To get to the heart of a problem, you must first analyze its roots. In this case, the root of the problem lies in the conditions of the belligerents' economies before the outbreak of the war and in the events that caused turbulence in these economies and brought the world closer and closer to war step by step. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The first economy I will analyze is that of the country that is widely blamed and branded as the cause of the loss, death, and destruction caused by the war: Nazi Germany. Germany was a nation crippled after its defeat in World War I, with widespread poverty and hyperinflation of its currency, the Reichsmark being the direct consequence of its belligerence in the past. To further dampen the already broken spirit of the German nation, the countries that won the war demanded that Germany pay the massive sum of $33 billion as reparations to repair all the damage caused to continental Western Europe as a result of the war. This, combined with the French occupation of the Saarland, an economically important district of Germany in 1920, meant that the German economy was simply paralyzed by the early 1920s. Inflation rose to such frightening levels that at one point a loaf of bread cost billions of Reichsmarks. If that wasn't enough on the list of ills of the German economy, the Great Depression of 1929 further destroyed the economy's productive capabilities. However, the beacon of hope for the German people came in the form of the Nazi Party, which in its propaganda speeches promised to remedy the nation's ills. These promises led the German people, already in a mood of helplessness and despair, to vote for the Nazi Party and its leader, Adolf Hitler, to become Chancellor in 1933. Hitler immediately set about rebuilding the economy and appointed the very efficient Hjalmar Schacht, who had already built a reputation in the financial sector by working for several banks in the 1920s as Minister of Economy. Schacht presented his “New Plan,” which called for dramatically reducing imports and unemployment, increasing government spending to invoke consumer confidence, and also forming good economic ties with other nations. Unemployment fell dramatically from 6 million in 1933 to just 302,000 in 1939, in what was widely considered the Nazi "economic miracle", achieved through a combination of increased public spending and vigorous propaganda that insisted that every German of work contributed to the economy. However, unbeknownst to Schacht, Hitler's plan was to strengthen the economy enough to sustain a long war. When Schacht finally discovered Hitler's intentions, he chose to resign in 1937 and was promptly replaced by Hermann Goering, who devised a "Four Year Plan" to prepare the German economy for war within 4 years. Despite all the improvements made to the economy, between 1933 and 1939 the Nazi government increasingly spent more money than it earned, accumulating a gigantic public debt of almost 40 billion Reichsmarks. it had to prepare its economy to withstand a war, and then achieved what would be considered one of the best and fastest economic recoveries the world has ever seen. The next economy I want to talk about is the only other country in the world at that point in time that had a foreign policy as aggressive as Germany's: Japan. The Japanese economy experienced a manufacturing boom during World War I, but in1920 investors predicted a hard landing for the economy after the boom, causing stock prices to collapse and intermediary banks to fail. By 1921 the Japanese credit situation was not at all satisfactory and numerous Japanese companies were on the verge of bankruptcy. The Great Kanto Earthquake of September 1923 was a severe blow to the Japanese financial system and caused the destruction of much of Japan's human and physical capital. There was a huge loss in the net quantity of goods in circulation, the collapse of credit as a direct result of the destruction of property. Economic activities conducted in the affected areas were immediately ceased, and this was notable since the capital Tokyo was among these affected areas. Yokohama, an economically important port city for Japan as a means of maritime trade, was completely demolished, causing a further collapse of the Japanese economy. A moratorium, a law to allow debts to be legally stalled, was imposed to give debtors time to recover from the earthquake. However, this was not enough as bad debts incurred as a direct result of the earthquake ultimately added to the problems of the Japanese economy and led to the Showa financial crisis of 1927, a precursor to the Showa Great Depression that occurred between 1930 and 1931. L he Japanese economy was completely paralyzed in the 1930s, and this pushed Japan to take up arms against China to obtain some resources of economic importance. They did this by creating an excuse to invade Manchuria in 1931, which was eventually conquered and transformed into the puppet state of Manchukuo. The rest of China was also attacked, and the assault soon turned into the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945). The American position was not much better than the German or Japanese. Americans also did not escape the Great Depression: in 1932 unemployment reached 11.5 million people and the country's gross domestic product fell steadily over the course of 4 years, starting in 1929. The newly elected President Franklin Delano Roosevelt proposed implementing a “New Deal”, which aimed to get the economy out of the crisis. Although the agreement succeeded in mitigating some of the effects of the Depression between 1933 and 1940, it failed to end the crisis. The estimates, made soon after the German invasion, indicated that the American economy was still deeply rooted in the Depression. However, despite this below-average performance, America was still quite well prepared for war: the government showed greater involvement with the people as a result of the various programs established under the New Deal, and the people were motivated by the thought that the central government has been deeply involved in national affairs and has assisted the private sector with new capabilities and plans. Please note: this is just an example. Get a custom paper from our expert writers now. Get a custom essay Great Britain was one of the countries that suffered the worst crisis of the First World War. There were countless human and material losses, with over 769,000 dead and 1.7 million injured. Added to this was the material cost of £7,500 million, and although the German Empire owed billions in reparations to Britain, Britain also owed billions to the United States in loans, so reparations alone would not have been able to get Britain out of this situation. However, a depression occurred between 1919 and 1921, directly resulting in over 3 million citizens being unemployed. Although the economy recovered between 1922 and 1923, events such as the General Strike put the UK economy in trouble again,.