Hey all,
I'm reading A Low Dishonest Decade, about the way the great powers used eastern Europe as a semicolonial area between the wars.
Anyway, one thing that strikes me is that Germany was in something of a bind once the Depression hit. Britain, France, and America errected tariff walls, which, while bad, was less of a problem for them. Fracnce's economy shifted so it sent a third of its exports to its colonial Empire, while Britain adjusted even moreso. And, of course, the Sterling bloc.
The tariff walls caused a huge decline in Germany's trade abroad, and under the Nazis there were three responses. First, clearing agreements with Eastern Europe, where Germany used its position to dominate the markets and try to build an econmic empire. Second, rearmament; this created an unsustainable situation, and may have helped turn the Nazis to war.
Yet in the long run, eastern europe alone probably wouldn't have sufficed as a German outlet.
Hrmm. This is mostly rambling, but it is an interesting observation.
I'm reading A Low Dishonest Decade, about the way the great powers used eastern Europe as a semicolonial area between the wars.
Anyway, one thing that strikes me is that Germany was in something of a bind once the Depression hit. Britain, France, and America errected tariff walls, which, while bad, was less of a problem for them. Fracnce's economy shifted so it sent a third of its exports to its colonial Empire, while Britain adjusted even moreso. And, of course, the Sterling bloc.
The tariff walls caused a huge decline in Germany's trade abroad, and under the Nazis there were three responses. First, clearing agreements with Eastern Europe, where Germany used its position to dominate the markets and try to build an econmic empire. Second, rearmament; this created an unsustainable situation, and may have helped turn the Nazis to war.
Yet in the long run, eastern europe alone probably wouldn't have sufficed as a German outlet.
Hrmm. This is mostly rambling, but it is an interesting observation.