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The Treaty of Versailles
The Treaty of Versailles and the German desire for revenge - German combatants had felt betrayed by the signing of the armistice at Compiègne & domestic political unrest that was driven by a civilian context of war fatigue and hunger. -
Economic Depression
The whole world had economies shrinking, trade reducing, businesses closing, prices falling, banks failing, and unemployment rises. -
Failure of League of Nations
Intended that all countries would be members and that if there were disputes between countries, they could be settled by negotiation rather than by force but was an ultimate failure. -
Failure of Appeasement
Politicians in Britain and France began to believe that the Treaty of Versailles was unfair to Germany & that Hitler’s actions were understandable and justifiable. -
Rise of militarism in Japan
Japanese army invaded China, an area rich in minerals and resources, occupied China and Korea. Japan also invaded other areas of South East Asia including Vietnam. -
Improved Military Enigma Machines
Improved Military Enigma machines were used to develop secret codes and used to code and decode their messages. -
Adolf Hitler becomes dictatorship
As German chancellor, Adolf Hitler soon became a dictatorship in which civilians had no guaranteed human rights, the Nazi state (also referred to as the Third Reich). -
Radar Development
Radar development by Percy spencer. Allowed to use radio waves to detect objects at a distance. Radars allowed them to track potential incoming air attacks, guided bombers to their targets. This technology was first used at the beginning of World war II and soon became more advanced throughout the years of warfare. -
Rise of militarism in Germany
Hitler immediately began secretly building up Germany’s army and weapons -
Poland overrun by Germany.
Poland was overrun by Germany. Most of Europe was conquered by Nazi Germany and its allies over the next year. -
Battle of Britain
The battle demonstrated to Germany & the US that Britain could not be easily knocked out of the war. The Americans sent help & Hitler decided that he needed to invade the USSR -
Attack On Pearl Harbor
January - Adm. Yamamoto begins communicating with other Japanese officers about a possible attack on Pearl Harbor.
February - Adm. Husband E. Kimmel takes over U.S. command. Fleet of the Pacific in Hawaii. Kimmel and Lt. Gen. Walter C. Short, the Hawaiian Department's commanding officer, are planning for the defense of the islands. -
Attack On Pearl Harbor
Sept. 24 - The Japanese naval intelligence's 'bomb plot' letter to the Japanese consul general in Honolulu demanding a grid of precise positions for ships in Pearl Harbor is deciphered.
November -As a special envoy, Tokyo is sending an experienced diplomat to Washington to help Ambassador Kichisaburo Nomura, who is also finding a diplomatic solution.
Dec. 8 - President Roosevelt addresses Congress and asks for a declaration of war against Japan, which he receives. -
Battle of Moscow
By early October, the German army had come to within 200 miles of Moscow. This was when Operation Typhoon was launched which was a offensive intended to seize the Soviet capital and put an end to the campaign. -
Battle of Starlingrad
Battle was war’s turning point. Stalingrad the Wehrmacht would make no further advances in the USSR so the mobile operation to cut off the city demonstrated the skill of the rebuilt Red Army. -
Battle of Midway
The Japanese planned to eliminate the United States position as a strategic power in the Pacific by launching the Battle of Midway. Due to developments in codebreaking, the US was able to predict the date and location of the attack, giving them the upper hand. -
Conclusion of Battle of Normandy
The Allies had reached the Seine River, Paris was liberated and the Germans had been removed from Northwestern France, effectively concluding the Battle of Normandy. -
Allied force landed on Normandy beaches
The Allied force under U.S General Dwight D. Eisenhower landed on the Normandy beaches also known as D-Day, when 156,000 American, British and Canadian forces landed on five beaches along a 50-mile stretch of the heavily fortified coast of France’s Normandy region. -
Equipment had landed at Normandy
The beaches were fully secured and over 326,000 troops, more than 50,000 vehicles and some 100,000 tons of equipment had landed at Normandy. Allies had seized the vital port of Cherbourg, landed approximately 850,000 men and 150,000 vehicles in Normandy, and were poised to continue their march across France. -
Conference to establish Europe's post-war boarders
Stalin, Churchill, and U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt decided to meet during the Yalta Conference to establish Europe's post-war borders after Germany's surrender. -
Many Suffering from the Holocaust
Six million European Jews were slaughtered by the Germans and their allies as part of a concerted extermination scheme, the Holocaust. Thousands of survivors, Jews and non-Jews, suffering from malnutrition and sickness, have also been identified by troops. -
Battle of Berlin
Final major offensive of the Second World War in Europe. After this battle, the city of Berlin was divided into four as agreed by the Allies -
Discussion for the end of WW2
In Potsdam, Germany, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and U.S. President Harry Truman agreed to discuss conditions for the end of World War II. -
Yalta Conference commenced
The Yalta conference commenced in Russia. The “Big Three” Allied leaders discussed the post-war fate of defeating Germany and the rest of Europe, the terms of Soviet entry into the ongoing war in the Pacific against Japan, and the formation and operation of the united nations. -
Yalta agreement Signed
The Yalta agreement was signed by Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin; with Stalin declaring war with Japan three months after the German surrender. The Yalta agreement was publicly announced in Moscow, Russia, and London, England, and the United Kingdom regarding the handling of Germany after the war a day later it was signed. -
Hitler's Death
Hitler killed himself in the Führer's Bunker, two days after Mussolini had been captured and hanged by Italian partisans. Two days, also, since he had married his mistress Eva Braun, whom he poisoned before his suicide. -
Celebration of Victory in Europe day.
Both Great Britain and the United States celebrate Victory in Europe Day. Flags and banners were set up by cities of both countries, as well as previously conquered cities in Western Europe, rejoicing in the destruction of the Nazi war machine after the World War II. -
First atomic bomb developed
First atomic bomb developed through technological and scientific advances and exploded in the New Mexico desert. Developed in the midst of a race between the axis and allied powers during the war. The atomic bomb greatly shaped the outcome of the war which would eventually lead to a host of innovations in the field of nuclear energy. Notable events include the use of the atomic bomb in the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. -
Discussion for the success of the detonation of the first atomic bomb
The discussion involving President Truman and Stalin, at which time the President told the Soviet leader that on July 16, 1945, the United States had successfully detonated the first atomic bomb. -
First drop of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima
American B-29 bomber dropped the world’s first deployed atomic bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. (Explosion immediately killed an estimated 80,000 people. Tens of thousands more would later die of radiation exposure) -
Second drop of atomic bomb in Nagasaki
Second B-29 dropped another A-bomb on Nagasaki. Which killed an estimated 40,000 people. -
End of World War ll
Japan’s formal surrender took place aboard the U.S.S Missouri, anchored in Tokyo Bay, marking the end of World War II. Commander of Allied Forces Army Gen. Douglas MacArthur signed the Instrument of Surrender for the United Nations, and Fleet Adm. Chester Nimitz signed for the United States. While the victory over Japan was welcomed. By the end’s war, more than 400,000 Americans and an estimated 65 million people worldwide had died in the conflict.
