Answer to Question #304748 in History for Yanna

Question

 It is said the Treaty of Versailles helped to cause WWII since Germany could not pay back the total cost of the war through war reparations, and the collapse of the Weimar Republic. The global collapse in 1929 ushered in the different ideologies of Fascism, Communism to combat the bad economic times. Briefly explain how Germany’s and Japan’s plan to react to the Great Depression.

  Write 2 paragraphs (6 sentences long)

Answer 1

The Great Depression created crises throughout the world. When American financial support for Europe dried up, this further destabilized Germany's teetering Weimar Republic. War reparations prevented investment in Germany's few remaining industries, and the Treaty of Versailles had also taken valuable industrial regions from the Germans. Without industry, the vital link in the economic chain was missing.  Germany's financial logjam finally broke in 1934. By then, Adolf Hitler was in charge. His military rearmament and monumental public works projects revived Germany's economy. The Weimar government had been a convenient target of blame since its beginning in 1919. Right-wing politicians believed in the "stab in the back"; they believed that the German army had been betrayed by Weimar Republicans working with the Bolsheviks.  Hitler joined in. He claimed that Germany's economic difficulties were not its fault. Instead, he blamed a group that was apparently so powerful that it could control anyone, whether it be the Allies, the Communists, the bankers, or the League of Nations. Hitler blamed the Jews. The Jews were Hitler's chosen scapegoats. He used The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion as the foundation for his campaign to destroy the Jews. He characterized Jews as an evil force out to destroy the world. By eliminating this threat, Adolf Hitler would become the savior of the world. The false principles of the bogus Protocols became the foundation of the Nazi regime's agenda of anti-Semitism. When the Reichstag building was burned and a Communist was caught, Hitler accused him of being an agent of the Jews. By exploiting German shared cultural prejudices, Hitler united them against this formless enemy in their midst. Japan's story had similar beginnings. A postwar economic slump was worsened by the Great Depression's impact on trade. Thanks to the wise financial guidance of finance minister Takahashi Korekiyo, Japan was able to escape its economic decline. But as soon as Japan became economically stable, the profits of Takahashi's wisdom were poured into military spending instead of civic improvements. This meant acquiring resources. Manufacturing armaments required iron, oil, coal, and steel. Being an island nation limited Japan's access to resources, and the United States had reduced its foreign trade. Japan's increased military expansion persuaded Congress to enact further measures. The United States, concerned about Japan's expansion, banned the US sale and export of iron, steel, and fuel to Japan. Japan obtained resources by invading nearby Manchuria in 1931. Japan made Manchuria its puppet province and renamed it Manchukuo. The Japanese had their own scapegoats: the Chinese. The rivalry between Japan and China ran deep. China and Japan had been fighting wars since AD 663. The Chinese considered the Japanese culture to be an imitation of its culture, while the Japanese regarded China as being corrupted by Western influences. Emperor Tokugawa closed Japan off to the outside world, and trade between China and Japan all but stopped. During the First Sino-Japanese War in 1894, the Japanese launched a propaganda campaign against the Chinese, describing their enemy as barbarians, inferior, and the cause of all their problems. During the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937, this dehumanization escalated into the Japanese committing shocking atrocities and massacres on the Chinese. Japan's inhuman acts during the Manchukuo occupation foreshadowed those that would occur in Nazi Germany in the next decade