In 1921, the new president, Warren G. Harding, held a naval conference to talk about gun control, debt, and the rebuilding of fallen countries. Russia wan't allowed to come due to the fact that it was a communist country. Charles Evan Hughes, the Secretary of State, requested that warships be scrapped and no more should be built; the other powerful nations agreed.
High Tariffs and Reparations
High Tariffs and Reparations
- Britain and France needed to pay America $10 billion back
- They could sell the U.S. products, or they could collect reparations, amends of money, from Germany
- 1922: America adopted the Fordney-McCumber Tariff which raised certain taxes to 60%
- This made it very hard for Britain and France to pay their debts by selling products, so they turned to Germany
- Germany couldn't make the payment, and French soldiers wanted to go to battle
- Charles Dawes was sent in to negotiate and created the Dawes Plan
- The Dawes Plan had American's loan Germany money to pay back Britain and France... America re-payed itself
- Britain and France were angry that America didn't pay costs of WWI while many of them had died, and U.S. considered Britain and France irresponsible with money