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Wall Street Crash :(
Oct 1929 Massive fall of stock market. Start of the Great Depression. -
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Manchurian Crisis
The Depression hit Japan badly, as the US government put up tariffs to protect her industry from Japanese competition. The tariffs had a huge impact of Japanese industry and led to high unemployment. Japan then decided to invade Manchuria in order to both expand the Japanese Empire and solve their economic crisis. Although China appealed to the League of Nations, the League was powerless because Japan was a leading memeber. -
Start of the Disarmament Conference
Feb 1932 The Disarmament Conference was finally set up. -
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Disarmament Conference
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No Equality
Jul 1932 Germany required other nations to disarm to its level, but the Conference failed to agree the principle of 'equality', so Germany walked out of the Conference. -
Secret Rearmament
Feb 1933 Hittler became Chancellor of Germany, and began rearming secretly. Feb 1933 Hitler was able to get away with rearmament, despite the fact that it was against the Treaty of Versailles, because many other countries, including Britaina and France, also used rearmament as a way to solve the unemployment problem caused by the Depression. Britain and France thought a strong Germany would be a good buffer against Communism. -
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Hitler's Actions Prior to WW2
These were the actions taken by Hitler, which eventually led to the Second World War. -
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The First New Deal
Frankelin Roosevelt's First New Deal in order to rescure the USA from Depression. -
Japan's Withdrawal from the League
Mar 1933 Japan resigned from the League and continued the expansion of the Japanese Empire. However, the League was still powerless, as the main powers of the League were busy with their own affairs and also were scared of Japan. -
End of the Disarmament Conference
Oct 1933 Germany resgined from the Disarmament Conference, and the League of Nations soon after. Germany managed to get away with this, as the League was busy with the Manchurian crisis. -
Wal-Wal incident
Dec 1934 A dispute between Italian and Ethiopian soldiers at the Wal-Wal oasis, inside Abyssinia, triggered Mussolini's invasion of Abysinnia. Abyssinia appealed to the League for help. -
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Abyssinian Crisis
Italy invaded Abyssinia, which proved the League to be powerless and ineffective. -
The Saar Plebiscite
Jan 1935 The Saar region, which was a German land but run by the League since the Treaty of Versailles, had a plebiscite to vote on whether their region should return to German rule or not. After the legal process of plebiscite, the majority of the people voted to return to German rule. This made Hitler seem more powerful to German citizens. -
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The Second New Deal
After recieving criticism from his opposing party, he came up with the Second New Deal, with more effective methods. -
Full-Scale Invasion of Abyssinia
Oct 1935 Mussolini launched Italy's full-scale invasion of Abyssinia. The League's postponement of sanctions allowed him to build up force and power for invasion. Eventually, the sanctions were taken place, but it would have been more effective if it had been taken earlier. -
Remilitarisation of the Rhineland
Mar 1936 Hitler marched his troops into the Rhineland at this time, and France desperately wanted Italy's support to strengthen their position against Hitler, and was prepared to give away the land of Abyssinia in order to achieve this. -
End of the Abyssinian Crisis
May 1936 Mussolini finally managed to invade the entire country.
=> The League of Nations had failed. -
The Spanish Civil War
Apr 1937 Hitler used the Spanish Civil War as a great opportunity to fight against Communism and to try out his new armed forces. He supported the rebellion side, and the bombing of Guernica, which was on 26 April 1937, killed 200 to 300 civilians. The whole world had been in shock due to this event. -
Anschluss with Austria
May 1938 After Germany and Italy signed an Anti-Comintern Pact, there was no one stopping Germany from anschluss with Austria. Hitler persuaded the Austrian Chancellor to unite with Germany and forcefully held a plebiscite, under the watchful eye of the Nazi troops. The vast majority, 99.75%, voted for Anschluss, and the voting procedue itself was legal, so no one could object to it. -
Hitler's Initial Position on Czechoslovakia
May 1938 Hitler declared that he did not ahve any designs on Czechoslovakia. 'I give you my word of honour that Czechoslovakia has nothing to fear from the Reich' - Hitler, 1938 But in May, he intended to fight Czechoslovakia if necessary. The tension arose. -
Pre-Munich Agreement
Sep 1938 Britain and France allowed Germany to have the parts of the Sudetenland that we demanded after plebiscite. -
Munich Agreement
Sep 1938 Although Britain, France and the USSR had promised to support Czechoslovakia if it came the war, the leaders of Britain, Germany, France and Italy decided in Munich to give the whole Sudentenland. They did not consult the Czechs and the USSR. Even though this managed to avert the war in the short term, but it further aggrevated the war in the end. This is becaus it gave time for war preparation for Germany. -
End of Invasion of Czechoslovakia
Mar 1939 German troops took over the entire country. -
The Nazi-Soviet Pact
Aug 1939 Since the USSR was excluded from the Munich Conference, Stalin got scared that Germany might attack them. On 24 Aug 1939, Hitler and Stalin signed the Nazi-Soviet Pact. They agreed not to attack one another, and to divide Poland between them. However, they both didn't trust each other. -
Germany's Invasion of Poland
Sep 1939 Germany started invading Poland from the west. On 17 Sep, Soviet army invaded Poland fromt he east. Poland was soon invaded. -
Start of the Second World War
Sep 1939 Britain and France declared war on Germany.
