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A History of World War II - Sidebars

Economic Power

Paul Kennedy, in Rise and Fall of the Great Powers, gives a table of something called "war-fighting potential", which takes economics and population into account. It is about as good an estimate as we have of the economic disparity of the powers. This is his estimate of the potential (as a percent of the total world potential), which I have rounded to about one significant digit.

United States    40%
Germany          15%
Soviet Union     15%
Britain          10%
France            4%
Japan             3.5%
Italy             2.5%
Other powers     10%
(does not add to 100% due to rounding)

The Axis major powers had 22% of the potential as opposed to the Allied 69%. Not all of this 69% was available at once, but after the attack on the Soviet Union the Axis was never at economic parity.

All contents of these pages Copyright 1997 by David H. Thornley.