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| 1923, Jan. 2–4 |
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| Paris conference. British and Italian schemes for bond issues, and so on, were rejected by the French. | 1 |
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| Jan. 9 |
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| Germany declared in default on coal deliveries. | 2 |
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| Jan. 11 |
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| French and Belgian troops began the OCCUPATION OF THE RUHR DISTRICT. The British government refused to take part in it and in a note of Aug. 11 declared that the “Franco-Belgian action…was not a sanction authorized by the treaty.” The Italian government, though technically associated, took no active part. The activities of the M.I.C.U.M. (mission interalliée de contrôle des usines et des mines), sent into the heart of Germany to supervise business enterprises under military protection, were not, according to the Franco-Belgian note (Jan. 10), to disturb the normal life of the civilian population. But the German government urged passive resistance on the people of the Ruhr and recklessly inflated the currency to defray the expense of supporting idle workers and compensating their employers. The French fomented a separatist movement in the Rhineland, which failed, after some bloodshed, to establish an independent buffer state. | 3 |
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| Aug.–Sept |
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| THE CORFU INCIDENT. Gen. Enrico Tellini and four members of his staff were assassinated (Aug. 27) while engaged in delimiting the Greek-Albanian frontier. The Italian government sent a stiff ultimatum to Greece (Aug. 29) and on Aug. 31 bombarded and occupied Corfu. Greece appealed to the League of Nations and agreed to accept the decision of the council of ambassadors. The latter sent a note to Greece embodying most of the Italian demands. Under considerable pressure from Britain and other powers, the Italians evacuated Corfu (Sept. 27). | 4 |
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| Sept. 26 |
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| End of passive resistance in the Ruhr. German paper marks had sunk to the point of being worth less than the paper they were printed on. The effect of the financial collapse could not be confined to Germany. The French franc fell about 25 percent, and by November the French were willing to make an agreement directly with the Ruhr mine operators to secure deliveries. Stanley Baldwin, British prime minister, secured a promise of American cooperation to avert a more global economic and financial collapse. | 5 |
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| Nov. 1, 2 |
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| Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia concluded defensive treaties, which paved the way for close relations and the ultimate construction of a Baltic bloc (1934) (See Overview). | 6 |
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| Nov. 30 |
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| Two committees were organized to investigate the German economic problem as it touched reparations. | 7 |
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