We did cover World War I relatively well in Bronx Science (at least my class), but I wish we did a bit more because it explains so much about World War II. What you first have to remember is all the European leaders in the second war were involved in the first, usually as younger officers. And that was a very scarring experience that changed nations forever. Let's start with Germany: They lost. Horribly. In 1918, the war was up in the air: It was possible for either side to win, but Germany knew they had only a small window of opportunity to beat the Entente before the Americans started landing on France's shores to help. So they launched the spring offensive, but were unsuccessful and led to about 680,000 casualties on their side alone. They knew they couldn't win after that, but the war continued until November. What the hell was happening during those months? Germany was prolonging in hopes they could kill enough Entente to allow a better armistice agreement. That's great, but that's another 700,000 casualties. And the common soldiers knew this was happening too. Can you imagine what it's like to be in the trenches and see your friends die every day knowing everything is for naught, just because the government hopes it can call for better terms? And when the war finally ends instead of something reasonable, you get the Versailles Treaty, so what the hell was the point of those extra six months of suffering? Germany was a bitter, bitter place after the war. A whole generation of young men were either dead or permanently damaged. And the civilians went through years of starvation and sacrifice to help with the front lines.^* So it's understandable that they would lash out in some way that would trample their previous humiliation, vindicate their superiority, and put a broken country back together.

Hitler, who was a corporal in World War I, had jumped into No Man's Land under fire to save his superior and was awarded by the kaiser for his bravery. After surviving through the trenches for a long time, he too was disgusted at the results, and could sense the mood of his fellow countrymen to rise up and bring Germany the victory he felt was snatched from them. Lenin, you have to recall, was living in Switzerland during the war. Germany was bogged down on two fronts and realized if they could neutralize Russia, they could focus entirely on France and Britain. Although Russia had already underwent a revolution in 1916, the new government was still fighting. So Germany packed up any Russian troublemaker they could find and send them back, including Lenin. Once the Bolsheviks gained power, communism was spreading like wildfire, and even had drawn the attention of German soldiers on the Eastern Front, who were already dissatisfied with their leadership. When some of them were transferred to the Western Front, they brought ideas of communism with them and many of the units rebelled. Hitler exaggerated this idea — although some troops did lay down their arms because of communism, many of them were just sick and tired of the war, especially after the spring offensive was a failure — and felt if the corrupted soldiers hadn't given up, the war may still have been won. It's no wonder why he hated the Soviet Union.

For the Entente powers, they were never the same. Britain went from the most powerful country in the world to the one most in debt. They covered the costs not only for themselves, but also the allies who came over to help. It literally just finished paying off its last loan in March. Although they still held onto their dominions, it wasn't a tenable situation and they slowly started breaking off, first in Ireland. Can you imagine being the center of the world in terms of commerce, culture, and power, and four years later to be just a shell of that? For France, remember the Western Front took place mostly on its soil, and they're still finding shells everywhere. Whole portions of the country are cordoned off because it's still too dangerous with the mines and the live munitions that never went off, especially the chemical ones. Every year they're blowing up about 900 tons in France and 200 in Belgium (although some are from the second World War). It's doubtful they'll ever remove it all in the next couple of centuries.

When the soldiers returned home in the same state as the Germans, albeit it more celebratory, they never wanted such a thing to ever happen again. You ever heard of "appeasement?" That was one of the criticisms of the European Allies in the years leading up to World War II. Hitler kept on breaking parts of the Versailles Treaty or were annexing territories. Instead of putting him in his place, France and Britain kept on saying, "Eh, let him have it," before they drew the line in the sand over Poland. Nowadays people always ask, "Why did they allow Hitler do that? If they had nipped it in the bud, perhaps World War II wouldn't've happened." Maybe, but at the same time look at their situation: Britain and France are still fucking exhausted after the first war, especially France since they did most of the fighting. Do you really want to go through all that again? Remember, a lot of the leadership now were in the trenches about twenty years prior. Do you want to be the guy to pull the trigger and start the process once more?

Out of everyone, the United States and Japan probably came out as the winners. Japan joined the Entente and just snapped up a few territories the Germans had the Pacific, knowing they couldn't retaliate. Many of these places were what led to Japan's involvement in World War II. But for America, my god. Have you heard of the Roaring 20s? It's because we fucking had it made. Literally didn't show up until about the last six months of the war, only about 100,000 dead, and both sides owe us money for loans and supplies. We were rolling in dough, and the decade following the war was one long party. I'm not going to say we were poor before that: We had an Industrial Revolution that allowed us to produce more than anyone else could imagine, plus we showed the world we could kick ass during the Spanish-American War (although the Filipinos with their pointed sticks caused us a lot of problems). But it was not on that level until then. Banking moved from London to New York. It was also the final nail on the coffin for America's isolationism. We did not have a standing army until that point. America declared war on Germany on April 4, 1917, but we didn't show up until the middle of 1918. That's because we had to actually train people. And when we did arrive, we didn't have artillery or any of that shit; we borrowed everything from France. And even then, we didn't know how to really use them effectively and fought like we were facing Native Americans in the 1800s. After that, although the country desperately tried to stay isolationist in World War II, we were already prepared to fight at a moment's notice. And we had a taste of what it's like to fight in foreign wars.

^* Germany had a problem that France and Britain didn't; it didn't have colonies nor any good ports out of Europe. So they could only rely on themselves for men and sustenance. France and Britain could call up allies and supplies from Australia to Canada, and the civilians never really were affected the same way that Germany did.