The world economy grew and improved at a rate never seen before in History.
Explanation:
The Marshall Plan in Action
The Marshall Plan allowed European states suffering from extreme economic problems to survive a critical time with less trouble. The aid provided essential goods such as steel, machinery, fuel, and food. This aid also fueled reconstruction projects and provided technical assistance to allow European businesses to improve worker productivity. It gave European governments the freedom to focus on reviving their economies without cutting critical social programs that helped ordinary people stay in their homes and feed their families. These governments could hold onto power and prevent communist coups from weakening their already unstable democracies as they did in Hungary and Czechoslovakia.
A promotional poster for the Marshall Plan which says "Whatever the weather, we only reach welfare together."
By September 1947, 16 states submitted a recovery plan to the United States. By April of the following year, the US Congress passed the Foreign Assistance Act and implemented the Marshall Plan. President Truman signed it into law the next day. The United States next created an authority called the Economic Cooperative Administration to administer the aid to the European states. This included the new state of West Germany as the seventeenth country to sign up as a recipient.
The Marshall Plan funds were divided into several categories. First, Europeans needed to receive food and agricultural products. The American government sent $5.3 billion to help them. The factories needed to be restarted and raw materials purchased. To that end, the United States sent $5.5 billion. The goods required shipment to Europe, for which the United States paid $800 million. Finally, to avoid trade imbalances and currency problems, the United States helped set up the European Payments Union (EPU), which was funded with $500 million of US aid.
The Marshall Plan ended on the last day of 1951. By then, it was responsible for a remarkable transformation in the countries it served. Food production increased by 27 percent. Overall industrial production increased by 64 percent. The Marshall Plan financed 132 large industrial projects, including 27 new power plants, 32 iron and steel plants, and 11 petroleum refineries. New airports, shipping facilities, and railways were built all over Marshall Plan countries.
European states had to figure out a way to work together to receive funds. They began to see each other as partners rather than rivals. They began to collaborate on new initiatives to integrate by allowing West Germany to become a member of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) in 1951. The ECSC would eventually evolve into what's known today as the European Union, a 27-member community of European states.
