How did WW1 contribute to World War 2?

Answer 1

World War I was costly for both the victors and the defeated Germans but was especially bad for the Germans. The Allies dictated harsh terms at the Treaty of Versailles.

Germany lost parts of the territories of Prussia and Upper Silesia to Poland, Northern Schleswig to Denmark, and the province of Alsace-Lorraine to France. The German province Saarland was declared an Allied occupation zone and the Rhineland was declared a demilitarized zone meaning no German troops could be stationed there. The German army and navy were restricted to a size that would be of little use in the event of an attack.

Worst of all, the Allies demanded reparations (payment for war damages) from Germany in the amount of 132 billion Marks (nearly $400 billion in modern money). The financial minds of Germany told the leadership, this was the Wiemar Republic, that they should just print the marks to pay the debt. Because the new printed marks had no gold backing, this caused hyper-inflation, the Mark became worthless, which caused the Germany economy, which had already been wrecked by the war, go into free fall far worse than anything the US or Britain would experience in the later Great Depression.

Even to the very end of WWI, the German people had been told by Kaiser's Propaganda machine that Germany was on the brink of victory and most Germans believed this to be true. When Germany asked for an armistice and later signed the punishing peace treaty, many Germans concluded that they must have been betrayed at the moment that they were about to win the war.

Adolph Hitler and the Nazi Party used the economic and political chaos of 1920s Germany and the humiliation over the lost territories to gain political power. Hitler scapegoated the Jews as the group that betrayed Germany at the Treaty of Versailles. He explained further that the cost of carrying for the handicapped and mentally ill was causing the German's to remain bankrupt and weakened their gene pool restricting them from fulfilling their position as the master race. Regrettably this made sense to many Germans who still believed the old propaganda. When Hitler began rebuilding the German military in defiance of the Versailles treaty, most Germans supported him.

The Allies however had lost nearly as much in winning the war as Germany had lost in defeat. Britain was in the midst of economic crisis and France suffered under weak leadership by an unstable and unpopular government. Many Americans believed that they had been duped into entering World War I by the British and now refused to have anything to do with European affairs. This weakness allowed Hitler to re-annex the Saarland and remilitarize the Rhineland without opposition. The Allies were further silent when Hitler annexed Austria and took over Czechoslovakia. Hitler was now convinced that the Allies were weak and invaded Poland on September 1, 1939. Britain and France finally reacted and declared war on Germany. World War II had begun.