The Great Depression led to many countries adopting protectionist policies, in a bid to protect their local industries. They placed high import taxes on Japan's goods and Japan's imports also became more costly, placing Japan at an economical disadvantage as they still had to import, considering that they depended on the rest of the world for food and raw materials.

As Japan now had less trade, it needed to find alternative markets (yen bloc) to trade to their advantage and to the other countries' disadvantage, thus Japan attacked Manchuria, with the view of using Manchuria as a captive market. This will allow themselves to be able to trade favourably and be self-sustainable from an economic standpoint. While it is true that the lack of resources due to overpopulation is one of the driving force behind Japan's attack on Manchuria, the economic situation brought about by the Great Depression was the trigger that instigated Japan's attack on Manchuria.

Stalin's policies was a failure; although he managed to achieve some of his goals (i.e collectivisation is able to get the industries and factories going), it came at the expense of a huge human cost.

For instance, in order for Stalin to achieve rapid industrialisation, many people are forced to relocate and crowded in towns, where they are forced to live and work in appalling conditions. As Stalin lowered the people's quality of life greatly, he was more of a failure than a success, despite his success on the economic front after implementing the Five Year Plans.