Great depression led to WWII?
It was one of many reasons. The depression certainly hurt the Germans, coming as it did after the ruinous hyperinflation of the 1920’s. But also there were the draconian terms of the Treaty of Versailles, which not only saddled Germany with “war guilt” and money reparations but humiliated the people. (One commentator said at the time, “This is not a peace; it is an armistice of twenty years.”) Another reason was Hitler’s calculations about how any why to use German military might: Occupying the Rhineland as restoration; annexing part then all of Czechoslovakia to right the “wrongs” done to ethnic Germans there; invading Poland to recover “historic German” lands lost in 1918 and to get “lebensraum” (living space); accepting war with France to recover Alsace and Lorraine. Then there was the strange last-minute alliance with Japan, which involved Germany in war with the U.S. as soon as Japan attacked. So there were many reasons all leading up to the war. The U.S.
