The History of the Twentieth Century

By 1923, inflation was raging in Germany, and so was the right wing.

When reparations payments first came due in 1921, the German economy was in bad shape and the government resisted payment, while the German right opposed paying them at all.

Germany receives the Treaty of Versailles and is given the choice of accepting the treaty as it stands, or restarting the war.

Imposing an indemnity on the defeated enemy after a war was a longstanding practice. At the Paris Peace Conference, reparations were supposed to be something more just and civilized: a charge for losses to civilians during the German occupation of Belgium and France.

The new democratic German government believed they could get a generous peace deal from the Allies. They were wrong.

Germany finds itself at a crossroads after World War I, grappling with the shift from monarchy to republic. Conflicting ideologies stir chaos within the political landscape, leading to the rise of revolutionary movements and the Spartacist Uprising. Amidst the turmoil, the National Assembly establishes the Weimar Republic in hopes of stability while facing regional unrest. The legacies of military leaders Hindenburg and Ludendorff further complicate the new government's path forward as they reflect on a tumultuous past.

With the bloodshed seemingly unending, the Lloyd George government and the Irish Republic strike an agreement.

The conflict in Ireland grows more bitter, culminating in 1920's Bloody Sunday.

On January 21, 1919, the first Dáil Éireann met in Dublin and declared itself the parliament of an Irish Republic. That same day, IRA fighters in County Tipperary stole 168 pounds of gelignite, killing the two police officers who were guarding it.

As Woodrow Wilson recovered from his stroke, the effort to gain Senate approval for the Treaty of Versailles floundered, and the US government was without a leader.