WI: No Marshal Plan

It's quite simple, what is the fate of Europe and ultimately the world if the United States didn't foot the bill for the reconstruction of Europe after world war two.
 
Communist Europe.

Seriously. Communist agitators were causing strikes among key industrial sectors in post-war europe, dockworkers, etc. The Marshall Plan prevented Soviet hegemony.
 
Communists overwhelmingly sweep to power, soviets instead back the reconstruction in order to expand their hegemony, US effectively loses the cold war.
 
I don't think the Marshall Plan saved Europe from Communism. Many European economies were recovering anyway by the time the money arrived. It did accelerate things a little but it didn't start anything.

I think only Italy was seriously threatened by communism. It wouldn't have been tolerated by the Anglo-Americans if it succeeded.
 
Communists overwhelmingly sweep to power, soviets instead back the reconstruction in order to expand their hegemony, US effectively loses the cold war.

Soviets barely had resources to support their own reconstruction at that point (look at the state of eastern Europe after the war - some east German buildings still had damage into the 80s/90s!).

I don't see a peaceful Soviet expansion, but I don't see as cosy a relationship between the US and western Europe either, particularly if the US still screw over the UK over nuclear research.
 
For one thing Ferrari would be in trouble. In OTL Ferrari had modern Marshall plan machine tools while Coopers were scrounging old air raid shelter steel and making brake drums out of scrap marine engine cylinders. Alfa Romeo had the nice German machinery they bought to make Daimler Benz aero engines which they kept because they were on the 'winning side'. At the same time Nortons were using lathes that had been sold off in 1910 by the Royal Navy as obsolete. On one the operator had to keep his foot on a plank leaning against the shaft as the bearings were so worn. I don't think people realise just how broke Britain was after the war. Food rations were lower than during the Battle of the Atlantic. I was born more than 8 years after the war and some foodstuffs were still rationed. On the good side we have recently paid off the debts of WW1 to USA and eventually will pay off the WW2 ones.
 
On the economic side you might wind up with Great Depression Two as Europe can't afford to buy anything and American soldiers are coming home by the millions. I can't see how you could avoid it in Europe at the very least. My guess is that it would hit the US eventually.
 
The Cold War doesn't begin. The US must retreat to isolationism for such a thing to happen. Italy and France elect Communists. If the US decides not to do a Marshall Plan, then that means they won't stop Italy and France going communist (President Robert Taft most likely).
 
How about a scenario where the US doesn't join the war against Germany at all? It's certainly doable.
Well, yeah. Then there's just a Soviet Europe. The only regime on the Continent I could see surviving from the start of WWII to the end would be maybe Salazar's Portugal and of course the USSR.
 
It might be a more evenly matched cold war

I'm not so sure that the lack of a Marshall plan means that nations will turn to anything resembling full-blown communism, particularly after observing the vassal-like status of communist countries in Eastern Europe.

What if all it meant was that western Europe was well... poorer? If these countries (not counting the UK) recover slowly, this weaker Western bloc could either lead to a heavier presence from the US military (as opposed to local forces) to protect against a communist military threat or its weakness will simply appear less threatening to the Soviets who might either take advantage of this or feel less threatened by encirclement. The USA, having to bear a larger share of its own as well as Europe's defense and having weaker markets might be weaker too. The Western nations (including Japan) would be much richer than the Soviets but it would not have such a critical head start.

Korea and Germany were split into communist and non-communist states. From what I've heard, North Korea was generally more prosperous than South Korea for a number of years and for a while, many Koreans actually chose to move North! Remember also that the USSR did not provide anywhere near the resources to rebuild East Germany that the Marshall Plan did for West Germany and the effects on economic recovery were significant.
 
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