The Hoover Moratorium was a public statement issued by United States President

Herbert Hoover Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964) was an American politician who served as the 31st president of the United States from 1929 to 1933 and a member of the Republican Party, holding office during the onset of the Gr ...

on June 20, 1931, who hoped to ease the ongoing international financial crisis and provide time for recovery by instituting a one-year moratorium on payments of German and inter-Allied

war debt War reparations are compensation payments made after a war by one side to the other. They are intended to cover damage or injury inflicted during a war. History Making one party pay a war indemnity is a common practice with a long history. R ...

stemming from

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. The proposal would postpone the repayment of both capital and interest. Many, both in the United States and abroad, were outraged by this idea.Staff (nndg
"Hoover Moratorium"
US History.com The statement was met with initial disapproval from France and many American citizens, but, after much telephonic lobbying by Hoover, went on to gain support from 15 nations by July 6. It was approved by the

United States Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washing ...

in December. However, neither the moratorium nor the permanent cancellation of the reparations did much to slow the economic downturn in Europe. Germany was caught in a major banking crisis, Britain left the gold standard – the US would follow suit in 1933 as part of President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal – and France intended to address the issue again once the one-year suspension had ended. A few of the former Allies continued to make payments to the United States after the moratorium expired. However, only Finland was able and willing to meet all obligations. A committee formed under the terms of

Young Plan The Young Plan was a program for settling Germany's World War I reparations. It was written in August 1929 and formally adopted in 1930. It was presented by the committee headed (1929–30) by American industrialist Owen D. Young, founder and for ...

– a previous reduction in Germany's war debt schedule – concluded that Germany would not be able to meet its obligations, and recommended that their debt be permanently cancelled. At the

Lausanne Conference of 1932 The Lausanne Conference was a 1932 meeting of representatives from the United Kingdom, Germany, and France that resulted in an agreement to suspend World War I reparations payments imposed on Germany by the Treaty of Versailles. Held from June 16 ...

, the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

and France relieved Germany of its reparation payments, subject to their being able to reach an agreement with the United States concerning their own outstanding war debts. Although the

voted against the proposition to relieve France and the United Kingdom of their debt, they never started paying their debt again as the German payment had been used for it before, and conditions soon militated against their being able to do so.

References

* Banholzer, Simon, and Tobias Straumann. "Why the French Said ‘Non’: A New Perspective on the Hoover Moratorium of June 1931." ''Journal of Contemporary History'' 56.4 (2021): 1040-1060. * Matera, Paulina. "The Question of War Debts and Reparations in French-American Relations after WWI." ''Humanities and Social Sciences'' 21.23 (2) (2016): 133-143
online
* Pemberton, Jo-Anne. "The Hoover Plan, Reparations and the French Constructive Plan." in Pemberton, ''The Story of International Relations, Part Two'' (Palgrave Macmillan, Cham, 2019) pp. 185-277. * Reinhart, Carmen M., and Christoph Trebesch. "Sovereign debt relief and its aftermath." ''Journal of the European Economic Association'' 14.1 (2016): 215-251
online
Great Depression in the United States History of the foreign relations of the United States Aftermath of World War I in Germany Moratorium 1930s economic history 1931 in international relations 1931 in the United States Aftermath of World War I in the United States 1931 documents {{US-hist-stub

See also

References

Further reading