Great Depression was offspring of killing fields @EU: WWI had destroyed trading patterns, undermined currencies and produced massive public debts. Who would foot the bill for this catastrophe? US had financed UK and FR victories, and expected to be paid back in full. UK and FR demanded that DE carry the cost by paying reparations. DE —which been victorious on their Eastern front and had prevented Allied forces from entering their territory—had agreed to end war in part because of Wilson’s promise not to impose a victor’s peace. When this promise was broken and massive reparations were imposed, a bitter decade-long battle over who would pay what ensued. From this toxic environment of distrust and enmity emerged a series of unsustainable deals,whereby US financed DE’s reparations to UK and FR, which were recycled back to US in form of war debt payments. If US financing dried up –which it did during the late 1920s—the whole scheme would collapse, taking the int’l monetary system with it
http://whatmatters.mckinseydigital.com/globalization/getting-history-right