<P> Germany paid reparations to the United Kingdom, France, and the Soviet Union, mainly in the form of dismantled factories, forced labour, and coal . German standard of living was to be reduced to its 1932 level . Beginning immediately after the German surrender and continuing for the next two years, the US and Britain pursued an "intellectual reparations" programme to harvest all technological and scientific know - how as well as all patents in Germany . The value of these amounted to around US $10 billion (US $123 billion in 2016 dollars). In accordance with the Paris Peace Treaties, 1947, reparations were also assessed from the countries of Italy, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Finland . </P> <P> US policy in post-war Germany from April 1945 until July 1947 had been that no help should be given to the Germans in rebuilding their nation, save for the minimum required to mitigate starvation . The Allies' immediate post-war "industrial disarmament" plan for Germany had been to destroy Germany's capability to wage war by complete or partial de-industrialization . The first industrial plan for Germany, signed in 1946, required the destruction of 1,500 manufacturing plants to lower German heavy industry output to roughly 50% of its 1938 level . Dismantling of West German industry ended in 1951 . By 1950, equipment had been removed from 706 manufacturing plants, and steel production capacity had been reduced by 6.7 million tons . After lobbying by the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Generals Lucius D. Clay and George Marshall, the Truman administration accepted that economic recovery in Europe could not go forward without the reconstruction of the German industrial base on which it had previously been dependent . In July 1947, President Truman rescinded on "national security grounds" the directive that had ordered the US occupation forces to "take no steps looking toward the economic rehabilitation of Germany ." A new directive recognised that "(a) n orderly, prosperous Europe requires the economic contributions of a stable and productive Germany ." From mid-1946 onwards Germany received US government aid through the GARIOA programme . From 1948 onwards West Germany also became a minor beneficiary of the Marshall Plan . Volunteer organisations had initially been forbidden to send food, but in early 1946 the Council of Relief Agencies Licensed to Operate in Germany was founded . The prohibition against sending CARE Packages to individuals in Germany was rescinded on 5 June 1946, </P> <P> After the German surrender, the International Red Cross was prohibited from providing aid such as food or visiting POW camps for Germans inside Germany . However, after making approaches to the Allies in the autumn of 1945 it was allowed to investigate the camps in the UK and French occupation zones of Germany, as well as to provide relief to the prisoners held there . On 4 February 1946, the Red Cross was permitted to visit and assist prisoners also in the U.S. occupation zone of Germany, although only with very small quantities of food . The Red Cross petitioned successfully for improvements to be made in the living conditions of German POWs . </P> <P> The 1947 Treaty of Peace with Italy spelled the end of the Italian colonial empire, along with other border revisions . The 1947 Paris Peace Treaties compelled Italy to pay $360 million (US dollars at 1938 prices) in war reparations: $125 million to Yugoslavia, $105 million to Greece, $100 million to the Soviet Union, $25 million to Ethiopia and $5 million to Albania . In the 1946 Italian constitutional referendum the Italian monarchy was abolished, having been associated with the deprivations of the war and the Fascist rule, especially in the North . </P>

What major change took place around the world after ww2