What Was The Importance Of The Marshall Plan

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HISTORY PROJECT ONE
COLD WAR

Research question:
What was the importance of the Marshall plan and how did it benefit eastern Europe?

Europe was devastated by years of conflict during World War II. Millions of people had been killed or wounded. Agricultural production had also been disrupted by war which. Europe remained ravaged by war and thus susceptible to exploitation by an internal and external Communist threat. The only major power in the world that was not significantly damaged was the United States.
The Marshall Plan (officially the European Recovery Program, ERP) was an American initiative to aid Western Europe, in which the United States gave $13 billion) in economic support to help rebuild Western European economies after the end of World War II.
The plan was proposed by US Secretary of State - George C. Marshall. During 1948 - 1951 years. Officially known as the European Recovery Program (ERP), the Marshall Plan was intended to rebuild the …show more content…

This cqn be clearly seen with the differences between both the photos. the first one is from 1947 just after world war ended and the second one is from 8 years later from 1955. Marshall Plan gave or lend $13 billion to 17 countries. The money was used to rebuild bridges, factories, railroads, hospitals and schools. The money provided to the European nations enabled them to restore their economies from the ravages of W W II. With unemployment decreasing, more money was spent on goods and services which aided the economy. The nations that owed the US money were able to start paying the debts down and the US began to sell products again to Europe. The Marshall Plan was very successful. The western European countries involved experienced a rise in their gross national products of 15 to 25% during this period. The plan contributed greatly to the rapid renewal of the western European chemical, engineering, and steel