Comment by slashdev

I would say the suffering, hyper-inflation and widespread poverty imposed on Germany by the allies after World War I was a stronger proximate cause for the rise of the Nazis and the war in Europe. A very depressing illustration of the proverb that you reap what you sow. WWI was a complex jostling for power of the kind that had always happened in Europe, but on a scale and devastation never before seen. If not sparked by the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand, it would have likely been sparked by something else. WWII, on the other hand, was probably entirely avoidable, if not for the Treaty of Versailles. At least in Europe.