The Dawes Plan and the Young Plan

          Following the end of the Great War, or World War I, costs relating to reparations and payment between allied forces and Germany began to stir up some conflicts.  The United States of America proposed the Dawes Plan and the Young Plan in hopes to provide possible ways to go about the reparation process. Here is a brief summary of what each plan called for and what occurred after the consideration of each plan.

Charles G. Dawes

          The Dawes Plan, proposed by Charles G. Dawes and a committee that was part of the Reparation Commission, entailed primarily that Germany's repayment costs to other countries would begin a lower amount. However, as the German economy and general national stability improves over time, the reparation costs would heighten as well. To ensure that Germany's economy would improve, Dawes proposed that the Ruhr region would be given back to Germany after being taken by Belgium and France. This was because the Ruhr region was a valuable center of German production of coal, iron, and steel. This, along with the encouragement of foreign banks loaning money to Germany and a new form of a German currency, would hopefully aid in the reconstruction and economic instability that Germany was in. In addition, foreign-powered supervision would be present for any and all policies proposed by the German government.

Ruhr region of Germany

          What resulted from the Dawes Plan included a certain cycle of money. To be more specific, the United States of America loaned money to Germany for multiple years. This money was used by Germany in order to pay for their reparation costs to certain countries, the Allies. This money received by the Allies was then used to pay for certain debts to the United States of America. This cycle is seen in the graphic below. 

From class slideshow on Edmodo

          The Young Plan was formed by another committee that was headed by Owen D. Young, who was the head of General Electric and a member of the Dawes committee. The Young Plan entailed that Germany's payments for reparations would be settled at around $29-30 billion that would be payed over 58-60 years. With this, a $300 million loan would become present for the other foreign powers. Additionally, there would be no more foreign-powered supervision in Germany in all respects. This included supervision of German policies, finances, and German land.

Owen D. Young

          What came from the Young Plan includes the establishment of the Bank for International Settlements, which still exists today. This bank helps with international financial cooperation and organization of reparation activities.

Bank for International Settlements (Basel, Switzerland) today

          Both the Dawes Plan and the Young Plan made efforts to form a specific, organized way of going about the reparation process after the First World War. Both plans can be considered to be important in America's history, for they influenced foreign economic/political relations and cooperation heavily. This is evidenced by the creation of organizations, such as the Bank for International Settlements, and a certain ideology that wishes for international teamwork. 

Sources:

https://history.state.gov/milestones/1921-1936/dawes

Images:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9a/Chas_G_Dawes-H%26E.jpg
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b2/Locator_map_RVR_in_Germany.svg/250px-Locator_map_RVR_in_Germany.svg.png
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/96/Bundesarchiv_Bild_102-00176%2C_Owen_D._Young.jpg/220px-Bundesarchiv_Bild_102-00176%2C_Owen_D._Young.jpg
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f3/Basel_-_Bank_f%C3%BCr_internationalen_Zahlungsausgleich1.jpg/220px-Basel_-_Bank_f%C3%BCr_internationalen_Zahlungsausgleich1.jpg