American Influence on Post-World War I Recovery of Germany: U.S. Leadership Under the Treaty of Versailles including the Dawes Plan and the Young Plan on War Reparations with American Protectionism

This excellent report has been professionally converted for accurate flowing-text e-book format reproduction. The Treaty of Versailles imposed conditions upon Germany that led directly to the collapse of its currency and economy. The United States was directly involved in, and essential to, the economic recovery of Germany following World War I. The political and security concerns prevented Germany's neighbors from taking a lead in the recovery effort, which, along with the strong economy in the United States led to American leadership of the recovery effort. There were two major undertakings led by the United States, first the Dawes Plan which balanced the German budget and stabilized the currency, and second the Young Plan which attempted to establish a final amount of reparations that Germany was required to pay. Throughout this process, the United States maintained control over European war debt and additional loans to Germany, which gave the United States influence over the global economy. This came to an end during the Great Depression, as the United States began to extricate itself from the global economy.

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION * CHAPTER 2 THE BACKGROUND * CHAPTER 3 THE DAWES PLAN * CHAPTER 4 THE YOUNG PLAN AND AMERICAN PROTECTIONISM * CHAPTER 5 WHAT DOES IT MEAN? * CHAPTER 6 CONCLUSION

The purpose of this thesis is to identify the lessons that can be learned from the post-World War I efforts to stabilize the German economy, as well as how those lessons might be applied to future post-conflict stability efforts. The primary research question is: What were the economic impacts of the Dawes Plan, Young Plan, and the Smoot-Hawley Act on the post-war economic stabilization of the Weimar Republic? Secondarily, the research will address the following questions: How did these economic policies impact the success/failure of the Weimar Republic? What were the immediate impacts of the Versailles Treaty, and why were subsequent plans necessary? What did the Dawes Plan attempt to accomplish? What did the Young Plan attempt to accomplish? How did the Smoot-Hawley Act affect Germany? The answers to these questions establish a body of knowledge relevant to the current dilemma facing the United States as operations across the globe enter the post-conflict phase where economic stability becomes paramount to the future of those regions.