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After World War II, West Germany, Italy, and France revived so rapidly with rates of growth as high as 8% that it was known as the "Economic Miracle." Britain, which was devastated by war and lost its colonial empire, retained its antiquated industrial factories and experienced slow growth and a punishing depression in the 1970s and 1980s. Spain, Portugal, Greece, and other similar nations lagged behind. Most countries in Western Europe experienced an influx of "guest workers" from India, Pakistan, Africa (primarily Algeria and Morocco), and Turkey. The Italian government remained corrupt and ineffective, with coalitions forming and rapidly falling apart.
British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher
Britain was the hardest-hit of the Western Allies after World War II. In August 1947, India became independent, arguably the greatest part of the former British Empire to be lost by Britain. Deeply in debt, Britain saw the United States supersede her as the pre-eminent political and economic power of the Western world. From 1945 until 1951, the Labour Party and Prime Minister Attlee replaced the Conservative Party and Winston Churchill as the majority party, as the British people desired more social welfare programs and nationalized industry. The former model of free-market capitalism for much of the world, Britain from 1950 to 1980 embraced much of the domestic program of a social democratic state, while remaining a staunch ally of the United States in the Cold War.
Margaret Thatcher, leader of the Conservative Party, became Prime Minister from 1979 until 1990. She was the first Western female leader of the modern era, and was faced with depression and "stagflation" - high unemployment and inflation resulting from high oil prices. Thatcher was closely allied with U.S. President Ronald Reagan and employed "trickle-down" supply-side economics, cutting taxes on the wealthy in hopes that they would spend the additional money to hire new workers and endorsing privatization and deregulation. Thatcher cut many other social programs including education, health care, and welfare, and sold off nationalized industries such as BritOil and British Airways. She also broke the power of the unions in Britain.
Thatcher also deployed a taskforce to regain control of the Falkland Islands/Malvinas after the invasion of the islands by Argentina in 1982.
John Major was the Conservative Prime Minister from 1990 until 1997.
The collaborator regime installed by the Nazis after their invasion of France during World War II was replaced in 1946 by the Fourth Republic, which lasted until 1958. The Fourth Republic consisted of a strong Parliament with a Premier chosen by the majority party. There was also a weak ceremonial President. Charles De Gaulle, who led the Free French Resistance movement against the Nazis during their occupation of France in World War II, was elected but refused to participate and thus resigned. After World War II, France decolonized Indochina, Morocco, Tunisia, and the rest of West Africa. The Fourth Republic also allowed women's suffrage.
Violent conflict arose in Algeria, with bombings, terrorism, and the death of nearly one million people. When senior officers of the French military in Algeria rebelled in May of 1958 and fears of a coup d'état spread among the members of the government, the latter called upon Charles De Gaulle to resolve the problem. De Gaulle refused to take power unless the government would allow for a stronger Presidential position.
The people of France conceded, and in 1958 the Fifth Republic was formed with a strong authoritarian President. However, De Gaulle's solution to the problem was to simply free Algeria. In 1968, university students protest over their conditions, leading to a mass working-class strike. After the failed "régionalisation" referendum, De Gaulle resigned in 1969.
From 1981 until 1995, François Mitterand served as President of France. He was a Socialist, and implemented numerous socialized programs. He instituted nationalized banks, insurance industries, and defense industries. Workers' wages increased during his tenure and working hours were reduced. However, when the French economy lagged, he abandoned socialism in 1984 and the French economy revived.
In 1995, Jacques Chirac became President as a member of the conservative Gaullist party. Currently, the French president is Nicolas Sarkozy, in office since 2007.
After World War II, Germany became divided into East and West Germany. West Germany, formally the Federal Republic of Germany, aligned itself with the West, while East Germany was possessed by the Soviet Union.
In 1948, the Berlin Airlift took place. The western Allies merged the three occupation zones they possessed after the end of World War II and issued a new Deutschmark. The Soviets under Stalin blockaded land access to Berlin in response, requiring the Allies to supply the city by air for nine months.
In 1949, the two areas were formally split into the Federal Republic in the West and the German Democratic Republic (GDR) in the East. In addition, the Basic Law, Germany's constitution, came into effect in 1949.
From 1949 until 1963, Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, a member of the Christian Democrat Party (CDU), came to power in West Germany and pursued a policy of integration with NATO and the U.S.-led Western alliance. Adenauer successfully resisted domestic political pressures for Germany to adopt a policy of neutrality between the Cold War blocs as a path to reunification. Under him West Germany encountered the Wirtschaftswunder, or Economic Miracle, with great recovery throughout the nation. The country underwent denazification, strictly denying Nazis the right to participate in the new democracy, censoring fascist ideas, and trying ex-Nazis in the Nuremburg trials.
In 1961, East German authorities, with Soviet backing, erected the Berlin Wall to stop the flood of refugees escaping to the west. Both Adenauer and his parliamentary opponents, the Social Democrats, considered the GDR to be an occupied part of a legally unified German nation, but were not in a position to change these circumstances because of the Cold War confrontation between the U.S. and USSR.
From 1963 until 1966, Chancellor Ludwig Erhard of the CDU served, followed by Kurt Georg Kiesinger.
From 1969 until 1974, Chancellor Willy Brandt, of the Social Democrats (SPD) came to power. He enacted Ostpolitik, a policy of economic friendship and trade with the eastern bloc and East Germany. Though he supported the NATO alliance, Brandt's overtures to the east earned him suspicion in some Western circles that he might trade off the alliance for German unification. Ironically, Brandt's government fell in a scandal over an East German spy within his office. His successor as chancellor, Helmut Schmidt, was also from the SPD (1974-1982).
From 1982 through 1998, Chancellor Helmut Kohl of the CDU served. In 1989 he was in office when the Berlin Wall fell, as Gorbachev abandoned the Brezhnev Doctrine of Soviet protection for other communist regimes. In 1990 the two portions of Germany reunified, but the East German economy lags far behind that of West Germany, even today. Chancellor Kohl, styling himself a conservative in a similar mold to Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, cut welfare spending and taxes, helping the economy.
From 1998 through 2006, Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder of the SPD served. He is most prominently known for his adamant opposition to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.
After elections in 2006, Angela Merkel became Chancellor and is a member of the CDU.
