The economic crisis. 

            The Americans built more than they could sell and loaned more than they could afford to lose.  When the American economy tanked in 1929-1930, American banks called in the loans they had made to German banks; the German banks called in the loans they had made all through Eastern Europe; countries started going bankrupt; and nobody bought American stuff, so…well, you get the picture. 

            Germany stopped paying reparations to France and Britain; France and Britain stopped paying their war debts to the United States; the United States stopped lending money to Germany; Germany…well you get the picture. 

            Companies went bankrupt; unemployment soared (to 25 percent in the United States); governments balanced their budgets by raising taxes and cutting spending; companies went…well, you get the picture. 

The political crisis caused by the economic crisis. 

            Democracy is good at handing out pleasure; it isn’t so good at handing out pain.  (See: health care reform, Social Security reform, cutting the US deficit.)  Fighting over who suffered from the Depression paralyzed democracy in France and Britain, almost brought down democracy in the United States, and destroyed democracy in Germany. 

            Where democracy survived, it had to adapt (see: New Deal in USA) and it focused like a hawk on internal issues.  Not everyone liked the changes. 

            Where democracy did not survive (or never existed) radical governments brought their countries out of the Depression faster and better than anywhere else.  Nazi Germany and Communist Russia were the great success stories.  Lots of people thought “If democracy is just the freedom to starve; maybe we should give dictatorship a try.” 

The international crisis caused by the economic crisis and the political crisis. 

            Adolf Hitler wanted to smash France, take over all of Eastern Europe as far as the Ural Mountains, starve most Poles and Russians to death, get rid of Europe’s Jews in some way, re-build Berlin to look like Rome on steroids (see: Washington, DC), and then retire to the Alps to paint. 

            Germany broke the Versailles treaty by rearming (1934); by re-occupying the de-militarized Rhineland (1936); by taking over Austria (1938); and by threatening war to get a big chunk of Czechoslovakia (1938).  On top of that, Germany helped the anti-government rebels in Spain (1936-1938), and stirred-up the German minorities scattered across Eastern Europe (and Argentina and Pennsylvania). 

Italy and Japan piled on.  Italy conquered Ethiopia and took over Albania.  Japan invaded China, telling the Americans to mind their own business. 

The democracies hoped that these nasty men would just go away.  Perhaps giving them something would make them nicer.  (See: appeasement.) 

Then Hitler took over what was left of Czechoslovakia (March 1939) and started in on Poland (Spring 1939).  The British and French decided to fight the next time. 

Josef Stalin thought that the western democracies wanted to push Hitler east so that he wouldn’t bother them.  Two can play at that game.  He did a deal with Hitler. 

Germany attacked Poland.  War came on 1 September 1939.