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Armistice is signed, Ending fighting in the First World War
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Treaty of Versailles is signed
The peace treaty formally ending hostilities in the First World War is signed. Designates Germany as responsible for all damages and losses during the war. -
The Weimar Republic is established in Germany
The Weimar Republic was Germany's government from 1919 to 1933, the period after World War I until the rise of 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 abdicated. -
The League of Nations is created
The League of Nations was an international diplomatic group developed after World War I as a way to solve disputes between countries before they erupted into open warfare. Suggested by U.S. President Woodrow Wilson. -
French occupation of the Ruhr
In response to the lack of payment of reparations, France and Belgium invaded the Ruhr. 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
An abortive attempt by Adolf Hitler and Erich Ludendorff to start an insurrection in Germany against the Weimar Republic. This resulted in the arrest of Adolf Hitler. -
The Dawes Plan is created
A plan in 1924 that successfully resolved the issue of World War I reparations that Germany had to pay. It ended a crisis in European diplomacy following World War I and the Treaty of Versailles. -
Benito Mussolini becomes dictator of Italy
Benito Mussolini becomes the leader of Fascist Italy, setting the country on course for its involvement in the Second World War. -
The Locarno Treaties are signed
Seven agreements negotiated at Locarno, Switzerland. Western European Allied powers and the new states of Central and Eastern Europe sought to secure the post-war territorial settlement, and return normalizing relations with the defeated German Reich (the Weimar Republic). It also stated that Germany would never go to war with other countries. -
The Kellogg-Briand Pact is signed
An international agreement in which signatory states promised not to use war to resolve disputes or conflicts. It was signed by Germany, France, and the United States -
Beginning of the Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression that took place mostly during the 1930s, beginning in the United States. Further crippled the German people. -
Japan invaded Manchuria
The Japanese invasion of Manchuria began when the Kwantung Army of the Empire of Japan invaded Manchuria immediately following the Mukden Incident. After the war, the Japanese established the puppet state of Manchukuo. -
Adolf Hitler is appointed Chancellor of Germany
Adolf Hitler seizes control of Germany through legal means and begins laying the foundation for his quest for European domination. His plan, embraced by much of the German population, was to do away with politics and make Germany a powerful, unified one-party state. -
Italy invaded Ethiopia
A colonial war which was fought between Italy and Ethiopia from October 1935 to February 1937. It is seen as an example of the expansionist policy that characterized the Axis powers and the inefficiency of the League of Nations before the outbreak of World War II. -
Germany reoccupied the Rhineland
German military forces entered the Rhineland, in direct contravention of the Treaty of Versailles and the Locarno Treaties. This was the first of many violations of the two treaties prior to the Second World War -
Creation of the Rome-Berlin Axis
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. -
Creation of the Anti-Comintern Pact
An agreement concluded first between Germany and Japan (Nov. 25, 1936) and then between Italy, Germany, and Japan (Nov. 6, 1937), seemingly directed against the Communist International (Comintern) but, by implication, specifically against the Soviet Union -
Germany occupied Czechoslovakia
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’s anschluss with Austria
The Anschluss refers to the annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany on 12 March 1938. The idea of an Anschluss began after the unification of Germany excluded Austria and the German Austrians from the Prussian-dominated German Empire in 1871. -
Signing of the Munich Agreement
The Munich Agreement or Munich Betrayal was an agreement concluded at Munich on 30 September 1938, by Nazi Germany, the United Kingdom, the French Third Republic, and the Kingdom of Italy. It provided "cession to Germany of the Sudeten German territory" of Czechoslovakia. -
Creation of the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact
The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact was a non-aggression pact between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union that enabled those two powers to divide-up Poland between them. -
Germany invaded Poland
On September 1, 1939, 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 declares war on Germany, Officially beginning the Second World War
