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The Occupation of the Ruhr in 1923 and 1924, by troops from France and Belgium was a response to the failure of German Weimar Republic under Cuno to pay reparations in the aftermath of World War I. Initiated by French Prime Minister Raymond Poincaré, the invasion took place on January 11, 1923, with the aim of occupying the centre of German coal, iron and steel production in the Ruhr area valley. The occupation was initially greeted by a campaign of passive resistance, and a few incidents of sabotage (which the Nazis were later to portray as a myth of widespread armed resistance). In the face of economic collapse, with huge unemployment and hyperinflation, the strikes were eventually called off in September 1923 by the new Gustav Stresemann coalition government, which was followed by a state of emergency. Despite this, civil unrest grew into riots and coup attempts targeted at the government of the Weimar Republic, including the Beer Hall Putsch. Internationally the occupation did much to boost sympathy for Germany, although no action was taken in the League of Nations in response to what was a clear breach of League rules. The French, with their own economic problems, eventually accepted the Dawes Plan and withdrew from the occupied areas in July/August 1925. The last French troops evacuated Düsseldorf, Duisburg, and Ruhrort, ending French occupation of the Ruhr region on August 25, 1925. The unsuccessful conclusion from the French point of view may have contributed to France's failure to oppose Hitler's remilitarization of the Rhineland eleven years later, in a clear violation of the Treaty of Versailles on Germany's part.
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