Free SACE Modern History Flashcard Review

The armistice stopped the fighting; the treaty, signed in June 1919, established peace terms. They were separate decisions in different circumstances.

Military defeat and exhausted resources constrained political choices. An explanation centred only on civilian betrayal ignores those conditions.

It ended the monarchy and opened the way for a republic, although old elites and institutions did not disappear with the Kaiser.

Parliamentary social democrats and advocates of a council-based revolutionary order disagreed over institutions, ownership and the pace of change.

Military leaders offered support to Ebert’s government against revolutionary disorder; the government accepted the army leadership’s continuing authority.

It helped the government survive, but its reliance on the existing military leadership limited revolutionary change and left an ambivalent institution influential.

It gave elected representatives responsibility for a constitutional settlement, demonstrating a parliamentary route amid revolutionary conflict.

Proportional representation translated party support into seats and universal adult suffrage included women; representation did not itself guarantee durable coalitions.

An elected Reichstag and responsible government coexisted with a strong presidency, including emergency powers that could bypass normal parliamentary processes.

Constitutional vulnerabilities and inherited opposition mattered, but survival, recovery and later decisions show that collapse requires an explanation of changing circumstances.

It assigned Germany and its allies responsibility for losses and damage arising from the war as the basis for compensation. Its legal role and its political reception should be distinguished.

German representatives had little power to negotiate the terms and faced severe pressure to accept them. That perception helped opponents attack the republic associated with acceptance.

Schedules, arrangements and international negotiations changed. The Dawes and Young Plans altered the context, and actual payments differed from headline demands.

They sought to enforce reparations obligations after Germany was judged in default on deliveries; the occupation then intensified a wider political and economic conflict.

The government supported non-cooperation and continued paying workers while production and revenues suffered, increasing pressure to finance spending through money creation.

Wartime finance, post-war deficits, confidence, currency depreciation and the Ruhr confrontation interacted. Money creation explains a mechanism within those conditions.

The purchasing power of money-denominated savings and fixed incomes collapsed; owning a large nominal balance did not preserve its real value.

Debtors could repay fixed nominal debts in depreciated money, while creditors received money worth less. Outcomes also depended on income, assets and access to adjustment.

It ended the policy, helping remove a major fiscal and diplomatic obstacle to stabilisation, while provoking nationalist criticism of the concession.

The Rentenmark and fiscal measures addressed the immediate currency crisis; the later plan restructured reparations arrangements and encouraged foreign lending.