Chapter 26 The Futile Search for a New Stability: Europe Between the Wars, 1919-1939 An Uncertain Peace: The Search for Security The French Policy of Coercion (1919-1924) April 1921: Allied Reparations Commission settled on a sum of 132 billion marks 1922: Germany unable to pay reparations French occupy Ruhr valley Both Germany and France suffered from the French occupation of the Ruhr German policy of passive resistance: printed more paper money intensified inflation Economic disaster fueled political upheavals October 1923: Communists staged uprisings November 1923: Nazis attempt to seize power in Munich U.S. and Britain force French to agree to a new conference of experts to reassess the reparations problem The Hopeful Years (1924-1929)