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The arrival of 2019 did not make Europe more peaceful, but felt a strong atmosphere of tension at the beginning of the year. Because on January 11, despite the opposition of the United Kingdom and the United States, France, together with Belgium, dispatched troops to occupy Germany's Ruhr Industrial Zone on the pretext of Germany's failure to fulfill its reparations obligations. This led to the outbreak of the far-reaching Ruhr crisis.

Due to the severe consumption of the war and the needs of the newly added Alsace-Lorraine region, France's domestic reserves of raw materials, 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 would bring huge reparations, but because Germany delayed the payment of reparations on the grounds of inflation.

And 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, denouncing the German Empire as "born in injustice and deserved to die in shame."

And he also criticized Clemenceau for making too many concessions to Britain on the Farsey contract. It can be said that he is the toughest politician in France against Germany.

And in 1922, when Poincaré came to power, he declared in parliament: "The first and foremost matter facing France is that even if there is a problem of reparations, Germany has the ability to pay the reparations, and the Allies have the means to compel him to pay the reparations in full.

At the London meeting in mid-August, Britain and France did not reach any agreement on the German issue, and Poengale, who attended the meeting, said instead, "Although France is empty-handed, it has no constraints."

What makes Poengale so emboldened is the French dominance of the compensation commission.

The Treaty of Versailles stipulated that Germany should pay 20 billion gold marks in reparations before May 1, 1921, and set up a reparations committee to solve the problem of the total amount and distribution of reparations. The committee was located in Paris and consisted of one representative from Britain, France, Italy and Belgium (the United States only sent semi-official representatives because of its refusal to ratify the peace treaty). The French representative is the chairman, who has the power to make the final ruling on a two-vote vote, thus giving France the de facto leadership on the German reparations issue.

To prevent Germany from defaulting on the reparations, the Allies reached an agreement in April 1920: if Germany did not pay the reparations, the Allies could take sanction measures. In July of the same year, the Reparations Committee held a meeting in Spa with the participation of Germans, and stipulated the proportion of the reparations due to each country. But Germany delayed the payment, and by the beginning of 1921, the originally stipulated payment of 20 billion gold marks was about 12 billion short.

So the Reparations Committee forced Germany to accept the reparation schedule stipulated by the Allied countries at the London meeting held in March 1921. Germany refused. Selldorf, Duisburg and Ruhr Alt.

In April of the same year, the Reparations Committee decided that Germany's total reparations amounted to 132 billion gold marks (including the 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, demanding that Germany pay 2 billion gold marks a year and 26 percent of the value of its exports, and that the 1921 must be delivered by the end of May. Indemnity of 1 billion gold marks. If Germany did not answer satisfactorily by 12 May, the Allies would occupy the Ruhr.

This led to the fall of the German Fehrenbach cabinet. The Wirth cabinet, which was replaced, accepted the total amount of reparations and the payment schedule on May 11, and Germany paid 1 billion gold marks in reparations by August.

After paying the above-mentioned reparations, Germany intends to delay future payments. In July and November 1922, Germany demanded a deferral of the remaining payments, citing a financial crisis. The British government supported Germany's request for a reduction in the total amount of reparations and a deferral of payments, but was firmly opposed by France.

As a result, not only the differences between Britain and France on the issue of reparations intensified, but also the contradiction between Germany and France intensified rapidly, 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 region between the Ruhr and Lipper, tributaries of the lower Rhine. Its area is 4593 square kilometers, accounting for 1.3% of the national area. The population and cities in the area are dense, 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 in the area with more than 50,000 people. Even though the Ruhr area is small, it is the center of Germany's metallurgical industry, and its coal, pig iron and steel production accounts for more than 80% of Germany's annual production.

Therefore, in the face of the military takeover of the Fa-Bergian coalition, German Chancellor Cuno ordered passive resistance. Declared not to cooperate with the French and Belgian occupation authorities, recalled the ambassadors to Paris and Brussels, and stopped paying all compensation to France and Belgium. The miners and railway workers in the occupied areas went on strike or sabotaged their work, and all railway and waterway traffic from Germany to France and Belgium was paralyzed.

