What was the Marshall Plan?
Formally European Recovery Program, (April 1948–December 1951), it was a U.S.-sponsored program designed to rehabilitate the economies of 17 western and southern European countries in order to create stable conditions in which democratic institutions could survive. American economic reconstruction plan after WW2
Why was The Marshall Plan enforced?
- The United States feared that the poverty, unemployment, and dislocation of the post-World War II period were reinforcing the appeal of communist parties to voters in Western Europe.
- On June 5, 1947, in an address at Harvard University, Secretary of State George C. Marshall advanced the idea of a European self-help program to be financed by the United States.
When?
1948 - 1951
Which were the greatest beneficiaries?
- UK, France, FRG (Federal Republic of Germany)
- Applied in 18 European countries, not the Soviet Bloc
Which was the monetary value of the programme?
13 billion US $ (today x10)
Positive consequences?
The Marshall Plan was very successful.
The western European countries involved experienced a rise in their gross national products of 15 to 25 percent during this period. The plan contributed greatly to the rapid renewal of the western European chemical, engineering, and steel industries.
Truman extended the Marshall Plan to less-developed countries throughout the world under the Point Four Program, initiated in 1949.
How did the ERP help Europe recover?
- The ERP addressed each of the obstacles to postwar recovery. The plan looked to the future and did not focus on the destruction caused by the war. Much more important were efforts to modernize European industrial and business practices using high-efficiency American models, reducing artificial trade barriers, and instilling a sense of hope and self-reliance
- The Marshall Plan was one of the first elements of European integration, as it erased trade barriers and set up institutions to coordinate the economy on a continental level—that is, it stimulated the total political reconstruction of Western Europe.
- Much of the Marshall Plan aid would be used by the Europeans to buy manufactured goods and raw materials from the United States and Canada.
Which was the response to the ERP?
- The Molotov Plan was the system created by the Soviet Union in 1947 in order to provide aid to rebuild the countries in Eastern Europe that were politically and economically aligned to the Soviet Union.
- It was originally called the “Brother Plan” in the Soviet Union. It can be seen to be the Soviet Union’s version of the Marshall Plan, which for political reasons the Eastern European countries would not be able to join without leaving the Soviet sphere of influence.
- Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov rejected the Marshall Plan (1947), proposing instead the Molotov Plan—the Soviet-sponsored economic grouping which was eventually expanded to become the Comecon.
