How World War 1 Was Financed: The Hidden War Behind the War

World War I wasn't only fought in the trenches — it was fought in gold reserves, government bonds, and the private ledgers of bankers who never set foot on a battlefield. This is the story of how Britain, France, Germany, Russia, and eventually the United States paid for the most expensive war the world had ever seen — and how that hidden financial war reshaped the entire global economy for the rest of the century. In this video, you'll learn how the gold standard collapsed within weeks of the war starting, how Germany raised nearly 100 billion marks from its own citizens in war bonds that would later become worthless, how J.P. Morgan & Co. became the exclusive financial agent for Britain and France in the United States, why Russia's financial collapse helped trigger the Russian Revolution, how the Treaty of Versailles' reparations bill of 132 billion gold marks led directly to Germany's 1923 hyperinflation crisis, and how a circular loop of American loans, German reparations, and Allied war debts set up the crash that caused the Great Depression. #History #Documentary #WWI #Finance #EconomicHistory #WallStreet #TreatyOfVersailles #FirstWorldWar