World War. While Britain struggled to afford the terms offered during the war, the credit offered by the US was much more generous. Furthermore, the Western powers did not ask for reparations from the defeated powers, although the Soviet Union forced reparations from East Germany, which it controlled. In 1948 the United States initiated the Marshall Plan of aid to assist in the rebuilding of Europe, Allies and Axis countries alike – except for the Soviet Union, which refused to participate, and its Eastern European satellites, which were blocked from receiving aid by the Soviets. The Plan was in many ways similar to what Keynes had proposed at Versailles after World War I. As Keynes predicted, reparations and war debts were paid for by loans from the US, leaving no one better off. The postwar system led to one of the greatest general increases in prosperity in human history. From 1948 to 1971, world trade increased by an average annual rate of 7.27% and industrial production grew by an average of 5.6%. That contrasts with the interwar period where world trade actually fell in the 1930s, and where world industrial production grew fitfully in the 1920s until it was hit by the Great Depression. See also The Big Four (World War I) Paris Peace Conference, 1919 Treaty of Versailles World War I reparations References Informational notes Citations Bibliography External links Modern History Sourcebook on the Economic Consequences of the Peace Review of Economic Consequences of the Peace in Political Science Quarterly 35 by Thorstein Veblen Dr Julián Casanova, The Treaty of Versailles and its Consequences Walter Russell Mead, Review of John Maynard Keynes: Fighting for Freedom 1937–1946 Foreign Affairs 2002 The Economic Consequences of the Peace: 100 Years Later at the Mises Institute Review of R.F. Harrod, The Life of John Maynard Keynes, 1951 by Ludwig von Mises The New York Times review of John Maynard Keynes: Fighting for Freedom 1937–1946 1919 non-fiction books Books about economic history Books by John Maynard Keynes 1919 in economics Harcourt (publisher) books Treaty of Versailles