The Inter-War Economy


 
 
Concept Explanation
 

The Inter-War Economy

THE INTER-WAR ECONOMY:  The First World War (1914-18) was mainly fought in Europe. But it had impact on whole world. During this time, the world experienced economic, political instability and another miserable war.

Wartime Transformations: The First World War was fought between two power blocs. On one were the Allies - Britain, France, Russia (later joined by the US) and the opposite side were the Central Powers -Germany, Austria-Hur and Ottoman Turkey. World's leading industrial nations joined the and tried to do the greatest possible destruction on their enemies, The First World War was the first modern industrial war.

Technological Transformations: For the first time, modern weapons like machine guns, tanks, aircraf chemical weapons etc were used on a massive scale. To fight the war millions of soldiers had to be recruited from around the world and most of them were men of working age. During the war, 9 million were dead and 20 million were injured. These deaths and injuries adversely affected workforce in Europe.Social and Economical Transformations: Household incomes also declined due to the death or injury of the earning members of the family and women had to take the jobs. This war led to the breaking of economic links between some of the largest economically strong countries. Britain borrowed large sums of money from US banks as well as the US public. This made the USA an international creditor from an international debtor.

Britain faced an economic crisis after end of the First World War. Britain found it difficult to recapture its earlier position of dominance in the Indian market and to compete with Japan internationally. Because Britain had borrowed liberally from the US to finance its war effort. Britain was burdened with huge external debts. Although, the war had led to an economic boom, when the war ended, the production contracted and unemployment increased. This led to one in every five British workers being out of work in 1921.

Effect of Crisis on Agriculture: Many people linked with agricultural economies were also in crisis, e.g. wheat producers in Eastern Europe. When their wheat exports were disrupted during the war, wheat production in Canada, America and Australia expanded. After the war, production in Eastern Europe revived and created a glut in wheat output. Grain prices fell, rural incomes declined and farmers fell deeper into debt.

 
 
 


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