reparations, Payment in money or materials by a nation defeated in war. After World War I, reparations to the Allied Powers were required of Germany by the Treaty of Versailles. The original amount of $33 billion was later reduced by the Dawes Plan and the Young Plan and was canceled after 1933. In the 1920s German resentment over reparations was used by ultranationalists to foment political unrest.
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