Chapter 435
The Rothschilds, once an ordinary Jewish family, began their rapid rise in the 18th century after gaining the trust of King Wilhelm of Prussia.
However, Europe at the time was in a period of great turmoil. Prussia was defeated in the war against Napoleon, and the Rothschilds, too, faced a crisis.
Breathing a sigh of relief with King Wilhelm's return, the Rothschild family sent their sons across Europe to organize an international financial network.
Even after that, the crises never ceased. The family was split into several branches by its descendants, and the World Wars broke out.
The Great Depression of 1929 was the worst economic crisis humanity had ever experienced. Countless individuals and corporations went bankrupt.
Afterward, World War II erupted, engulfing all of Europe in the flames of war. Jews in Nazi-occupied territories had their property confiscated and were massacred in concentration camps, but the Jewish families who had moved to Britain and the United States survived and grew their influence.
Since then, there have been no wars that shook the world to the same extent, but numerous crises continued in the financial sector: two oil shocks, the dot-com bubble, the global financial crisis, and so on.
With every crisis, some fell while new fortunes were made. But the Rothschilds remained the Rothschilds.
In the world of finance, no family has as long a history or as much influence as the Rothschilds.