The Marshall plan, officially referred to as the Economic Recovery Program (ERP) was an American initiative on behalf of the secretary of state George Marshall. It was a plan which gave around $12.3 billion in aid to help rebuild economies in Europe and Asia in the aftermath of the Second World War (WW2) 1939-1945. Initiated in April 1948, over four years it aimed to ‘rebuild war-devastated regions, remove trade barriers, modernize industry, and make Europe prosperous again’ however the impact of the plan expanded beyond simply the economic sphere. This essay will address Western countries including Britain, France, the United States (US), Italy, West Germany, the Netherlands and Greece based on their cohesive ideologies and virtual political alliance. Importance in the case of this essay will draw on the effect of the plan in the long term and its impact on the future of Europe. Also the relative degree of importance will be measured according to which the Marshall Plan was solely responsible for reconstruction in the post-war period. This essay will look at economic reconstruction and modernisation, psychological, social and political reconstruction as well as discuss whether it was reconstruction or the construction of something new. It will argue that it did not have such an impact on economic …show more content…
Essentially it established ‘a new world order under American hegemony. Remarkably also it made the US less isolationist, and more expansionist. It was reconstruction in that it formed a political alliance again like the Great powers in the Second World War however it involved difference countries so something new. It was one which involved and in fact dependent on Germany a former enemy and excluded the Soviet Union, a former ally. Also one which was driven solely by the US, a country which once sat on the periphery regarding European