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Treaty of Versailles is signed
The Treaty of Versailles was a peace treaty that was imposed upon Germany after the end of WW1. The treaty included a number of punishing conditions on Germany. This led to Germany’s economic collapse, and was a major factor in Adolf Hitler seizing power in Germany. -
The Weimar Republic is established in Germany
It was the government of Germany from 1919-1933 until the rise of the Nazi Germany. It was named after the town of Weimar where Germany’s new government was formed by a National Assembly after Kaiser Wilhelm II was abdicated. -
The League of Nation is Created
Was an organization for international cooperation established on January 10, 1920, at the initiative of the victorious Allied powers at the end of World War I. It was formed to create relationships with other surrounding nations and create peace. -
French Occupation of the Ruhr
France and Belgium invaded the Ruhr because of the lack of payment reparations. The Ruhr was a region of Germany which contained resources such as factories. The French and Belgians intended to use these resources to make up for the unpaid reparations. -
Beer Hall Putsch
Throughout the early 1920s there was widespread fear of upheaval on the model of the Russian Revolution. Adolf Hitler and Erich Ludendorff wanted to start an insurrection in Germany against the Weimar Republic on November 8–9, 1923. -
The Dawes Plan is Created
The Dawes Plan of 1924 was an agreement between the Allies and Germany. It was to make it easier for Germany to pay reparations and had two key parts. Reparations were reduced to 50 million pounds per year and the United States gave loans of $25 billion to Germany to help rebuild its industrial capacity. -
Benito Mussolini Becomes Dictator of Italy
Benito Mussolini was an Italian political leader who became the fascist dictator of Italy from 1925 to 1945. Originally a revolutionary socialist, he forged the paramilitary fascist movement in 1919 and became prime minister in 1922. -
The Locarno Treaties are Signed
It was a series of agreements with Germany, France, Belgium, Great Britain, and Italy to mutually guaranteed peace in western Europe. The treaties were initialed at Locarno, Switz., on October 16 and signed in London on December 1. -
The Kellogg-Briand Pact is Signed
It was an agreement to outlaw war. With the influence and assistance of Shotwell and Butler, French Minister of Foreign Affairs Aristide Briand proposed a peace pact as a bilateral agreement between the United States and France to outlaw war between them. -
Beginning of the Great Depression
It began with the stock market crash of 1929 and was made worse by the 1930s Dust Bowl. President Franklin D. Roosevelt responded to the economic calamity with programs known as the New Deal. -
Japan Invaded Manchuria
The Japanese invasion of Manchuria began on September 18, 1931, when the Kwantung Army of the Empire of Japan invaded Manchuria immediately following the Mukden Incident. Their occupation lasted until the Soviet Union and Mongolia launched the Manchurian Strategic Offensive Operation in 1945. -
Adolf Hitler is Appointed Chancellor of Germany
Hitler was appointed chancellor on January 30, 1933, an event known as the Machtergreifung. On February 27 Hindenburg paved the way to dictatorship, war, and Nazi rule by issuing the Reichstag Fire Decree which gave Hitler dictatorial powers. -
Italy Invaded Ethiopia
It was an armed conflict that resulted in Ethiopia’s subjection to Italian rule. The war demonstrated the ineffectiveness of the League of Nations when League decisions were not supported by the great powers. -
Germany Reoccupied the Rhineland
Nazi leader Adolf Hitler violates the Treaty of Versailles and the Locarno Pact by sending German military forces into the Rhineland. -
Creation of the Rome-Berlin Axis
It was formed in 1936 between Italy and Germany. An agreement formulated by Italy's foreign minister Galeazzo Ciano informally linking the two fascist countries was reached on October 25, 1936. It was formalized by the Pact of Steel in 1939. The term Axis Powers came to include Japan as well. -
Creation of the Anti-Comintern Pact
It was first between Germany and Japan (Nov. 25, 1936) and then between Italy, Germany, and Japan (Nov. 6, 1937), originally directed against the Communist International but then specifically against the Soviet Union. -
Signing of the Munich Agreement
British and French prime ministers Neville Chamberlain and Edouard Daladier sign the Munich Pact with Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. The agreement averted the outbreak of war but gave Czechoslovakia away to the German conquest. -
Germany’s Anschluss with Austria
Anschluss German union was a political union of Austria with Germany, achieved through annexation by Adolf Hitler in 1938. It started in 1919 by Austria, Anschluss with Germany remained a hope during 1919–33, after which Hitler’s rise to power made it less attractive. -
Creation of the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact
Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union surprised the world by signing the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact, in which the two countries agreed to take no military action against each other for the next 10 years. -
Germany Occupied Czechoslovakia
The German occupation of Czechoslovakia (1938–1945) began with the German annexation of Sudetenland as outlined by the Munich Agreement. Adolf Hitler justified the invasion by the purported suffering of the ethnic Germans living in these regions. -
Germany Invaded Poland
The German army under Adolf Hitler launched an invasion of Poland that triggered the start of World War II. The battle for Poland only lasted about a month before a Nazi victory. -
Britain Declared War on Germany
In response to Hitler's invasion of Poland, Britain and France, both allies of the overrun nation declare war on Germany.
