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League of Nations founded
The League of Nations was formed by the Treaty of Versailles and was made up of diplomats from many different countries. The League wanted to complete goals such as;negotiation, diplomacy and improving global quality of life. But, since the League of Nations did not have an army, they failed in its goal to prevent any future wars. -
Signing of the Treaty of Versailles
After six months of negotiating at the Paris Peace Conference, the treaty of Versailles was signed. The German armed forces are limited in size to 100,000 soldiers and Germany is ordered to pay large reparations for war damages along with lose huge area of land. This treaty left Germany unhappy which led to the anger in the beginning of WWII. -
Communist International
The Comintern, founded in obscurity in March 1919, gains the leverage to split the European Socialist parties and establish a more or less significant Communist party in each country. Gradually they are assimilated to the Bolshevik party model, and by the later 1920s nearly all are slavishly subservient to direction from Moscow. -
Adolf Hitler becomes leader of National Socialist (Nazi) Party.
In July 29, 1921, Adolf Hitler was introduced as Führer of the Nazi Party at the Bürgerbräukeller in Munich, marking the first time that title was publicly used to address him. -
Rise in Fascism
In 1922, Benito Mussolini and the Fascist Party rose to power in Italy. Fascism was basically a reaction to the failure of free market economics and the fear of Communism. Fascism was wanted by the National Socialist German Workers (or Nazis) in the north of Germany. -
Hitler's Propaganda
Hitler’s ability to use propaganda to promote German Nationalism was a great force that contributed to the power of the Nazis. furthermore, he wanted to use propaganda to make people beleive that pure German are Aryan who are superior and Jews are inferior. -
Beer Hall Putsch
The Beer Hall Putsch was a failed attempt at revolution that happened between November 8th and November 9th of 1923. It was run by Hitler and his Nazi followers and held at a Munich, Germany beer hall. Hitler attempted to take over the Munich area. -
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Hopeful years
An era of good feeling in European international relations witnesses major agreements that ease reparations (the Dawes Plan, 1924 and the Young Plan, 1929) and guarantee frontiers (the Locarno Treaties, 1925). Germany is admitted to the League of Nations (1926). -
Stalin in power in Russia
Stalin defeats the last of his major rivals for power in the period after Lenin's death (Jan. 1924). Over time Stalin's ascendancy brings forced industrialization, brutal police repression and purges, a deeply suspicious attitude toward the outside world, and rigid control over foreign Communist parties. -
The Great Depression
The Great Depression was an economical downturn in the USA. It was partially begun by the Stock Market crash on Black Tuesday. The situation was worst in most of Europe from the summer of 1931 through the end of 1932 and in some places much longer. It effected international trade, personal incomes, and crop prices. -
Japan invades Manchuria
Japanese armies open a long undeclared war against China in Manchuria. Attempts to restrain Japan through the League of Nations or by other means all fail, weakening faith in the international order. -
Third Reich
Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany. He and his Nazi party are in full command in a matter of months. His plan, embraced by much of the German population, was to do away with politics and make Germany a powerful, unified one-party state. -
German-Polish Non-Aggression Pact
Poland and Germany agree to sign the ten year German-Polish Non-Aggression Pact. The pact allowed Germany to maintain an eastern border. Five years after signing the pact, Germany invades Poland without much resistance. -
Nights of the Long Knives
Hitler's thugs (SS) carry out murders of Hitler's own men who are against him. Hitler moved against the SA and its leader, Ernst Röhm, because he saw the independence of the SA and the penchant of its members for street violence as a direct threat to his power -
Germany Issues the Anti-Jewish Nuremberg Laws
The Nuremberg Laws by their general nature formalized the unofficial and particular measures taken against Jews up to 1935. The Nazi leaders made a point of stressing the consistency of this legislation with the Party program which demanded that Jews should be deprived of their rights as citizens. This was important because this was the beginning of the problems that Hitler caused for the Jews. -
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Mussolini's Abyssinian War
During the international crisis over Italy's invasion of Abyssinia (Ethiopia), all attempts by the League and other forums to agree on effective action to restrain Italy fail. "Collective security" under the League loses much of its remaining credibility. Hitler's support of Mussolini's war brings Germany and Italy into alliance. -
Militarists take control of Japanese Government
Militarists take control of the Japanese government. Japan became obsessed with militarism and the Japanese military grows and strengthen. -
The formation of the Axis Powers
The Axis Powers or Axis Alliance is formed. Germany signs a treaty with Italy and Japan. The alliance would later be the main antagonists during WWII. -
Hitler's troops went into Rhineland
In 1936, Adolf Hitler sends his troops into the Rhinelands. This was, for Germany, a violation of the Versailles Treaty. Under the treaty, Allied forces would occupy the Rhineland for fifteen years. -
The Anti-Comintern Pact
Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan come to an agreement by signing the Anti-Comintern Pact directed against the communist movement and the Soviet Union. -
Hitler Annexes Austria
There had been several years of pressure from Germany and there were many supporters within Austria for the "Heim ins Reich" movement, both Nazis and nonNazis. Earlier, Germany had provided support for the Austrian National Socialist Party, which was also called the Austrian Nazi Party, in its bid to seize power from Austria's Austrofascist leadership. -
Munich Agreement
A crisis over a large border region in western Czechoslovakia (the so-called "Sudetenland") ends in the Munich agreement between Germany, Britain, France, and Italy, which authorizes German annexation of these territories. -
Nazi-Soviet Pact
The Nazi-Soviet Pact is signed by Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin. This was a non-aggression agreement between Germany and the Soviet Union. The signing of the Pact was suprising because Germany and the Soviet Union were bitter enemies. -
German-Polish Non-Aggression Pact is renounced by Hitler.
During a speech before the Reichstag (parliament), the Anglo-German Naval Agreement and German-Polish Non-Aggression Pact is renounced by Hitler. -
Invasion of Poland-The Start of the World War 2
The Nazi Soviet Pact cleared the way for Hitler's invasion of Poland. On the 1st of September they invaded west Poland. The invasion is followed by British and French declarations of war on Germany. The Soviet Union, having signed the Nazi-Soviet Pact with Germany a week earlier, remains out of the war and in fact uses the terms of the Pact to justify its occupation of part of Poland, the Baltic States, and parts of Romania over the next year.
