the United States to repay their debt. Germany was, however, experiencing terrible inflation and so Charles G. Dawes came up with the Dawes Plan. The Dawes Plan loaned Germany $2.5 billion to pay back Britain and France with annual payments on a fixed scale. Those countries then paid the United States. Thus, the United States arranged to be paid with its own money. By arranging to be paid with its own money, how did the Dawes plan benefit the US?
What was the Dawes PLAN?
The Dawes Plan (as proposed by the Dawes Committee, chaired by Charles G. Dawes) was an attempt following World War I for the Triple Entente to collect war reparations debt from Germany. When after five years the plan proved to be unsuccessful, the Young Plan was adopted in 1929 to replace it. In an agreement of August 1924, the main points of The Dawes Plan were: 1. The Ruhr area was to be evacuated by Allied occupation troops. 2. Reparation payments would begin at “one billion marks the first year, increasing to two and a half billion marks annually after five years" (Merrill 93) 3. The Reichsbank would be reorganized under Allied supervision. 4. The sources for the reparation money would include transportation, excise, and custom taxes. The Dawes Plan did rely on money given to Germany by the US. The German economic state was one in which careful footing was required, and the Dawes plan was of the nature that only with the unrelated help of loans from the US could it succeed. The plan was accepted by Germany and the Triple Entente and went into effect in September 1924. Although German business rebounded and reparation payments were made promptly, it became obvious that Germany could not continue those huge annual payments for long. As a result, the Young Plan was substituted in 1929. The Dawes Plan provided short term economic benefits to the German economy. It softened the burdens of war reparations, stabilized the currency, and brought increased foreign investments and loans to the German market. However, it made the German economy dependent on foreign markets and economies, and therefore problems with the U.S. economy (e.g. the Great Depression) would later severely hurt Germany as it did the rest of the western world, which was subject to debt repayments for loans of American dollars. After World War I, this cycle of money from U.S. loans to Germany, which then made reparations to other European nations, which then used the money to pay off their debts to America, locked the western world's economy on that of the U.S. Dawes was the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1925, in recognition of his work on the Plan.
How did the United States benefit from Dawes Plan?
After the First World War Germany had great difficulty paying the reparations that had been agreed under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles. When the German government failed to keep up the payments in 1923 French and Belgian troops occupied the Ruhr. This was followed by massive inflation and growing unemployment in Germany. Charles G. Dawes, an American banker, was asked by the Allied Reparations Committee to investigate the problem. His report, published in April, 1924, proposed a plan for instituting annual payments of reparations on a fixed scale. He also recommended the reorganization of the German State Bank and increased foreign loans. German politicians like Adolf Hitler and Alfred Hugenberg attacked the Dawes Plan because it did not reduce the reparations total. They also disliked the idea that foreigners would have control over the German economy. The Dawes Plan was initially a great success. The currency was stabilized and inflation was brought under control. Large loans were raised in the United States and this investment resulted in a fall in unemployment. Germany was also able to meet her obligations under the Treaty of Versailles for the next five years. The Wall Street Crash created problems for the German economy and so a new commission under another banker, Owen Young, was set up to consider reparations in 1929.
What was the Dawes Plan?
The Dawes Plan was presented in 1924 by the committee headed by Charles G. Dawes to the Reparations Commission of the Allied nations. It was accepted the same year by Germany and the Allies. The Dawes committee consisted of ten representatives, two each from Belgium, France, Britain, Italy, and the United States; it was entrusted with finding a solution for the collection of the German reparations debt following World War I, set at almost 20 billion marks. Germany had been lagging in payment of this obligation, and the Dawes Plan provided that the Ruhr area be evacuated by Allied occupation troops, that reparation payment should begin at 1 billion marks for the first year and should rise over a period of four years to 2.5 billion marks per year, that the German Reichsbank be reorganized under Allied supervision, and that the sources for the reparation money should include transportation, excise, and custom taxes. The plan went into effect in September 1924. Although German business picked up and reparation payments were made promptly, it became obvious that Germany could not long continue those huge annual payments. As a result, the Young Plan was substituted in 1929.