Great Depression And Hitler's Rise To Power example essay topic

1,171 words
World War II was the largest and most costly war ever known to man. This horrible war was responsible for more human lost than any other war. It was a total war where all countries involved which included nearly the entire world had to apply all their resources into the war effort. This drained economies and human lives of countries and ended with a large change in the leading world powers. The two main superpowers after this war were the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialists Republic. This war was also characterized by its deep barbarism such as the genocide of Jews and other races by the Nazi party in Germany.

Ultimately, this war was the most influential to the world in that it was the largest and most gruesome, and that it created a large shift in world powers. The origins of World War II are quite sophisticated and must be examined in order to understand the creation of this war. The three most important events that led to World War II were the formation of the Treaty of Versailles, the Great Depression and Adolf Hitler's rise to power. After World War I, the allied great powers wanted to pit the entire responsibility of the war on Germany which they defeated.

They wanted tremendous benefits for winning the war and did not want to take any guilt of the war upon themselves. The Great Powers which mainly consisted of Great Britain, France and the United States of America created an accord called the Treaty of Versailles. The Treaty of Versailles planned to completely ruin the structure and honour of Germany and planned to emphasize the benefits of the Great Powers especially Great Britain and France. This treaty required Germany to pay phenomenal reparation debts to other countries to repay the amounts that other countries had spent on the war.

They also had to disarm their army and keep it below a certain level. Another characteristic of the treaty was that Germany had to submit much of their territories to other countries and give other countries rights to the resources in parts of the country. However, the worst characteristic of the treaty was that Germany was held completely responsible for the war and were given the war guilt. They were accused of "a supreme offence against international morality". The dishonoring of the Germans created an incredible amount of hatred towards the allies by them and a deep craving to restore themselves once again as a great nation.

The Germans underwent starvation, unemployment and hyperinflation which they could not bear. Their economic and political structure collapsed and there was very little support of the government since they had submitted to the Versailles Treaty. The Treaty of Versailles dug Germany into depression and when the Great Depression struck the world, Germany's case of decline was intolerable. The Great Depression created an incredible collapse in the economies all over the world. This was responsible for unemployment, starvation and complete unavailability of the basic needs for humans. The Great Depression started off first when nearly everyone was spending money carelessly in a time of prosperity.

In late 1929, in the United States of America, there was a rumour that all the stocks were going to crash. Therefore, nearly everybody that owned stocks tried to sell them immediately all at once. Everybody was trying to sell on the same time with no one trying to buy causing mass disorganization. Due to this overwhelming sale of stocks and non-purchasing of stocks, the stock market crashed causing people to lose massive amounts of money that they had involved in stocks and it crashed several large companies as well. Due to this, people became insecure and wanted to extract all the money they had in banks.

However, the banks had also crashed and had no more money inside of them leaving people without any money at all. Due to the stock market in the United States being extremely influential to the stock markets in other countries, the economies in other countries collapsed as well. This left the world in mass unemployment and practically poverty-stricken. In a time of vast crisis like the Great Depression, people were willing to submit to any ruler who would give them their basic needs and restore their well-being. Thus, the community in the Germany would even support people such as Adolf Hitler if he promised to give them their basic needs. The Rise of Adolf Hitler in Germany stirred up a quest to restore the power of the country.

When Germany was in complete economic and political decline during the Great Depression, it gave Adolf Hitler an opportunity to gain support. Before, during the prosperity of the world, he couldn't get support due to people being happy the way they were and therefore he wasn't able to overthrow the government in the Beer Hall Putsch. During the depression however, Adolf Hitler promised to give the people their basic needs which they didn't have and therefore he gained support. After he did gain support from the people he created a sense of nationalism by claiming that the Germany / Aryan race was superior to mankind and deserved supremacy in the world. He also united the Germans in the thinking that all the hardships produced in Germany were directly the fault of the Jews. Hitler became the Fuehrer which was the almighty and absolute ruler of Germany.

He declared that the superior German race should regain an empire and seek revenge against the allied powers for embarrassing them with the Treaty of Versailles. Since there was already incredible hatred towards the allies because of pitting the responsibility of the war on Germany and depriving their economy, the Germans supported Hitler in his quest to regain German greatness. Basically, Adolf Hitler created a giant world war by trying to dominate the world. The Treaty of Versailles, the Great Depression and Hitler's rise to power all contributed heavily to creating World War II. They created immense hatred from the Germans towards the allies, a disparity to follow anyone who will give people their basic needs and a craving from the Germans to restore their power. The Treaty of Versailles made Germany sink into depression and when the Great Depression struck, Germany could not possibly bare it.

This created support for Hitler in a time of trouble and conflict since they needed someone to lead them out of hardship. When Hitler gained power, he created World War II. These invents all interconnect and lead to a world conflict. Ultimately, this war was created due to people blindly following others who promise goodness in times of hardship and therefore being manipulated to have hazardous beliefs.