History remembers a set of the wars which were taking place during different historical eras. The defeated party often had to pay to winners a tribute in a monetary or natural form. In present period it began to be called contribution collection.
Contribution is understood as set of payments which is raised by the winner country in the military conflict from defeated party. Before a concept of contribution of his modern understanding did not exist. As it was noted above, there was a tribute in a monetary or natural form. The tribute could be raised once or a little in a certain period. Sometimes collecting a tribute could last until the defeated party did not fight back interventionists. A typical example is the Tatar-Mongolian yoke lasting in Russia several centuries. There are contributions of two types. Contribution of the first type is collecting monetary or other material supplies from the territory of the won country without the termination on it military operations. Such contribution can include besides the money dues also a grocery duty. It turned out so that the population of the lost country completely took keeping of interventionists on the shoulders. Contribution of the second type is imposed already on the government of the lost state after military operations. As a rule, it is called "compensation of military costs" or "compensation of the material losses connected with war". Both concepts are quite indistinct therefore the won party often raised unfairly overestimated amount of contribution. Contributions in cash were most often raised the next ways: — in a type of tax which size is equivalent that it was paid by the population in peace time to the government; — in the form of the food and goods necessary for keeping of troops; — in the form of penalties which in wartime become the main form of punishment. The Geneva Convention of 1949 completely withdrew application of contributions from application in international law, having replaced them with reparations which purpose — compensation of losses because of military operations and reduction of life to the peaceful course.