The law and the occupation authorities take coercive measures to control the management, production and distribution of coal, prohibit the export of goods from the occupied areas, and levy coal taxes and other duties. All Germans who participated in passive resistance, including their families, were arrested, imprisoned, fined, deported and even executed.

The German government also sent a note to the Allied Powers and the U.S. government, emphasizing that Germany will continue to carry out passive resistance until normal conditions are restored in the Ruhr and Rhineland regions. The note suggested that Germany should pay a total of 30 billion gold marks, some of which should be paid for by international loans. France found the German proposal to be insubstantial, and Britain was disappointed by the German proposal.

Throughout the summer thereafter, despite British mediation, France refused to negotiate. Due to the loss of the Ruhr heavy industrial area and the huge subsidies for the occupied areas, Germany's financial and economic difficulties became more and more, and the value of the mark plummeted. In mid-June 2019, 100,000 marks were exchanged for 1 US dollar, and on August 8, it fell to 00,000 marks exchanged for 1 US dollar.

The Cuno government resigned on August 12 in the face of internal and external crises. After g. Strasmann succeeded as chancellor, he reformed the finance and currency, suppressed the workers' revolution, and announced that passive resistance would cease from September 26.

He requested several times to negotiate directly with the French government, all of which were rejected by France, so he supported the coal industry syndicate to negotiate with the International Industrial and Mining Control Delegation and the Fabilur District Control Committee.

On November, the two sides signed an agreement, which stipulated that the coal industry syndicate resumed the delivery of coal and coke to the Allied countries, and as compensation in kind from Germany, France and Belgium received 18% of the total coal output and 35% of the total coke output; from October 1st From now on, the coal mined is owned by the coal industry syndicate, and for every ton of coal sold, a tax of 10 francs is paid to the Allied countries.

Through this agreement, France achieved the purpose of forcibly taking Germany's "production collateral". The attitude towards the German compensation issue has eased, and the Ruhr crisis is drawing to a close. On November 30, the Compensation Commission appointed two expert committees to discuss resolving the German compensation issue. Among them, the report of the First Committee of Experts on April 9, 1924 (known as the Dawes Plan) was accepted by the Allies and the German government attending the London Conference (July 16 to August 16, 1924), thus temporarily Resolved the German compensation issue.

On August 16, France, Belgium and Germany reached an agreement to withdraw French and Belgian troops from the Ruhr and other areas within a year of implementing the Dawes plan from September 1.

In fact, the Ruhr crisis was apparently caused by the dispute over the indemnity between Germany and France, but the underlying reason was the deep sense of insecurity in France and the contradiction between France and Germany. In the eyes of French leaders, given Germany's industrial base, population size and geographical location, it is easy for Germany to make a comeback. Once Germany's economy recovers and its armaments are rebuilt, France's nightmare will repeat itself.

Therefore, at the Paris Peace Conference, France had strongly advocated weakening Germany, even dismembering Germany, and eliminating Germany's industrial and military capabilities forever. However, this plan was opposed by the United States and the United Kingdom. President Wilson tried to contain Germany and ensure the security of France through the collective security mechanism of the League of Nations. But the United States did not join the League of Nations after the war, which caused great concern for France's own security.

The final outcome of the Ruhr crisis appears to be the ultimate victory for France. In reality, however, the catastrophic cascading consequences of the crisis were far more dire than the reparations France received. First of all, the most direct damage caused by this crisis is that France's international status has suffered a great blow.

During France's occupation of the Ruhr, the franc also experienced a sharp depreciation due to the crisis. In order to stabilize the economy, France had to borrow a lot like the United States and the United States. In the negotiation of the issue, the dominant power had to be handed over to the United Kingdom and the United States, which were interested in supporting the recovery of Germany's economy.

Another disaster is that on the German side, many veteran forces headed by Hitler and others were already deeply dissatisfied with the Weimar government's series of weak measures in post-war diplomacy. The Ruhr crisis was an excellent propaganda fodder for these nationalists.

The weakness of the Weimar government and the policy of passive resistance caused damage to Germany is obvious. Although the reconciliation between Germany and France and the economic growth made it difficult for these extreme forces to gain too much support, when society fell into crisis and turmoil , bringing the Ruhr crisis out again is tantamount to a fatal blow to the Weimar government.