War reparations arecompensation payments made after awar by one side to the other. They are intended to coverdamage or injury inflicted during a war. War reparations can take the form of hard currency, precious metals, natural resources, industrial assets, or intellectual properties.[1] Loss of territory in a peace settlement is usually considered to be distinct from war reparations.
War reparations are often governed by treaties which belligerent parties negotiate as part of apeace settlement.[1] Payment of reparations often occur as part of a condition to remove occupying troops or under the threat of re-occupation.[1] The legal basis for war reparations in modern international law is Article 3 of theHague Convention of 1907.[1]
Prominent examples of war reparations include Carthage's indemnity paid to Rome following theFirst Punic War, French reparations following theNapoleonic Wars, Haiti's reparations to France following theHaitian War of Independence (1791–1804), French reparations to Germany following theFranco-Prussian War (1870–1871), and German reparations followingWorld War I.[1]
Making one party pay a warindemnity is a common practice with a long history.
Rome imposed largeindemnities onCarthage after theFirst (Treaty of Lutatius, 241 BC) andSecond Punic Wars.[2]
There was also the case of 230 million silvertaels in reparations imposed on defeated China after theFirst Sino-Japanese War led Japan to a similar decision.[3]
There have been attempts to codify reparations both in the Statutes of theInternational Criminal Court and the UN Basic Principles on the Right to a Remedy and Reparation for Victims, and some scholars have argued that individuals should have a right to seek compensation for wrongs they sustained during warfare through tort law.[4][5][6]
States do not necessarily end up repaying the war debts that they initially agreed to.[7]
KingChristian IV ofDenmark attackedSweden in the 1611–1613Kalmar War but failed to accomplish his main objective of forcing it to return to theKalmar Union. The war led to no territorial changes, but Sweden was forced to pay a war indemnity of 1 million silverriksdaler to Denmark, an amount known as theÄlvsborg ransom.[8] King Christian used this money to found several towns and fortresses, most notablyGlückstadt (founded as a rival toHamburg) andChristiania.
FollowingNapoleon's final loss at theBattle of Waterloo, under theTreaty of Paris (1815), defeated France was ordered to pay 700 million francs in indemnities. France was also to pay additional money to cover the cost of providing additional defensive fortifications to be built by neighbouring Coalition countries. It was the most expensive war reparation ever paid by a country (in proportion to its GDP).[9]
After theFranco-Prussian War, according to conditions ofTreaty of Frankfurt (May 10, 1871),France was obliged to pay a warindemnity of 5 billion gold francs in five years. The indemnity was proportioned, according to population, to be the exact equivalent to the indemnity imposed byNapoleon on Prussia in1807.[10] German troops remained in parts of France until the last installment of the indemnity was paid in September 1873, ahead of schedule.[11]
Following theGreco-Turkish War (1897), defeated Greece was forced to pay a large war indemnity to Turkey (£4 million). Greece, which was already in default,[clarification needed] was compelled to permit oversight of its public finances by an international financial commission.[12]
Russians agreed to pay reparations to theCentral Powers when Russia exited the war in theTreaty of Brest-Litovsk (which was repudiated by theBolshevik government eight months later).Bulgaria paid reparations of 2.25 billion gold francs (90 million pounds) to the Entente, according to theTreaty of Neuilly.
Germany agreed to pay reparations of 132 billiongold marks to theTriple Entente in theTreaty of Versailles. When Germany stopped making payments in 1932 after the agreement reached at theLausanne Conference failed to be ratified,[13] Germany had paid only a part of the sum. This still left Germany with debts it had incurred in order to finance the reparations, and these were revised by theAgreement on German External Debts in 1953. After another pause pending the reunification of Germany, the last installment of these debt repayments was paid on 3 October 2010.[14]
During World War II, Germany extracted payments from occupied countries, compelled loans, stole or destroyed property. In addition, countries were obliged to provide resources, and forced labour.
AfterWorld War II, according to thePotsdam Conference held between July 17 and August 2, 1945, Germany was to pay theAllies US$23 billion mainly in machinery andmanufacturing plants. Dismantling in the West stopped in 1950. Reparations to theSoviet Union stopped in 1953 (only paid by the GDR).
Beginning before the German surrender and continuing for the next two years, theUnited States pursued a vigorous program of harvesting technological and scientific know-how as well as patents and many leading scientists in Germany (known asOperation Paperclip). HistorianJohn Gimbel, in his bookScience Technology and Reparations: Exploitation and Plunder in Postwar Germany, states that the "intellectual reparations" (referring to German scientists) taken by the Allies amounted to close to $10 billion.[15]German reparations were partly to be in the form offorced labor. By 1947, approximately 4,000,000 GermanPOWs and civilians were used as forced labor (under various headings, such as "reparations labor" or "enforced labor") in Europe, Canada and the United States after the end of the Second World War.
