In addition to the problems of borders, idealism and resentment, the economic crisis played a major role. Six years before the outbreak of the Second World War, the American industrialist Henry Ford declared: "The world must prepare itself in the very near future for a new great war or a series of serious international conflicts if it does not decide to overcome the present economic crisis immediately.
of serious international conflicts, if it is not determined to overcome the present economic crisis immediately. The world is so overcrowded with unemployed people that if they are not given work soon, their pent-up energies will seek the only possible escape valve: war. Peace was always a more difficult problem than war. Nothing is easier than destruction, and man's instincts will always find the way to war because it is the easiest way."
Indeed, after the First World War, inflation rose astronomically as the currency was devalued, especially in Germany. Before the war, the 20-mark note was equivalent to about 5 dollars; by November 1923, each dollar was worth more than four billion marks. At one point, the paper it was printed on was worth more than a 100 trillion mark note. A monthly tram pass cost as much as 4 million marks, while a wheelbarrow full of banknotes was needed to buy a loaf of bread.
