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Elections were held in Italy
Giovanni Giolitti (PM) hoped to absorb the Fascist movement. Mussolini played down his radicalism and gained 7% of the vote with 35 seats. -
Elections were held in Italy
Giovanni Giolitti (PM) hoped to absorb the Fascist movement. Mussolini played down his radicalism and gained 7% of the vote with 35 seats. -
March on Rome
Organized mass demonstration in October 1922, which resulted in Benito Mussolini's National Fascist Party (Partito Nazionale Fascista, or PNF) ascending to power in the Kingdom of Italy (Regno d'Italia). Blackshirts assembled on the plain of the river Po and took position at strategic points. Armed fascist troops gathered outside Rome before marching into the city. -
Mussolini appointed Prime Minister
Victor Emmanuel III, the king of Italy invited Benito Mussolini to become Prime Minister, ushering in the era of Fascist rule in Italy. -
Corfu Incident
Diplomatic and military crisis between Greece and Italy, triggered when an Italian general heading was murdered in Greek territory along with members of his staff. Benito Mussolini issued a severe ultimatum to Greece. It wasn’t accepted as a whole so forces bombarded and occupied Corfu. This was an early demonstration of the League's weakness when dealing with larger powers. -
Occupation of the Ruhr
Occupation of the industrial Ruhr River valley region in Germany by French and Belgian troops. The action was provoked by German deficiencies in the coal and coke deliveries to France required by the reparations agreement after World War I. -
Dawes pact
Agreement between the Allies and Germany. The basic idea behind the plan was to make it easier for Germany to pay reparations and had two key parts: Reparations were reduced in the short term to 50 million pounds per year, and The United States gave loans of $25 billion to Germany to help rebuild its industrial capacity. -
Treaty of Rome
Agreement by which Italy and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes agreed that Fiume would be annexed to Italy as the Province of Fiume, while the town of Sušak was assigned to the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. According to the treaty, Fiume and Sušak would share joint administration of the port facilities. -
Battle for grain
Economic policy undertaken by the Fascists in Italy during the 1920s as a move toward autarky. Its goals were to: Boost cereal production to make Italy self-sufficient in grain, to reduce the balance of trade deficit, to lower the necessity for foreign imports of bread and to show Italy as a major power. -
Locarno Pact
Series of agreements whereby Germany, France, Belgium, Great Britain, and Italy mutually guaranteed peace in western Europe. The treaties were initialed at Locarno, Switz. It had 3 main aims: To secure the borders of the nations of Europe after the First World War, to ensure the permanent demilitarisation of the Rhineland and to begin negotiations to allow Germany into the League of Nations. -
Albania becomes an Italian protectorate
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Bamberg Conference
The Bamberg Conference was a meeting between all the leaders of the Nazi Party and was held to address a growing North / South split in the Nazi Party. The main result from the conference was that Hitler’s rhetoric of nationalism was placed at the centre of Nazi ideology at the expense of socialism. -
Germany joins League of Nations
Germany joined as a permanent of the League of Nations, a politically important move that recognized Germany’s power (and the League’s weakness.) -
Battle for the lira
Economic policy undertaken by the Fascists in Italy during the 1920s as an attempt to raise the claims of Italy becoming a great power. The goals were: To fix the lira at a rate of 90 to the pound Sterling, to reduce inflation, to confirm the image of Fascism bringing stability and to show the world that Italy could be a great force, with a strong currency. -
Battle of land
Started in Italy by Benito Mussolini, aimed to clear marshland and make it suitable for farming, as well as reclaiming land and reducing health risks. -
Kellogg-Briand Pact
International agreement in which signatory states promised not to use war to resolve "disputes or conflicts of whatever nature or of whatever origin they may be, which may arise among them".It was signed by Germany, France, and the United States, and later by other nations. -
Wall Street Crash
Greatest stock market crash in the history of the United States. It happened in the New York Stock Exchange in a Black Tuesday. Bank failures followed, resulting in businesses closing. This caused worldwide panic, which started the Great Depression. Stock prices did not reach the same level until late 1954. -
Hitler becomes chancellor
Hitler was not immediately appointed chancellor after the success of the July 1932 elections, despite being the leader of the largest party in the Reichstag. Franz von Papen and other conservatives who persuaded the German president, Field Marshal von Hindenburg to appoint Hitler as chancellor in a coalition government. -
Four Power Pact
Also known as a Quadripartite Agreement. Mussolini called for the creation of the Four-Power Pact which aimed to reduce the power of the small states in the League of Nations with a block of major powers. Under this plan, smaller nations would have less of a voice in Great Power politics. Representatives of Britain, France, Germany, and Italy signed. The treaty reaffirmed each country's adherence to the Covenant of the League of Nations, the Locarno Treaties, and the Kellogg-Briand Pact. -