According to theTreaty of Peace with Italy, 1947,Italy agreed to pay reparations of about US$125 million toYugoslavia, US$105 million toGreece, US$100 million to the Soviet Union, US$25 million toEthiopia, and US$5 million toAlbania.[citation needed]
Hungary agreed to pay reparations of US$200 million to the Soviet Union, and US$100 million apiece toCzechoslovakia and Yugoslavia.[citation needed]
Romania agreed to pay reparations of US$300 million to the Soviet Union. Romanian economists estimated that by February 1947 the Romanian economy had suffered further losses due to returning seized goods (US$320 million), restoring properties to theUnited Nations and their nationals (US$200 million), renouncing German debts (US$200 million), irregular requisitioning (US$150 million) and maintenance of the Soviet Army unit on its territory (US$75 million).[16] Romania paid $5.6 million in 1945[17] and, in the assessment ofDigi24, it was coerced to pay throughSovRom $2 billion.[18]
Finland could only negotiate an interim peace deal with Soviet Union by agreeing to extensive reparations, and was eventually the only country to pay settled war reparations in full. The total amount of reparations rose to US$500 million, at the value of the dollar in 1953.[19]
TheTreaty of Shimonoseki, signed on April 17, 1895, obliged China to pay an indemnity of 200 million silver taels (¥3.61 billion) to Japan; and to open the ports ofShashi,Chongqing,Suzhou andHangzhou to Japanese trade.[citation needed]
According to Article 14 of theTreaty of San Francisco (1951):
It is recognized that Japan should pay reparations to the Allied Powers for the damage and suffering caused by it during the war....Japan will promptly enter into negotiations with Allied Powers so desiring, whose present territories were occupied by Japanese forces and damaged by Japan, with a view to assisting to compensate those countries for the cost of repairing the damage done, by making available the services of the Japanese people in production, salvaging and other work for the Allied Powers in question.
War reparations made pursuant to the San Francisco Peace Treaty with Japan (1951) include: reparations amounting to US$550 million (198 billion yen 1956) were made to thePhilippines, and US$39 million (14.04 billion yen 1959) toSouth Vietnam; payment to theInternational Committee of the Red Cross to compensate prisoners of war (POW) of 4.5 million pounds sterling (4.54109 billion yen) was made; and Japan relinquished all overseas assets, approximately US$23.681 billion (379.499 billion yen).
Japan signed the peace treaty with 49 nations in 1952 and concluded 54 bilateral agreements that included those withBurma (US$20 million 1954, 1963),South Korea (US$300 million 1965),Indonesia (US$223.08 million 1958), the Philippines (US$525 million/52.94 billion yen 1967),Malaysia (25 million Malaysian dollars/2.94 billion yen 1967),Thailand (5.4 billion yen 1955),Micronesia (1969),Laos (1958),Cambodia (1959),Mongolia (1977),Spain ($5.5 million 1957),Switzerland, theNetherlands ($10 million 1956),Sweden andDenmark. Payments of reparations started in 1955, lasted for 23 years and ended in 1977. For countries that renounced any reparations from Japan, it agreed to pay an indemnity and/or grants in accordance with bilateral agreements. In theJoint Communiqué of the Government of Japan and the Government of the People's Republic of China (1972), the People's Republic of China renounced its demand for war reparations from Japan. In theSoviet–Japanese Joint Declaration of 1956, the Soviet Union waived its rights to reparations from Japan, and both Japan and the Soviet Union waived all reparations claims arising from war. Additionally,Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), under PresidentJ. R. Jayewardene, declined war reparations from Japan.[20]
After theGulf War,Iraq acceptedUnited Nations Security Council Resolution 687, which declared Iraq's financial liability for damage caused in its invasion ofKuwait.[21] TheUnited Nations Compensation Commission (UNCC) was established, and US$350 billion in claims were filed by governments, corporations, and individuals. UNCC accepted and awarded compensations claims for $52.4 billion to approximately 1.5 million successful claimants; as of July 2019, $48.7 billion has been paid and only $3.7 billion was left to be paid to Kuwait on behalf of the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation.[22] The UNCC says that its prioritization of claims by natural people, ahead of claims by governments and entities or corporations (legal persons), "marked a significant step in the evolution of international claims practice". Funds for these payments were to come from a 30% share of Iraq's oil revenues from theoil for food program.
Certain groups in Iraq and the United States have campaigned for reparations by the United States for the devastation and health effects suffered by Iraqi citizens during the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in theIraq War. However, there has been little international support.[23][24]
