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Treaty of Versailles Signed
The Treaty of Versailles was a peace treaty signed between Germany and the Allies. Germany was held responsible for the destruction of the war. Germany was forced to pay war reparations and endure other punishing peace terms. -
League of Nations established
It was founded at the Paris Peace Conference at the end of World War 1. It was created to enforce peace treaties and to settle international disputes. -
Beer Hall Putsch
Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party led a coalition group in an attempt to overthrow the government. Their plan was they would begin at Bürgerbräu Keller in the city of Munich, where they would gain control of the state government. They would then march to Berlin, and overthrow the German Federal Government. They wanted to establish a new government that would create a Greater German Reich where citizenship was based on race. Their plan failed. -
Dawes Plan
Germany was unable to pay out the cost that the Treaty of Versailles had imposed on them. The main point of the plan was to restore the German economy. -
Benito Mussolini takes power in Italy
He believed that he could be a dictator that would confront the economic and political crisis in Italy. -
Locarno Pact
A series of agreements where Germany, France, Belgium, Great Britain, and Italy mutually guaranteed peace in western Europe. -
Kellogg-Briand Pact
An agreement to outlaw war which was signed on August 27th, 1928. 15 nations signed the pact in Paris. A few of these nations included Germany, France, The United States, Italy, Japan and Canada. -
Stock Market crash in the USA
It was a four day collapse of stock prices. Many panicked investors sold their shares. The stock market crash led to the Great Depression. -
Japan invaded Manchuria
Japan was becoming crowded due to its limited size as a nation. Japan’s economy was also affected by the Great Depression. Manchuria offered both land and resources that would help solve these problems. China turned to the League of Nations for help. The League could only punish nations through the economy, and due to the Great Depression, this had little effect on Japan. Japan uses this as an excuse to leave the League of Nations. This showed the world that the League had little power. -
Hitler appointed Chancellor of Germany
President Paul Von Hindenburg named Hitler chancellor of Germany. When he became Chancellor, He wanted to do away with politics, and make Germany into a powerful, unified one-party state. His plan was embraced by most of the German population. -
Italy invaded Ethiopia
Mussolini adopted Hitler’s plan to expand German territories by acquiring all territories it considered German. He saw this as an opportunity to boost national prestige, and to gain land and resources. -
Rome-Berlin Axis
For Italy, the alliance showed support in case of a major war, and an end to Italy’s political isolation. For Germany, it meant that their southern border was protected. Benito Mussolini used the term axis when he first spoke of a Rome- German Axis rising out of the treaty of friendship that Italy and Germany. -
Germany reoccupied the Rhineland
Hitler violates the treaty of Versailles and the Locarno Pact by sending German military forces into the Rhineland. -
Anti-Comintern Pact between Germany and Japan
The treaty was intended to serve as a military alliance aimed at the Soviet Union. It was disguised as an effort to combat the influence of the Communist International. In reality, the treaty did not result in any coordinated German and Japan military action. -
Germany’s Anschluss (union) with Austria
The Austrian chancellor didn’t want to give Germany an excuse for aggression, so he tried to cooperate with Hitler as much as possible. The Austrian government decided to let Austria decide if they wanted to be part of Hitler's Germany. Hitler told his troops to prepare for an invasion of Austria. German troops marched into Austria unopposed. A month later, Hitler held a rigged referendum that showed that the Austrian people approved of the German control of their government. -
Munich Agreement
Hitler was rearming Germany in defiance of the Treaty of Versailles. He wanted to seize Sudetenland, which was in Czechoslovakia but had a substantial German population and important resources. It was clear he would do it by force. The agreement allowed Germany to take Sudetenland in an attempt to avoid war. -
Germany occupied Czechoslovakia
The Munich agreement handed Czechoslovakia over to Germany in order to avoid a war. -
Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact
Germany and the Soviet Union signed a pact which agreed that they would take no military action against each other for the next ten years. The pact fell apart in June 1941, when Nazi forces invaded the Soviet Union. -
Germany invaded Poland
At 4:45 a.m., around 1.5 million German troops invade Poland all along 1,750 mile border. Hitler claimed that the massive invasion was a defensive act, but France and Britain weren’t convinced. On September 3rd, they declared war on Germany. This was the beginning of World War 1.
