comparing America to Germany

America didnt initially enter WWI, but Germany was there from the start. The main reason for this was that Germany had a bunch of treaties with other Central POwers, that declared if any were attacking they would all fight together. It was basically a fight to the death battle and Germany's side lost. THis was devastation for them, not just because they lost honor and a bunch of land, but had to pay war indemnities as well as pay for the war costs for themselves. America didnt have any potential gains or losses coming into the war, and it wasnt until after they thought Mexico would side against them that they did anything. Although America did end up on the winning side, they did not have to deal with trenches built through their country and an entire lost generation, although there was significant amount of PTSD. Because America did not invest that much money in WWI, they were not as in bad of shape as the rest of the European countries. Germany, as i said earlier, had to pay large amounts of war indemnities to the allied countries, creating massive hyperinflation. So Germany was suffering greatly before the depression, and so after it they were even worse off. Although America was hit very hard by the depression, they did manage to have public building projects and other ways of creating jobs. Germany had a different response to the depression. They set their hopes in Adolf Hitler, who offered promise of prosperity and the return of Germany being a strong country. Later, HItler would cause the second world war and an even greater destruction for Germany, this time with a genocide of its own people and killings of many other European countries.