Picture this: you're at your favorite pizza parlor savoring every bite of that
delicious slice when suddenly you realize you don't have enough money to pay for it.
You look around frantically and find your nemesis sitting at the table next to you.
Since you have no choice, you walk over and ask for the money you need.
They give it to you with an evil grin, knowing they have total leverage over you. How would
this make you feel? If you couldn't work, how would you pay them back? Now imagine this feeling
multiplied by a million. It might be similar to what many Germans felt while facing the massive
war reparations they owed to other European powers after World War I. Previously, we studied how the
end of World War I in Europe left nations reeling from debt and the loss of millions of lives.
Today, we'll look at how European democracies grappled with economic and political instability
after the war. We'll focus on Germany, which dealt with resentment as it struggled to
rebuild within the constraints of the Treaty of Versailles. As we go, we'll address the
following guiding questions. What challenges did democratic governments face after World War I?
How did the Weimar Republic struggle to stabilize Germany after World War I? What efforts were made
to help stabilize the German economy and maintain peace in Europe during the 1920s?
Be sure to keep this big-picture question in mind - what underlying social, economic, and
political conditions in post-World War I Germany allowed for the rise of extremist ideologies?
Europe faced political, economic, and social turmoil in the aftermath of World War I.
The overthrow of the last remaining absolute rulers, like Tsar Nicholas II, during the end
of the war, gave way to new and inexperienced democracies. Russia intended to create its first
democracy in 1917. However, as we learned in Unit 12, this attempt was unsuccessful and the
country quickly devolved into a communist dictatorship. Many other countries, such
as Germany and Austria-Hungary, were left with inexperienced and untested democratic governments.
The transition to democracy posed challenges for citizens who'd grown up under monarchies
and were unfamiliar with democratic principles. These challenges included frustration with the
democratic system, low voter turnout, and representatives not being held
accountable by their citizens. Many of these new democracies experienced the formation of coalition
governments, meaning a governing body where no single political party wins a majority. Since laws
need a majority vote to be passed, several small parties work together in temporary alliances.
What problems can you see arising from this system?
In nations like France and Italy, where coalition governments often formed,
fighting between groups led to ineffective parliaments. Because these coalition governments
struggled to achieve long-term goals and create strong leadership, many citizens
voted against the more democratic leaders in favor of assertive, authoritarian leadership.
Pause the video here and answer your first guiding question.
What challenges did democratic governments face after World War I?
One
of the weak democratic governments established at the end of World War I was the Weimar Republic in
Germany, named after the city where the national assembly convened. This new government immediately
faced several problems. First, Germany had many minor political parties competing for power in the
new post-war government. Second, the German people blamed the Weimar Republic instead of World War I
military leaders for the unfairly punitive and humiliating terms of the Treaty of Versailles.
This photo shows a massive protest outside the German government building just a few
weeks after the treaty was signed. Germany also faced economic problems that began during World
War I. To pay for the war, countries like Britain and France increased wartime taxes.
Instead of increasing taxes, Germany printed more currency. This decision led to inflation in
Germany. Inflation is when the prices of goods and services go up over time, meaning it takes more
money to buy the same things. This happens because there is more money in circulation and it becomes
less valuable as a result. Think of it like the piece of pizza back at your favorite pizza parlor.
If you used to be able to buy a slice for $1.00, but a year later a slice costs a
$1.50. That's inflation. The same piece of pizza now costs fifty percent more.
After the war, the Treaty of Versailles forced Germany to pay millions of dollars
in reparations while limiting its production power. The only way Germany could pay these
heavy fines was to print even more money, leading to hyperinflation.
This is the type of inflation that is extremely rapid and out of control. It occurs when prices
for goods and services increase very quickly and dramatically, often doubling or even
tripling within a short period, like a few months, weeks, or occasionally even days.
Imagine you go to your pizza parlor one day and your slice costs $1.00. But the next day it costs
$2 .00, and the day after that it costs $4.00. This rapid increase in prices makes it difficult
for people to afford necessities and it can also make it difficult for businesses to survive.
This is what happened to Germany under the Weimar Republic. As the prices of goods skyrocketed, the
German mark was worth so little that some people even begin to use it for things like wallpaper.
As a result of the economic crisis, Germans lost faith in their new government and
were more willing to accept an authoritarian government due to the stability it can provide.
Pause the video here to reflect on the question,
how did the Weimar Republic struggle to stabilize Germany after World War I?
As Germany faced economic instability,
some countries began to take notice and feared the possible implications for peace in Europe.
As a result, American banker Charles Dawes introduced the Dawes Plan.
The plan provided a 200 million dollar loan from American banks to stabilize Germany's economy. It
also revised the country's reparation payment schedule to make it more manageable. The Dawes
plan was relatively successful, and the German economy slowly recovered over the next five years.
German factories even returned to their pre-World War I levels of success in the late 1920s.
While the Dawes Plan focused on helping Germany's economy recover, treaties sought to solidify
peace in the region. For example, Germany and France signed a peace treaty promising
never to go to war against each other again. Germany agreed to respect the existing borders
of France and Belgium. Signing the treaty also allowed Germany to join the League of Nations,
which had previously rejected Germany's request to join the organization.
On a larger scale, the Kellogg-Briand Peace Pact was created. This agreement, signed by most of the
world's countries, pledged to avoid using war as an instrument of national policy. In other words,
diplomatic agreements rather than violence would be used to solve international problems.
Think about the world today. Do you think that
all the countries that signed this treaty still abide by it?
The League of Nations, which lacked a military and the support of the U.S.,
failed to enforce the treaty. Pause here to answer our guiding question. What efforts
were made to help stabilize the German economy and maintain peace in Europe during the 1920s?
Despite World War I being dubbed "The War to End All Wars", powers around the world were beginning
to see newly democratic nations crumble and tensions began to rise. In our next lesson,
we'll discover the new political system that would quickly spread across Eastern Europe and
lay the seeds for World War II; fascism. So keep your eyes peeled because history is everywhere.