Then World War I, the war few people expected to happen and nobody expected to last so long, began in 1914 and ended in 1918. The US was not in World War I for most of it and was the only major country to maintain convertibility to gold during the war. Not only were the economies and markets of Europe badly hurt from the wartime efforts, but the policies undertaken by European governments also further undermined the faith in their currencies. In contrast, the United States’ relative financial and economic position benefited from the war. That the Allies’ wartime debts were largely owed to the
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