Interwar period

  • End of WW1

    after more than four years of horrific fighting and the loss of millions of lives, the guns on the Western Front fell silent. Although fighting continued elsewhere, the armistice between Germany and the Allies was the first step to ending World War I.
  • Treaty of Versailles

    The treaty contained a "war guilt clause." This clause held Germany completely responsible for starting World War I. The effects of World War I and its divisive peace echoed in the decades to come, giving rise to a second world war and genocide committed under its cover.
  • March on Rome and Mussolinni seized the power

    March on Rome and Mussolinni seized the power
    The March on Rome was an organized mass demonstration which resulted in Benito Mussolini's National Fascist Party ascending to power in the Kingdom of Italy
  • Wall Street Crash

    Wall Street Crash
    It began in September, when share prices on the New York Stock Exchange collapsed, and ended in mid-November.
  • Hitler Chancellor

    Hitler Chancellor
    It took the economic and political instability to worsen, and the support of the conservative elite, to convince Hindenburg to appoint Hitler.
  • Spanish Civil War

    Spanish Civil War
    was an armed conflict that pitted Republican and Francoist forces against each other, resulting in the victory of the latter and the establishment of a dictatorship under Francisco Franco.
  • Great Purge

    From 1930 onwards, the so-called Great Purge or Stalin's Great Terror was unleashed. Hundreds of thousands of members of the Soviet Communist Party, socialists, anarchists and opponents were persecuted, tried and finally banished, imprisoned or executed in concentration camps, gulags, and other concentration camps.
  • Beginning of WW2 because of the invasion of Poland

    Through a non-aggression pact, Germany secured the neutrality of the Soviet Union, which was ruled by the dictator Joseph Stalin. Germany then invaded Poland on 1 September 1939, which started the Second World War in Europe.
  • The United States enters World War II

    America's isolation from war ended when Japan staged a surprise attack on American military installations in the Pacific
  • The Holocaust

    The Holocaust
    The Holocaust was the Nazi-led genocide of six million Jews during World War II, alongside millions of other targeted groups, representing one of history's most horrific atrocities.
  • End of WW2 and Atomic bomb

    At the end of World War II, on 6 August 1945, the US military dropped Little Boy, the first atomic bomb on a civilian population, wiping out the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Three days later another was dropped on the city of Nagasaki.
  • The suicide of Adolf Hitler

    As Soviet troops entered the heart of Berlin, Hitler committed suicide on April 30, 1945, in his underground bunker. Although there is some speculation about the manner of his death, it is widely believed that he shot himself.
  • The Nuremberg Trials begin

    The Nuremberg Trials begin
    The indictment against 24 major war criminals and seven organizations was filed on October 18, 1945 by the four chief prosecutors of the International Military Tribunal.
  • Death of Benito Mussolini

    Death of Benito Mussolini
    the deposed Italian fascist dictator, was summarily executed by an Italian partisan in the final days of World War II in Europe. The generally accepted version of events is that Mussolini was shot by Walter Audisio, a communist partisan.