oh hey welcome to unit 9 of AP Euro so the second world war is over and a lot of Europe is not much more than a smoking pile of rubble which is to say post-war Europe is firmly Seated on The Struggle Bus so how are they going to rebuild everything when they already spent all their dang money on destroying it well that's what this video is about so if you're ready to get them brain cows milked Marshall Plan style then let's get to so before we talk about what the Marshall Plan was let me give you some context after World War II was over two Global superpowers emerged from the wreckage the Soviet Union and the United States and the conflict between these two superpowers known as the Cold War will define global events until the last part of the 20th century now we'll talk all about the Cold War and other videos but for now all you need to know is that much of the conflict between these two Powers had to do with their political and economic worldview the Soviet Union was organized as an authoritarian communist state while the United States was organized as a democratic capitalist State and each of these Powers wanted to remake the entire world into the image either of Communism or democracy and hey if you got that National AP Euro exam breathing down your neck at this point you might want to check out my AP Euro review pack which has everything you need to study for 4 and score A5 on that exam Link in description okay so when World War II was finally at an end the Democratic states of Western Europe were as I mentioned in a bad way their infrastructure had been destroyed by bombing in their populations especially the male populations have been decimated by the fight when States and populations are in real economic trouble they might be sorely tempted to give communism a try after all under the dictates of a communist state at least in theory everyone would have enough food and everyone would have gainful employment but the idea of these Western democracies falling to the influence of Communism stank profoundly in the nostrils of the United States so big daddy America decided to get involved in Western Europe's economic recovery and side note if you're wondering why they didn't get involved in eastern Europe's recovery it's because much of Eastern Europe was already under the thumb and authority of the Soviet Union and they did not want any of that filthy Democratic money more on that in another video anyway the U.S proposal to help in Western Europe's economic recovery became known as the Marshall Plan which was implemented in 1947. this plan allocated 13 billion dollars in economic aid to Western Nations seeking to rebuild just in case your knowledge of the 1947-1951 and U.S federal budget is a little shaky let me just tell you that 13 billion was about 10 percent of the entire federal budget during those years in case you haven't fallen out of your chair just yet that is a lot 10 of all U.S spending for those years was sent to Western European States for their recovery and I emphasize that because the first question you have to ask is why would the United States send so much stinking money to countries that are not themselves well it's because there was a very real fear that if communism began to spread throughout Western Europe then communism would take over the whole world so if it takes 13 billion dollars to stop communism you betcha sweet bippy we're spending 13 billion so the question now is did it work and the answer is yeah it worked phenomenal so in that case let's have a look at some of the effects of the Marshall Plan the first effect was rapid economic recovery in Western Europe this massive influx of American money Western European States quickly rebuilt cities and roads and bridges since they now had the money to purchase the raw materials that they need this in turn got the industrial sector humming again and factories roared back to life to produce the goods needed for reconstruction in fact it worked so well that by 1950 European industry on the whole surpassed its pre-war output and perhaps the poster child of post-war recovery was West Germany and you're like hold on heimler what's West Germany well after the war Germany was essentially splitting two halves with Western European states in the United States aiding the Western half in the Soviet Union aiding the Eastern anyway as funds from the Marshall Plan flooded into West Germany their recovery was so profound it was dubbed in economic Miracle by 1955 just the Western half of Germany had increased its economic output so much that was larger than all of Germany's output before the war now to be clear the economic Miracle applied to all of Western Europe but it was especially pronounced in West Germany the second effect was the increased importance of consumerism now consumerism by definition is the idea that the well-being of a nation's economy is dependent on people buying consumer goods and those goods included things like cars and washing machines and clothing and day near anything else you could think of and as a result of people buying more and more manufactured goods wages began to rise significantly in the middle class expansion so in terms of economic recovery in Western Europe did The Marshall Plan work and the answer is a resounding uh heck okay to keep reviewing for Unit Nine click right here or click right here to grab my Apu or review back which is everything you need to get an A in your class and a five on your examine and hey I'll catch you on the flip-flop I'm larouche