The arrival of 1923 did not make Europe more peaceful. On the contrary, a strong atmosphere of tension was felt at the beginning of the year. Because on January 11, despite the opposition of Britain and the United States, France united with Belgium and used Germany's failure to fulfill its reparations obligations as an excuse.
Troops were dispatched to occupy the Ruhr industrial area in Germany. This led to the outbreak of the far-reaching Ruhr crisis.
Due to the intense consumption of the war and the needs of the new industry in the Alsace-Lorraine region, France's domestic raw material reserves, especially coal, are seriously insufficient, and the shortage of funds is still a serious problem. Originally, the French government hoped that the Treaty of Versailles
》could bring huge reparations, but Germany delayed the payment of reparations on the grounds of inflation.
French Prime Minister Raymond Poincaré is a hardliner against Germany. As early as the opening ceremony of the Paris Peace Conference, Poincaré gave a speech, denounced that the German Empire "was born in injustice and deserves to die in shame."
Moreover, he also criticized Clemenceau for making too many concessions to Britain in the Falsay Contract. It can be said that he is the most tough politician in France towards Germany.
And when Poincaré came to power in 1922, he declared in parliament: "The top priority facing France is the issue of reparations. Germany has the ability to pay reparations, and the allies also have ways to force it to pay reparations in full.
At the London meeting in mid-August, Britain and France did not reach any agreement on the German issue. Poincaré, who was present at the meeting, said instead, "Although France is empty-handed, it has no constraints."
What makes Poincaré so confident is that France plays a leading role in the compensation committee.
The Versailles Peace Treaty stipulated that Germany should pay 20 billion gold marks in compensation before May 1, 1921, and establish a compensation committee to resolve the total amount of compensation and distribution ratio. The committee is located in Paris and consists of one person from each country from Britain, France, Italy, and Belgium.
The composition of the representatives (the United States only sent semi-official representatives because it refused to ratify the peace treaty). The French representative served as chairman, and he had the power to make the final decision when the vote was divided into two votes, thus putting France in a practical position on the issue of German reparations.
leadership.
In order to prevent Germany from failing to pay reparations, the Allied Powers reached an agreement in April 1920: If Germany did not pay reparations, the Allied Powers could take sanctions. In July of the same year, the Reparations Commission held a meeting in Spa with the participation of Germans and stipulated the compensation that each country should deserve.
Proportion of compensation. However, Germany delayed payment, and by the beginning of 1921, the original stipulated payment of 20 billion gold marks was still approximately 12 billion short.
Therefore, at the London Conference held in March 1921, the Reparations Commission forced Germany to accept the compensation schedule stipulated by the Allied Powers. Germany refused, and the Allied Powers decided to impose sanctions on Germany, and on March 8, they sent troops to occupy the town of Du on the east bank of the Rhine.
Seldorf, Duisburg and Ruerault.
In April of the same year, the Reparations Commission decided that Germany's total compensation amount was 132 billion gold marks (including 12 billion that Germany had not paid before May 1, 1921).
On May 5, the committee issued a payment schedule and an ultimatum to Germany, requiring Germany to pay 2 billion gold marks per year and 26% of the value of its exported goods, and required that the 1921 must be delivered by the end of May.
Indemnity of 1 billion gold marks. If Germany does not give a satisfactory answer by May 12, the Allies will occupy the Ruhr.
This led to the collapse of the Fehlenbacher cabinet in Germany, and the Werth cabinet that replaced it accepted the total amount of compensation and the payment schedule on May 11. By August, Germany had paid compensation of 1 billion gold marks.
After paying the above-mentioned compensation, Germany planned to delay future payments. In July and November 1922, Germany used the financial crisis as a reason to delay the payment of the remaining payments. The British government supported Germany's request and proposed to reduce the total amount of compensation and delay payment.
plan, but was firmly opposed by France.
As a result, not only did the differences between Britain and France intensify on the issue of reparations, but the contradiction between Germany and France also rapidly intensified, and France decided to take military action against Germany.
The Ruhr Industrial Area is an important industrial area in Germany. It is located in western Germany, in the area between the Ruhr River and the Lippe River, a lower tributary of the Rhine River. It covers an area of 4,593 square kilometers, accounting for 1.3% of the country's area. The population and cities in the area
It is densely populated, with a population of 5.7 million, accounting for 9% of the national population. The population density in the core area exceeds 2,700 people per square kilometer, and there are 24 cities with more than 50,000 people in the area. Although the Ruhr Area is small, it is the center of Germany's metallurgical industry.
Centre, it produces more than 80% of Germany's annual coal, pig iron and steel production.
