Question

what was the Marshall Plan? what did it do, why, and what was its impact on communism and Cold War and the European economies.

Answer 1

After WW2, Europe was in terrible shape. Germany was bombed back to the stone age and the Soviet armies that had liberated Eastern Europe tended to occupy those countries like guests that wouldn't leave. The lines were being drawn up as an "Iron Curtain" descended across Europe as it was split between the democratic West and the communist East as represented by "Uncle Joe" Stalin and his Soviets.

The Marshall Plan was the plan put together to revitalize Europe's economic infrastructure with programs designed to rebuild its cities and revitalize its capacity to manufacture and produce goods once again. In short, it was an all out effort to put Europe back on its feet after the war. It was also meant to ready Western Europe to stand strong against the encroaching influence of the USSR since the participating countries were pretty much those that the Soviets hadn't liberated or had gained control over.

The Communists, represented by the Soviets, also didn't want any part of it for reasons of their own. Stalin believed participating in the plan would put the Soviets at a disadvantage, even though their side and the territories they had liberated were some of the worst off after the war. They opted instead to take from countries, like Germany, what was needed back to their own territories.

In the end, Europe would be divided between East and West just like Germany would be: the United Kingdom, France, and the United States representing the democratic allies of the West and the communist Soviets and their satelllite states representing the East. But the Marshall Plan was a success and all of those nations that participated in it became economically independent and even more prosperous than their communist neighbors across the Iron Curtain.