Dawes Plan was a program designed to help Germany pay its World War I reparations (payments for damages). In 1921, the Allies set Germany’s debt at $33 billion. Germany failed to make payments on time. In response, French and Belgian forces occupied Germany’s Ruhr industrial region. In 1924, an international committee led by Charles G. Dawes, a banker who later became vice president of the United States, attempted to resolve the crisis. The Dawes Plan relaxed Germany’s payment schedule and called for U.S. loans to help Germany’s economy. In 1929, the Young Plan replaced the Dawes Plan. But Germany stopped making payments during the Great Depression.
