World War I

by Edward Paice

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How did the economic boom after WW1 help prevent another major international conflict?

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There are a couple of issues that might need to be addressed here.  The first would be that there was little in way of an economic boom in Europe following the First World War.  I am not sure that Europe was the benefactor to any economic growth that could be used to offset a major international conflict.  Germany, for example, was economically challenged and living in a sense of resentment after what the Treaty of Versailles did to it.  Nations like France and England, "victors" following the war, did little to demonstrate their own prowess, tending to nurse their own significant wounds from the war.  Russia's own instability prevented it from experiencing an economic boom.  The only nation to emerge from the First World War in a period of economic growth was America.  Yet, for its part, America withdrew into an isolationist period in the 1920s.  It sought to extricate itself from the affairs of Europe and simply indulge in a period of domestic mass consumerism.  There was little in way of an economic boom that sought to displace or prevent another major international conflict.  The mood of the time period in America was one in which there was a belief that involvement with Europe was going to bring about more bad than good.  While there was an economic boom in America, it was not geared towards preventing any type of international conflict.

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