Germany leaves League of Nations and World Disarmament Conference
France, Britain and Italy announced that Germany and the other states disarmed by the Versailles Treaty should be insured equality in a system that gives security to all nations. Because of this, Hitler withdrew Germany from both the Conference and the League of Nations in October 1933. -
German- Polish Non- aggression Pact
International treaty between Nazi Germany and the Second Polish Republic. Both countries pledged to resolve their problems through bilateral negotiations and to forgo armed conflict for a period of 10 years. Germany effectively recognised Poland's borders and moved to end an economically-damaging customs war between the two countries that had taken place over the previous decade. -
Night of the long knives
Purge that took place in Nazi Germany. Hitler ordered a series of political extrajudicial executions intended to consolidate his power and alleviate the concerns of the German military about the role of Ernst Röhm and the Sturmabteilung (SA), the Nazis' paramilitary organization. -
Mussolini mobilizes the Italian army to the Austrian border
After the assassination of the Austrian Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss, Mussolini mobilised a part of the Italian army on the Austrian border and threatened Hitler with war in the event of a German invasion of Austria to thwart the putsch. Then he announced to the world: "The independence of Austria, for which he has fallen, is a principle that has been defended and will be defended by Italy even more strenuously" -
Saar Plebiscite
Saarland was taken from Germany by the Treaty of Versailles, which contained coalfields, factories and railway centres. It was put under the League of Nations control and allowed the French to run its coal mines for the next 15 years. At the end of that time the people of the Saar would vote to decide their future: To remain under the League control, to return to Germany, or to become part of France. In 1935 the required vote, was held. 9 out of every 10 Saarlanders voted to return to Germany. -
Hitler announces rearmament and the reintroduction of conscription in Germany
By 1935, Hitler was open about rejecting the military restrictions set forth by the Treaty of Versailles. He announced the rearmament of Germany.
Hitler also announced the conscription of Germany. This enabled the German Army to train 300,000 conscripts a year. By 1938 it had 36 infantry divisions of 600,000 men. -
Stresa Front
Coalition of France, Britain, and Italy formed in April 1935 at Stresa, Italy, to oppose Adolf Hitler’s announced intention to rearm Germany, which violated the terms of the Treaty of Versailles. Its aim was to reaffirm the Locarno Treaties and to declare that the independence of Austria "would continue to inspire their common policy". -
Anglo-German Naval Agreement
Naval agreement between the United Kingdom and Germany regulating the size of the Kriegsmarine (Germany) in relation to the Royal Navy (Britain). It fixed a ratio whereby the total tonnage of the Kriegsmarine was to be 35% of the total tonnage of the Royal Navy on a permanent basis. Foundered because of conflicting expectations between the two countries. -
Italy invades Abyssinia (Ethiopia)
In October 1935, Italian forces launched an invasion of Abyssinia. Partly because of its economic limitations and partly because of the arms embargo, Abyssinia could not confront the Italian army and air force. -
Italy and Germany become involved in Spanish Civil War
Hitler and Mussolini aligned with the far-right Spanish Nationalists and would use this conflict as an opportunity to test the military tactics which would later be used in World War II. Military support from the Germans and the Italians would become critical in ensuring victory for the Spanish far right. -
German remilitarization of the Rhineland
German military forces entered the Rhineland, which violated the terms of the Treaty of Versailles and the Locarno Treaties, marking the first time since the end of World War I that German troops had been in this region. The remilitarization changed the balance of power in Europe from France and its allies towards Germany, making it possible for Germany to pursue a policy of aggression in Western Europe that the demilitarized status of the Rhineland had blocked until then. -
Mussolini and Hitler sign the Rome–Berlin Axis
Coalition formed between Italy and Germany on 25 October 1936, which served to informally link the two fascist countries. Italy’s Benito Mussolini and Germany’s Adolf Hitler set up the agreement, which saw them promise to support each other in the event of a war, which they both knew was coming. -
Italy abandons the League of Nations
Mussolini left the League in 1937 after the League had imposed economic sanctions on Italy for the invasion of Abyssinia. -
Gentleman’s agreement
Italy and Britain agreement, each party respecting the rights of the other in the Mediterranean and aimed at improving Anglo-Italian relations. -
Hossbach conference
It was the summary of a meeting in Berlin on 5 November 1937 between German dictator Adolf Hitler and his military and foreign policy leadership in which Hitler's future expansionist policies were outlined. The meeting marked a turning point in Hitler's foreign policies, which then began to radicalize. According to the memorandum, Hitler did not want war in 1939 with Britain and France. He wanted small wars of plunder to help support Germany's struggling economy. -
Italy becomes a member of the Anti-Comintern Pact
