g world power and an overpowering economic giant. It also set the stage for a global economic crisis and World War II.The catalyst of World War II was actually the aftermath of World War I, which helped set the stage for the rise of Hitler. The treaty of Versailles was extremely detrimental to Germany. The Germans were basically forced to accept complete responsibility for World War I and pay enormous reparations to the Allied powers. If Germany had actually paid these reparations in full, under the plan that Germany had adopted, it would have burdened the German economy until 1988. The reparations angered the German people and crushed their economy. Since the German government didnt have enough money to pay for the reparations, it had to make more money. As a result, the German mark became virtually worthless. In 1923, the exchange rate of the mark to the dollar increased dramatically. The Treaty of Versailles left many loose threads and didnt completely satisfy any party involved. Also important, the Allied Powers failed to enforce the reparations effectively. Hitler and Germany as a whole were extremely bitter about Germanys defeat and Hitler intended to capitalize on that bitterness and seize control of power in Germany. Hitler declared that it was the Jews who had been responsible for Germanys loss in World War I. As time progressed however, anti-Semitism began to decrease as Germanys economy was starting to recover. Luckily for the Nazis, the Crash of 1929 launched the Great Depression. This threw Germanys fragile economy into a fit of depression and paved the road for the Nazis rise to power. The depression allowed the Nazi Party to tone down some of the bigotry that had weakened the party. By focusing more on the economic aspect of the depression, telling their countrymen that they could get Germany out of the depression, they gradually won support. After taking control of the German government by virtual force...
