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World War 1 Research Paper

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In order to pay for the huge costs of the First World War, Germany stopped the conversion of its currency into gold when the war broke out. Unlike France, which levied its first income tax to pay for the World War, the German Kaiser and Reichstag decided unopposed to fund the war completely by borrowing, a decision criticized by financial stalwarts like Hjalmar Schacht even before hyperinflation came into being. The result was the exchange rate of the Mark against the US dollar started falling steadily during the war from 4.2 to 8.91 Mark per dollar. The Treaty of Versailles only accelerated the decrease in the value of Mark, so by the end of 1919 more than 32 Mark were required to buy a US dollar. German Mark was relatively stable at about 90 Mark per US Dollar during the earlier half of 1921. Because the Western front of the World War-1 was fought mostly in France and Belgium, Germany had emerged out of the war with almost all of its industrial power as it was, a healthy economic system, and in a better place to be the dominant force in the Europe. However the "London ultimatum" in May 1921 demanded payments in gold or some foreign currency to be paid annually to the quantum of 2 billion gold marks, also 26 percent of Germany 's exports. The failure of the German state to comply with further or subsequent payments of the installments is where the genesis of the German hyperinflation lies. Background When the war began on July 31 1914, the German Central

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