Reparations are often part of the financial settlements that follow war.
Most economists are familiar with the German Reparations after World War I, as they are often presented to demonstrate the folly of attempting a huge forced international transfer or are cited as a factor contributing to the Great Depression. But, reparations are more common than usually supposed and have a long and varied history. The reparations paid by the French after the Napoleonic wars and the Franco-Prussian War were two of the largest successful coerced transfers, contrasting other reparations cases and revealing how major transfers were effected. Not once, but twice the French paid in full and ahead of time. I German reparations, the French have often been depicted as impossibly intransigent, demanding unpayable reparations from their adversary.