Italy joined the Anti-Comintern Pact. Italy's decision was a reaction to the failure of the Stresa Front, the Franco-British initiative of 1935 designed to keep Germany from extending beyond its present borders that involved Italian cooperation. -
The Anschluss
German annexation of Austria takes place. Austria became a province of the Third Reich. This was part of his aim to unite all German-speaking people in one country. It received the enthusiastic support of most of the Austrian population and was retroactively approved via a plebiscite in April 1938. -
May Crisis
Brief episode of international tension in 1938 caused by reports of German troop movements against Czechoslovakia that appeared to signal the imminent outbreak of war in Europe. The outcome of the crisis formed a significant step on the road to the Munich Agreement and the destruction of Czechoslovakia. -
Manifesto on Race
The antisemitic laws stripped the Jews of Italian citizenship and governmental and professional positions. The manifesto demonstrated the enormous influence Adolf Hitler had over Benito Mussolini since Italy had become allied with Nazi Germany. -
German invasion of Czechoslovakia
Began with the German annexation of Czechoslovakia's border regions known collectively as the Sudetenland, under the terms outlined by the Munich Agreement. German leader Adolf Hitler's pretext for this action was the alleged privations suffered by the ethnic German population living in those regions. New and extensive Czechoslovak border fortifications were also located in the same area. -
Munich Agreement
Settlement reached by Germany, Great Britain, France, and Italy that permitted German annexation of the Sudetenland, in western Czechoslovakia. After his success in absorbing Austria into Germany proper in March 1938, Adolf Hitler looked covetously at Czechoslovakia, where about three million people in the Sudeten area were of German origin. -
Italy declares herself non- belligerent
Italy declares itself to not fight in WW2 -
Hitler into Bohemia and Moravia
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Mussolini invades Albania
Brief military campaign by the Kingdom of Italy against the Kingdom of Albania. Albania was rapidly overrun, its ruler, King Zog I, forced into exile, and the country made part of the Italian Empire as a protectorate in personal union with the Italian crown. -
Hitler denounces the Anglo- German Naval Agreement
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Pact of Steel
Military and political alliance between Italy and Germany. The pact consisted of two parts. The first section was an open declaration of continuing trust and cooperation between Germany and Italy while the second, a "Secret Supplementary Protocol", encouraged a union of policies concerning the military and economy. -
German-Soviet Non aggression Pact
Germany and USSR agreed to take no military action against each other for the next 10 years. The pact contained a secret agreement in which the Soviets and Germans agreed how they would later divide up Eastern Europe. The German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact fell apart in June 1941, when Nazi forces invaded the Soviet Union. -
Germany invades Poland
German forces bombard Poland on land and from the air, as Adolf Hitler seeks to regain lost territory and ultimately rule Poland. First step of WW2. It was a primer on how Hitler intended to wage war–what would become the “blitzkrieg” strategy. This was characterized by extensive bombing early on to destroy the enemy’s air capacity, railroads, communication lines, and munitions dumps, followed by a massive land invasion with overwhelming numbers of troops, tanks, and artillery. -
WWII Begins
Due to the German invasion of Poland; the United Kingdom and France declared war on Germany two days later. -
The fall of France, occupation of Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands
France: 10 May – 25 June 1940
Belgium: 28 May 1940
Luxembourg: 10 May 1940
Netherlands: 10–14 May 1940 -
German occupation of Denmark and Norway
Norway was invaded by Nazi Germany on April 9th 1940. Hitler had issued the order for the invasion of Norway on March 1st under the code word “Weserübung”. The order also included the invasion and occupation of Denmark. It was the start of war in Western Europe – and an end to the ‘Phoney War’. -
Italy enters World War II and invades southern France, Egypt, and Greece
France: 10–25 June 1940
Egypt: 9–16 September 1940
Greece: 28 October 1940 – 23 April 1941 -
Battle of Britain
Military campaign of the Second World War, in which the Royal Air Force (RAF) defended the United Kingdom (UK) against large-scale attacks by Nazi Germany's air force, the Luftwaffe. It has been described as the first major military campaign fought entirely by air forces. -
Tripartite Pact
Agreement between Germany, Italy and Japan signed in Berlin. It was a defensive military alliance that was eventually joined by Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, and Slovakia. The Tripartite Pact was directed primarily at the United States. Some technical cooperation was carried out, and the Japanese declaration of war on the United States propelled, although it did not require, a similar declaration of war from all the other signatories of the Tripartite Pact. -
Germany invades USSR
Also known as Operation Barbarossa. The operation stemmed from Nazi Germany's ideological aim of conquering the western Soviet Union so that it could be repopulated by Germans and to also use some Slavs as a slave labour force for the Axis war effort and to annihilate the rest according to Generalplan Ost, and to acquire the oil reserves of the Caucasus and the agricultural resources of Soviet territories.
