As with the effects on USA, Europe faced great economic difficulties during the Great Depression. Also, USA's reduced trading with foreign countries worsened the situation in Europe. Heavy industries were hit hard, and people turned to extremists like Hitler and Mussolini for political change. This led to WWII.
In France, the effects were not drastic enough, since they were quite self-sufficient as a result of the Treaty of Versailles compensating for their losses in WWI. There were, however, some rioting.
However, in Germany, the Weimar Republic faced more problems. Because USA stopped their loads to Germany, German economy could not rebuild, and unemployment went up. The problems and unhappiness of the people led to Hitler's rise to power.
Britain was also hit badly, and the unemployment rate went up by more than 100%, while trade fell to about half. However, even though the Labour party-led government was overthrown, the Conservative Party took over and there was no mass support of extremist parties.
The Great Depression, therefore, caused economic downturns in Europe and led to several political changes. It was in Germany that Nazism took over as a result and led to WWII.
Sources:
No comments:
Post a Comment