PMorgan18 said:
dashiz94 said:
Um...I'm pretty sure Germany started the second World War when they INVADED Poland.
They wouldn't have invaded Poland if it wasn't for the ridiculousness of the Treaty of Versailles.
The treaty destroyed the German economy allowing Hitler to rise to power and use the German people's hatred and distrust to setup his Third Reich.
Actually, the treaty of Versailles played a very small part in Hitler's rise to power. The German recession of the early 1920's was caused by the treaty of Versailles, but after Stresemann created the Richtenmark to end super-inflation and the Dawes plan and the Young Plan made the reparations payments far less demanding, Germany began to climb out of recession.
By around 1927, they were the most prosperous nation in Europe as they were backed by American investment which gave them an extremely healthy economy. However, because of their reliance on American investment, the Wall Street Crash in 1929 sent them into an even deeper recession, and it was this recession that Hitler used to rise to power.
Until Hitler came to power, Germany's relationship with Western Europe and America was far from "hate and distrust." They were a respected country and Stresemann even took them into the League of Nations under France's sponsorship.
You can blame the invasion of Poland on the the allies for the Treaty of Versailles, you could also blame it on the greed of American stock brokers for causing the Wall Street Crash. You could blame it on numerous other factors as well and in a way it was all of these.
The main reason though, is that Hitler was a German Supremacist. Many countries had a hand in instigating WWII, but Germany's was by far the largest.