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End of World War I
Settled with Treaty of Versailles. -
Hitler joins the Nazi party
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Fascist Party established under Mussolini in Italy
Mussolini was among the founders of Italian Fascism, which included elements of nationalism, corporatism, national syndicalism, expansionism, social progress and anti-communism in combination with censorship of subversives and state propaganda. -
Establishment of the USSR
The Soviet Union had a single-party political system dominated by the Communist Party until 1990. Although the USSR was nominally a union of Soviet republics with the capital in Moscow, it was in actuality a highly centralized state with a planned economy. -
Mussolini takes over in Italy
Mussolini was supported by the Liberals in parliament and with their help he introduced strict censorship and altered the methods of election so that in 1925-1926 he was able to assume dictatorial powers and dissolve all other political parties. -
Death of Vladimir Lenin; control of USSR to Joseph Stalin; deaths of 8-13 million Russians
Stalin control the USSR by propaganda, fear, purges, gulags and show trails. -
US and 61 other countries sign Kellogg-Briand Pact
the Kellog-Briand was a renunciation of war between only France and the United States. However, Frank B. Kellogg, the U.S. Secretary of State, wanted to retain American freedom of action; he thus responded with a proposal for a multilateral pact against war open for all nations to become signatories -
Japanese invasion of Manchuria
Japanese Imperial General Headquarters, which had decided upon a policy of localizing the incident, communicated its decision to the Kwantung Army command. -
Roosevelt takes office
He became the 32nd president of the United States. -
Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany, establishing the Third Reich
Germany from 1933 to 1945 when it was governed by Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist German Workers' Party commonly known in English as the Nazi Party -
US begins passing Neutrality Acts
The legacy of the Neutrality Acts in the 1930s was widely regarded as having been generally negative: they made no distinction between aggressor and victim, treating both equally as "belligerents"; and they limited the US government's ability to aid Britain against Nazi Germany. -
Hitler begins military buildup
Hitler began his rearmament program in direct violation of the Treaty of Versailles, which restricted Germany's army to a small size. Hitler conscripted soldiers five times the permitted number. -
Civil War begins in Spain under Francisco Franco
After winning the civil war with military aid from Italy and Nazi Germany—while the communist Soviet Union and various Internationalists aided certain forces of the left—he dissolved the Spanish Parliament. -
German troops invade Rhineland
There was a good chance that France would send troops to resist the German forces and this would mean war. The first troops to enter Rhineland were ordered to retreat if they met french resistance. Hitler real aim was to unite Austria with Germany because he believed that Germany and Austria were one country. -
Italian troops conquer Ethiopia
The country is a land of natural contrasts, with spectacular waterfalls and volcanic hot springs. Ethiopia has some of Africa's highest mountains as well as some of the world's lowest points below sea level. -
Japan invades China
In July 1937, Japan captured the former Chinese imperial capital of Beiping after instigating the Marco Polo Bridge Incident, which culminated in the Japanese campaign to invade all of China. -
Hitler announces secret plan for lebensraum
The official German history of World War II was to conclude that the conquest of Lebensraum was for Hitler and the rest of the National Socialists the most important German foreign policy goal -
Hitler takes Austria
Hitler took over Austria in 1938 because many links were shared between Germany. He created an 'Anschluss' with Austria. Hitler also was born in Austria and this made him want Austria. Hitler also had the idea of 'Lebensraum' or Living room/space in which he gelt was needed, so he took Austria. Austria did not really mind this as it had economic problems within from being separated from Germany previously. -
Munich Agreement; Sudetenland to Germany
The meeting took place in Munich on 29th September, 1938. Desperate to avoid war, and anxious to avoid an alliance with Joseph Stalin and the Soviet Union, Neville Chamberlain and Edouard Daladier agreed that Germany could have the Sudetenland. In return, Hitler promised not to make any further territorial demands in Europe. -
Franco is successful in Spain
After the end of World War II, Franco maintained his control in Spain through the implementation of austere measures: the systematic suppression of dissident views through censorship and coercion, the imprisonment of ideologically opposed enemies in concentration camps throughout the country -
Totaliltarian government established in USSR
The Soviet Union had a single-party political system dominated by the Communist Party until 1990. Although the USSR was nominally a union of Soviet republics (of which there were 15 after 1956) with the capital in Moscow, it was in actuality a highly centralized state with a planned economy. -
Russian army into Finland (Finns surrender in three months)
Stalin and Hitler had carved up Europe, and Finland was given to Soviet Union and Stalin had plans to begin operations to incorporate Finland into Russia. -
Czechoslovavakia falls to HItler
Began with the Nazi annexation of Czechoslovakia's northern and western border regions, known collectively as the Sudetenland, under terms outlined by the Munich Agreement. Nazi leader Adolf Hitler's pretext for this effort was the alleged privations suffered by ethnic German populations living in those regions. -
Non-aggression pact; Germany and Russia; divide Poland
A non-aggression pact is an international treaty between two or more states agreeing to avoid war or armed conflict between them and resolve their disputes through peaceful negotiations. Sometimes such a pact may include a pledge of avoiding armed conflict even if participants find themselves fighting third countries, including allies of one of the participants. -
German invasion of Poland; blitzkrieg
Germany, was an invasion of Poland by Germany, the Soviet Union, and a small Slovak contingent that marked the start of World War II in Europe. The invasion began on 1 September 1939, one week after the signing of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, and ended 6 October 1939 with Germany and the Soviet Union dividing and annexing the whole of Poland. -
Plans for an invasion of Great Britian; beginning of the Battle of Britian
The Battle of Britain (German: Luftschlacht um England or Luftschlacht um Großbritannien) is the name given to the air campaign waged by the German Air Force (Luftwaffe) against the United Kingdom during the summer and autumn of 1940. The objective of the campaign was to gain air superiority over the Royal Air Force (RAF), especially Fighter Command -
British and French defeat at Dunkirk
The Battle of Dunkirk was a battle in the Second World War between the Allies and Germany. A part of the Battle of France on the Western Front, the Battle of Dunkirk was the defence and evacuation of British and allied forces in Europe. -
Italy enters the war on the side of Germany and invades France
France was divided into a German occupation zone in the north and west, a small Italian occupation zone in the southeast, and an unoccupied zone, the zone libre, in the south. A rump state, Vichy France, administered all three zones according to the terms laid out in the armistice. In November 1942, the Axis forces also occupied the zone libre, and metropolitan France remained under Axis occupation until after the Allied landings in 1944. The Low Countries remained under German occupation until -
France surrenders to Germany
The French government continues its flight southward to Bordeaux where it disintegrates. A new government is formed with World War I hero Marshall Petain at its head. On June 17 the aging warrior announces in a broadcast to the French people -
German invasion of Denmark and Norway
In the early morning of 9 April 1940 — Wesertag ("Weser Day") — Germany invaded Denmark and Norway, ostensibly as a preventive manoeuvre against a planned, and openly discussed, Franco-British occupation of Norway. After the invasions, envoys of the Germans informed the governments of Denmark and Norway that the Wehrmacht had come to protect the countries' neutrality against Franco-British aggression. -
Defeat of the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg by Germany
The Battle of the Netherlands saw one of the first major uses of paratroopers to occupy crucial targets prior to ground troops reaching the area. The German Luftwaffe utilized paratroopers in the capture of several major airfields in the Netherlands in and around key cities such as Rotterdam and The Hague in order to quickly overrun the nation and immobilize Dutch forces.
