"By the 1930s, many Europeans were ready to leave behind the liberal, democratic order created after 1918 by Britain, France, and the United States for a more authoritarian futu
What they did not bargain for was the brutal reality of Nazi imperialism and the denial of all national aspirations apart from German ones.... No experience was more
crucial to
development of Europe in the twentieth century. As both Hitler and Stalin were well aware, the Second World War involved something far more
profound than a series of military
engagements and diplomatic negotiations; it was a struggle for the social and political future of the continent itself. And such was the shock of being
subjected to a regime of
unprecedented and unremitting violence that in the space of eight years a sea-change took place in Europeans' political and social attitudes, and they rediscovered
the virtues
of
democracy....
Hitler's war aimed at the complete racial reconstitution of Europe. There were no historical parallels for such a project. In Europe, neither Napoleon nor the Habsburgs had aimed a
gaining such exclusive domination. In its violence and racism, Nazi imperialism drew more from European precedents in Asia, Africa, and-especially-the
Americas
. When
we eat
wheat from Canada; remarked Hitler one evening during the war, we don't think about the despoiled Indians. On another occasion he described the Ukraine as [
Germany's] 'new
Indian Empire. But if Europeans would have resented being ruled as the British ruled India, they were shocked at being submitted to an
experience closer to that inflicted upon
the
native populations of the Americas."

Which of the following was the most important factor behind Europeans' readiness to embrace authoritarian political systems in the 1930s?
Dissatisfaction with the welfare state
Admiration for the economic achievement of the Soviet Union under Stalin
The economic crisis caused by the Great Depression
Resentment of United States mass culture and consumer society