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Treaty of Versailles signed
Marking the end of WW1, a treaty was signed by America, France, and Germany, stating that Germany must unarm their country and take blame for the war. Germany was also meant to pay a debt for their damages caused by the war. -
Stalin becomes the leader of the Soviet Union
Stalin served as the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1922 until his death in 1953. In the years following the death of Vladimir Lenin, he rose to become dictator of the Soviet Union, using a combination of manipulation and terror to destroy his opposition. -
Hitler's Munich Putsch
Hitler’s Munich Putsch was a failed overthrowing by the nazi party of Munich Bavaria. Approximately two thousand Nazis were marching to the Field Marshalls’ Hall when they were confronted by the police. The encounter resulted in the deaths of 16 Nazis and 4 police officers. Hitler was arrested for treason. -
Mussolini becomes leader of Italy
Benito Mussolini was an Italian political leader who became the fascist dictator of Italy from 1925 to 1945. Mussolini initially condemned Italy's entry into World War I, but soon saw the war as an opportunity for his country to become a great power. -
Japan invades Manchuria
During 1931 Japan had invaded Manchuria without declarations of war, breaching the rules of the League of Nations. Japan had a highly developed industry, but the land was scarce for natural resources. Japan turned to Manchuria for oil, rubber and lumber in order to make up for the lack of resources in Japan. -
The Reichstag Fire
The Reichstag fire was an arson attack on the Reichstag building, home of the German parliament in Berlin precisely four weeks after Adolf Hitler was sworn in as Chancellor of Germany. -
First concentration camps open in Germany
The Dachau concentration camp was the first regular concentration camp established by the Nazi government. Heinrich Himmler, as police president of Munich, officially described the camp as "the first concentration camp for political prisoners." -
Hitler becomes Fuhrer of Germany
With the death of German President Paul von Hindenburg, Chancellor Adolf Hitler became absolute dictator of Germany under the title of Fuhrer. The German army took an oath of allegiance to its new commander-in-chief, and the last remnants of Germany’s democratic government were dismantled to make way for Hitler’s Third Reich. -
The Reichstag passes the Nuremberg Laws
The Nuremberg Laws were antisemitic and racist laws in Nazi Germany. They were enacted by the Reichstag at a special meeting convened during the annual Nuremberg Rally of the Nazi Party. The laws forbade marriages between Jews and Germans and the employment of German females under 45 in Jewish households, and only those of German or related blood were eligible to be Reich citizens. -
Italy invades Ethiopia
One hundred thousand soldiers of the Italian Army attacked from Eritrea without prior declaration of war. At the same time, a minor force under General Rodolfo Graziani attacked from Italian Somalia. On 15 October, Italian troops seized Aksum, and the obelisk adorning the city was torn from its site and sent to Rome to be placed symbolically in front of the building of the Ministry of Colonies created by the Fascist regime. -
Hitler rearms Rhineland
Nazi leader Adolf Hitler violates the Treaty of Versailles and the Locarno Pact by sending German military forces into the Rhineland, a demilitarized zone along the Rhine River in western Germany. -
Spanish Civil War begins
The Spanish Civil War was a political/religious war, a struggle between dictatorship and republican democracy. -
Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy form the Rome-Berlin Axis Treaty
A coalition 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. -
Japan commits the Rape of Nanjing
The massacre occurred over a period of six weeks. During this period, soldiers of the Imperial Japanese Army murdered Chinese civilians and disarmed combatants who numbered an estimated 40,000 to over 300,000, and committed widespread rape and looting. Since most Japanese military records on the killings were kept secret or destroyed shortly after the surrender of Japan in 1945, historians have been unable to accurately estimate the death toll of the massacre. -
Germany & Austria join in the “Anschluss”
Austrian Nazis conspired for the second time in four years to seize the Austrian government by force and unite their nation with Nazi Germany. Before the vote could take place, however, Austrian Chancellor Schuschnigg gave in to pressure from Hitler and resigned on March 11. In his resignation address, under persuasion from the Nazis, he pleaded with Austrian forces not to resist a German “advance” into the country. -
Munich Conference grants Hitler control of the Sudetenland
The agreement had Germany with the Sudetenland starting October 10, and de facto control over the rest of Czechoslovakia as long as Hitler promised to go no further. On September 30 after some rest, Chamberlain went to Hitler and asked him to sign a peace treaty between the United Kingdom and Germany. -
Kristallnacht
The night of broken glass was a violent riot against Jews carried out by paramilitary-stormtroopers. The many names are due to the glass of windows of the Jewish stores and homes that were broken by the military forces during the riot. Over 7,000 Jewish businesses were damaged or destroyed, and 30,000 Jewish men were arrested and incarcerated in concentration camps. -
Hitler sends troops into Czechoslovakia to annex the whole country
German troops marched into Czechoslovakia. They took over Bohemia and established a protectorate over Slovakia. Hitler's invasion of Czechoslovakia was the end of appeasement for several reasons: it proved that Hitler had been lying in Munich. -
Spanish Civil War ends
The Nationalists won the war and ruled Spain until Franco's death in November 1975. -
Hitler & Stalin announces the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact
The agreement was a non-aggression pact between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union that enabled those two powers to divide-up Poland between them. The powers also agreed to not participate in military action within the next ten years. -
Hitler/Nazis invade Poland
German forces invaded Poland from the north, south, and west the morning after the Gleiwitz incident. As the Wehrmacht advanced, Polish forces withdrew from their forward bases of operation close to the Germany–Poland border to more established defence lines to the east. This event would set off the Second World War.
