How did the economic policies of the post-World War I era affect the global political climate?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

By the mid-1920s, the major countries in the world decided that the best way to help their weak economies was to close off trade with other countries and resume many of the beggar-thy-neighbor approaches to wealth that were characteristic of mercantilism. Instead of helping matters, these protectionist policies caused serious trade wars between the major world economies, and as a consequence, the level of global trade plummeted. As trade plummeted, less money changed hands and thus less wealth was produced. Many argue that this trade war contributed to the Great Depression in the United States and around the world. This economic disaster also had major political consequences. The severe economic depression provided a perfect environment for an extremist like Adolf Hitler to rise to power in Germany, and it pushed the Japanese military to attempt to secure and put under direct Japanese control additional resource-rich territories around the Pacific Rim. While these were not the only causes of the Second World War, they did contribute directly to it.