HIST 2023 Chapter : Europe
Document Summary
From 1914-1918, wwi had killed 11 million of its men. Then during the great depression, of its males were out of work. And then from 1939-1945 wwii caused 40 million deaths. It was a total war, meaning that more civilians were killed than soldiers. It had caused trillions of dollars (2. 7 then/27 now) of destruction; roads, bridges, railways, and cities were devastated. And then there was the fact that crippled europe had a superpower on each side. Western europe was part of the nato alliance formed in response to the berlin. Crisis and controlled by the us; eastern europe was taken over by the soviets in 1946-48. (the truman. Doctrine prevented greece and turkey from falling into communist soviet hands. ) But the post-wwii political reality caused a lot of pessimism. The superpowers had to attempt to restore some degree of health to their respective halves of europe, as they were in fact preparing for wwiii.
