How did the Great Depression help start World War 2?

Answer 1

World war2 brought jobs. Factories had to make the airplanes, tanks, and ships. Young men signed up to fight. Since many women went to work the government opened day cares and that required teachers. The banks and businesses were able to make profits from selling items to Allied countries and still bought/sold gas and oil from/to Germany.

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The great depression did not have a significant impact on the start of WWII. The Asian theater was all about Japanese imperial ambitions, and their designs to become a world super-power. The European theater was all about Germany feeling harshly treated by the conditions of the peace negotiations of WWI and Germany's desire to be the dominant nation in Europe.

It is true that depression generally leads to the popularity of extremist parties, but it is very low on the list of factors of any of the belligerent nations of WWII.

Answer 2

One of the more significant contributing factors to the original appointment of Adolph Hitler to his original post as Chancellor of Germany, (he was appointed on January 30, 1933 by the President of Germany, Field Marshal von Hindenburg, 86 years old at the time and some say already senile, and sworn into office at 5:00 pm that same day), was Hitlers constant stream of criticism of the German Government's apparent lack of action to pull Germany out of the depression. Hitler's promises of jobs and prosperity put the German people behind him later when he declared himself Fuhrer of Germany, and declared his intentions to completely ignore the Treaty of Versailles that put an end to World War I, and once again start up the German war machine. This would provide much needed jobs to the people of Germany, and in return would also allow Germany to earn money through taxes to pay its reparations owed to other countries for World War I, thus he met with very little resistance to his plans to re-militarize Germany.

The fact that the world, and more importantly Germany, was in the throes of the Great Depression provided the circumstances necessary for the people of Germany to follow along with a leader like Adolph Hitler, and for the rest of the world to be so pre-occupied with their own problems to ignore the rise of someone with such a troubling history and vision.