To what extent are economic forces the main driving force for historical change?

Take two case

studies to illustrate your argument.

- Italys economy in the international context (Before Mussolini)

- Mussolini and Hitler

- The Great Depression

- China

- Chinas economic policy

- Relationship between US and China

- How did Italy despite their bad economy, present themselves as a major economic power

The Great Depression which started in 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s was the greatest
and longest economic recession of the 20th century. It originated in the United States, after a
major fall in stock prices and then the stock market crash. It slowly caused a major worldwide
depression in most of the industrialized countries such as Britain, France, Germany, Japan, Italy,
and others.
The economic depression had a major impact on the world. This was an important factor which
allowed Hitler and Mussolini rise to power by gaining support promising to eliminate
unemployment.
Italy had emerged from World War I in a poor and weakened situation so the great depression
affected Italy greatly.
The economy of Italy by 1920 was basically in a state of depression, and it had made little
recovery after World War One. Italy after 1918 was a poor nation compared to France and
Britain, and Mussolini knew this. He had to address this and improve the economic state of Italy
for Italy to become a major European power.
The very weak economy in Italy that followed World War I led to extremism among the working
classes of Italy. These conditions caused the country to become politically unstable. Benito
Mussolini, soon to be Italy's Fascist dictator, took advantage of this instability for his rise to
power. The National Fascist party, under Benito Mussolini, ruled Italy from 1922 to 1943.
The great depression can be said to have led to a rise in Fascism as it was one of the only
governments that survived the economic collapse. This was all due to Mussolini reacting quickly
and starting a large program of public construction projects which put many jobless Italians
back to work. Fascism was the solution to the economic problems.
The great depression caused:
- Decline in international trade
Trading relationships are affected, as most countries are securing their trade relationships with
its colonized countries, like Britain. A lot of countries could not afford purchasing export goods
and Italy has economic loss due to Great Depression
- Unemployment
High unemployment rate
The Great Depression had devastating effects in countries both rich and poor. Personal income,
tax revenue, profits and prices dropped, while international trade plunged by more than 50%.
Unemployment in the U.S. rose to 25% and in some countries, rose as high as 33%.

Industries were bought out by banks which led to a financial crisis and a major government
intervention. The fascist government nationalized the holding of large banks. Several entities
were formed to bring in together representatives of the government and of the major
businesses. These representatives discussed economic policy and manipulated the wages and
prices to their will. This partnership was known as corporatism and Italy maintained these
policies throughout the Great Depression.
Financial crisis met its peak in 1932 and the Industrial Reconstruction Institute was formed in
1933 taking control of the bank-owned companies. The IRI was an Italian public holding
company established in 1933 by the Fascist regime to rescue, restructure and finance banks and
private companies that went bankrupt during the Great Depression.

Although the great depression hit industrial nations in Europe, Italy did not suffer as much as
other countries since it was an agricultural nation.