The Marshall Plan, officially called the European Renaissance Plan, is a plan for the United States to provide economic assistance and reconstruction to war-damaged western European countries after the Second World War, which has had a far-reaching impact on the development of European countries and the world political structure.

The plan was officially launched in April of 1948 and lasted for four fiscal years. During this period, Western European countries received various forms of assistance from the United States through their participation in the Organization for European Economic Cooperation (OECD), including funds, technology and equipment, totaling1.31.50 billion US dollars, of which 90% was a gift and 1% was a loan.

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For the non-party world, the most important thing in the economic reality in the first few years after the war is the high productivity achieved by the American economic system. The American economy developed greatly during the war. By the end of the war, the United States had occupied two-thirds of the world's industrial production and owned two-thirds of the world's gold.

Its gross national product ratio 1939 has increased by 2.5 times, while its export volume has increased by 3 times. Although some people predicted that the economy would collapse after the war, its economy still developed at an unprecedented speed in the 1950s and 1960s.

After the war, the United States terminated the implementation of the Lending Act, and at the same time sent billions of dollars worth of relief materials to Western Europe, and provided loans to countries, especially Britain. But Europeans soon began to rebuild their own economies. In less than two years, by 1947, the western European economies were close to the pre-war production level.

However, American aid is still necessary, because only through American aid can Western Europe continue to buy food, fuel, raw materials and industrial equipment needed for economic recovery. By the spring of 1947, economic recovery is facing great risks. Western Europeans are worried that they will encounter the worst agricultural failure in a century.

With the intensification of cold war tension, French and Italian producers deviated from the original cooperation route of post-war reconstruction and launched a series of strikes. Perhaps the Soviet Union did not actively promote the revolution in Western Europe because it realized that the West would not tolerate an open revolution here.

But even so, the United States is still very worried about the stability of Europe. As far as the two superpowers are concerned, the Soviet Union will benefit from the chaos in Western Europe, while the United States will benefit from the reconstruction of Western Europe.

But so far, American aid is still temporary and unsystematic. 1947 In June, Secretary of State george marshall took the opportunity of her speech at the graduation ceremony of Harvard University to invite European countries to draw up a blueprint for a comprehensive economic recovery plan, and the United States will provide financial support for this plan.

Marshall said that this plan "is not aimed at any country or belief school, but at hunger, poverty, despair and chaos."

In order to highlight the non-political nature of this plan, the United States sent invitations to all European countries, including the Soviet Union and Eastern European countries. The Soviet Union rejected the proposal of the United States, banned its satellite countries in Eastern Europe from joining the plan, and dismissed it as "a new adventure of American imperialism".

People's Network-Marshall Plan and European Renaissance