As World War I came to an end, the allies emerged triumphant over the central powers, enacting the Treaty of Versailles while unknowing starting a long journey that would only end with the start of World War II. While everyone wanted to recover from the horrors of the war, the allies depended on using Germany as a scapegoat to solve all their problems. For nineteen years, Germany was being burdened with the problems left over from World War I, causing them to take responsibility for causing it in the first place. In between wars, every country was suffering from the damage World War I caused, trying to lift its economy, international trade, and its citizen’s spirits. It was when the United States entered into the Great Depression that the international …show more content…
This sum of payment was impossible for Germany to hand over because most of their colonies that helped accumulate their wealth were taken away, leaving Germany in an economic drought. Germany’s colonized territories “supported most of the nation’s industrial capacity--75 percent of its iron ore deposits, 30 percent of its steel production, and nearly 30 percent of its available coal” (Backman 935). With their top grossing colonies taken away, there was no way Germany could pay the 226 billion reichsmarks owed as reparations for World War I and survive on its own. As British economist, John Maynard Keynes, said, “This population secured for itself a livelihood before the war...By the destruction of this organization and the interruption of the stream of supplies, a part of this population is deprived of its means of livelihood” (Backman 936). Germany was being deprived of its basic needs in life as it was no longer gaining from its colonized territories and giving all their money to the allies. The payment of reparations was cause for Germany’s people to stand up for