imposing cash payments to Germany, similar to the French indemnity that followed German victory over France in 1870. However, the exchange rate of the mark against the US dollar steadily devalued from 4.2 to 7.9 marks per dollar between 1914 and 1918, a preliminary warning of the extreme postwar inflation.

This strategy failed as Germany lost the war, which left the new Weimar Republic saddled with massive war debts that it could not afford: the national debt