Economic Punishment Alone Didn’t Cause WWII**
1. The Treaty of Versailles Was Harsh, But Not the Sole Cause of German Resentment
- While reparations and territorial losses (e.g., Alsace-Lorraine, Danzig) humiliated Germany, the actual economic burden was manageable by the late 1920s.
- Germany’s economy recovered by 1928 (Dawes Plan, U.S. loans). The Great Depression (1929+) did far more damage than Versailles.
- Hyperinflation (1923) was caused by German government mismanagement (printing money to evade reparations), not just Allied demands.
2. Hitler’s Rise Was Political, Not Just Economic
- The Nazis gained power due to:
- Fear of communism (business elites backed Hitler to stop the left).
- Propaganda and myth-making (e.g., "Stab in the Back" legend blaming Jews/socialists for WWI defeat).
- Weak democracy (Weimar’s proportional representation led to unstable coalitions).
- Even during the worst of the Depression, most Germans voted for moderate parties until 1933. Hitler was appointed by conservatives, not elected by a majority.
3. Poland Was Not Just a "Selected Victim"
- Hitler’s expansionism was ideological (*Lebensraum*—"living space" in the East), not just about reversing Versailles.
- The invasion of Poland (1939) followed years of Nazi aggression (Rhineland remilitarization, Anschluss with Austria, Sudetenland annexation)—showing Hitler’s goals went far beyond fixing Germany’s economy.
4. Other Punished Nations Didn’t Start WWII
- Austria-Hungary (dissolved) and the Ottoman Empire (collapsed) faced harsher fates than Germany but didn’t spark global wars.
- Italy won WWI but still turned fascist—showing dictatorship wasn’t just a response to economic pain.
5. Appeasement Enabled Hitler More Than Economics
- Britain/France could have stopped Hitler early (e.g., opposing Rhineland remilitarization in 1936) but chose appeasement.
- The USSR’s non-aggression pact (Molotov-Ribbentrop, 1939) gave Hitler a free hand in Poland—proving geopolitics, not just German suffering, caused war.