Japan goes bankrupt and is forced to abandon its gold standard, which in turn depreciates its currency so much that it virtually loses purchasing power on international markets. Japan was hit terribly hard by the Great Depression. This will lead to strong internal conflicts between the right and the left over how to obtain resources, a conflict that will be won by the right, which will decide to obtain resources by force, in Asia and the Pacific. Another nation affected by the Great Depression, in addition to the terms of surrender after World War I, was Germany, where, alongside Japan and following Italy, the far right also sees its rise to power. Germany, which had seen unemployment rise to 25% in the 1920s, experienced annual growth rates of 8% between 1934 and 1938 in the early years under Hitler. During the same years, in the United States, Democrat F.D. Roosevelt came to power and immediately implemented massive government spending programs, dramatically raising taxes on the wealthy (from 25% to 81%) and on large corporations (from 12% to 31%). After the crash of 1929, from 1933 to 1936, the New York Stock Exchange gained more than 200%, and the economy grew by 9% annually. Then, in 1936, the Federal Reserve tightened credit, and the American economy risked falling back into recession. Meanwhile, in Spain, a violent and brutal civil war was raging, with heavy direct and indirect foreign interference. The conditions for the Second World War are being prepared.
