3. The rise of Hitler: By the fall of 1918, it was apparent to the leaders of Germany that defeat was inevitable in World War I.
The peace treaty, Treaty of Versaillles was signed on 28th June, 1919 at the end of the war.
British economist John Maynard Keynes had predicted that the stiff war reparations and other harsh terms imposed on Germany by the treaty would lead to the financial collapse of the country, which in turn would have serious economic and political repercussions on Europe and the world.
Keynes lobbied governments, wrote articles and, in a last ditch effort, published these prophetic words: “If we aim at the impoverishment of Central Europe, vengeance, I dare say, will not limp. Nothing can then delay for very long the forces of Reaction and the despairing convulsions of Revolution, before which the horrors of the later German war will fade into nothing, and which will destroy, whoever is victor, the civilisation and the progress of our generation.”
Keynes' suggestions were not considered, the German economy evaporated, extremism swept the nation, and an unknown artist called Adolf decided to give politics a whirl.
Hitler carried out pogrom of Jews, leading to the deaths of several million innocent people.
The entire world was thrown into the whirlpool of a cataclysmic war, that witnessed the death of more than a million soldiers and the dropping of two atomic bombs.