Therefore, in the face of the military takeover by the Franco-Belgian coalition, German Prime Minister Cuno ordered passive resistance. He announced that he would not cooperate with the French and Belgian occupation authorities, recalled the ambassador to Paris and the minister to Brussels, and stopped paying all compensation to France and Belgium. The miners and miners in the occupied areas and
Railway workers launched strikes or work stoppages, and all railway and waterway transportation from Germany to France and Belgium were paralyzed.
Act, the occupying authorities took coercive measures to control the management, production and distribution of coal, banned the export of goods from the occupied areas, and levied coal taxes and other duties. All Germans who participated in passive resistance, including their family members, were arrested and imprisoned.
Fines, deportation and even death.
The German government also sent a note to the Allied Powers and the United States government, emphasizing that Germany would continue to engage in passive resistance until normalcy was restored in the Ruhr and Rhineland areas. The note recommended that Germany's total compensation be 30 billion gold marks, part of which should be paid with international loans.
Pay. France believes that the German proposal has no substantive content, and the United Kingdom is also disappointed with the German proposal.
Throughout the summer thereafter, despite Britain's mediation, France refused to negotiate. Due to the loss of the Ruhr heavy industrial area and the huge subsidies to the occupied areas, Germany's financial and economic difficulties became more and more difficult, and the value of the mark plummeted. In mid-June 1923, 100,000 marks
Exchanged for 1 U.S. dollar, it fell to 5 million marks for 1 U.S. dollar on August 8.
Facing internal and external crises, the Cuno government resigned on August 12. After G. Stresemann took over as prime minister, he reformed finance and currency, suppressed the workers' revolution, and announced that he would stop passive resistance from September 26.
He requested direct negotiations with the French government several times, but France refused. Therefore, he supported the Coal Syndicate to negotiate with the International Industrial and Mineral Control Delegation and the Fabirour District Control Committee.
On November 23, the two sides signed an agreement, which stipulated that the coal syndicate would restart the delivery of coal and coke to the Allied Powers. As Germany's in-kind compensation, France and Belgium would receive 18% of the total coal production and 35% of the total coke production; from October 1
The coal mined from that date belonged to the coal syndicate, and a tax of 10 francs was paid to the Allies for every ton of coal sold.
Through this agreement, France achieved the purpose of forcibly extorting Germany's "production collateral". Its attitude towards the German compensation issue has softened, and the Ruhr crisis is coming to an end. On November 30, the Compensation Committee appointed two expert committees to discuss the solution of German compensation.
Problem. Among them, the report of the First Committee of Experts on April 9, 1924 (commonly known as the Dawes Plan) was accepted by the Allied Powers and the German government attending the London Conference (July 16-August 16, 1924), thus
The issue of German compensation was temporarily resolved.
On August 16, France, Belgium and Germany reached an agreement that within one year of the implementation of the Dawes Plan from September 1, French and Belgian troops would withdraw from the Ruhr and other areas.
In fact, the Ruhr crisis was superficially caused by the reparations dispute between Germany and France, but its underlying cause was France's profound insecurity and the contradiction between France and Germany. In the view of French leaders, given Germany's industrial base, population size and geographical location,
It is very easy for Germany to make a comeback. Once Germany's economy recovers and its armaments are reorganized, France's nightmare will happen again.
Therefore, at the Paris Peace Conference, France strongly advocated weakening Germany, even dismembering Germany, and permanently eliminating Germany's industrial and military capabilities. However, this plan was opposed by the United States and Britain, and President Wilson tried to use the collective security mechanism of the League of Nations
to contain Germany and ensure France's security. However, the United States did not join the League of Nations after the war, which caused France to have great concerns about its own security.
The final outcome of the Ruhr crisis seemed to be France's final victory. However, in fact, the catastrophic chain consequences of this crisis were far more terrible than the compensation France received. First of all, the consequences of this crisis
The most direct damage is that France's international status has suffered a huge blow.
During France's occupation of the Ruhr, the franc also depreciated sharply due to the impact of the crisis. In order to stabilize the economy, France had to borrow heavily from the United Kingdom and the United States. The result of this approach was that France later argued about German compensation.
During the negotiations on the issue, the initiative had to be handed over to the United Kingdom and the United States, which were interested in supporting Germany's economic recovery.
Another disaster is that in Germany, many veteran forces led by Hitler were deeply dissatisfied with the Weimar government's series of weak diplomatic measures after the war. The Ruhr crisis was no different to these nationalists.
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It is obvious that the Weimar government's weakness and passive resistance policy brought harm to Germany. Although the subsequent reconciliation between Germany and France and economic growth made it difficult for these extreme forces to gain much support, when society fell into crisis and turmoil
, bringing out the Ruhr crisis again would be tantamount to a fatal blow to the Weimar government.
