CLEP US History II

Answer: E - World War I left Germany on the verge of total economic and social collapse, which paved the way for the rise of the extremist Nazi Party and its leader, Adolf Hitler, who instigated World War II. The Treaty of Versailles, which formally ended World War I, attributed blame to Germany and forced them to pay economic reparations. The country was already in poor shape economically, ravaged by disease and starvation, and humiliated by their loss in the war. They struggled to rebuild on any front in the years following the war, which made them prime breeding ground for political extremism. The Nazi Party rose to power by advocating German moral superiority and arguing that the punishing Versailles Treaty wasn’t even valid. Hitler and the Nazis ultimately created an environment that was militant, vengeful, and self-important. When the nation inevitably did begin to rebuild, they did so with the newfound goal of “reclaiming” what the Allied Powers “took” from them.