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Mao Zedong heads the Long March.
The battle in China between Chiang Kai-Shek and the Nationalists, and Mao Zedong and his Communists, rages. In 1934, Chiang Kai-Shek, backed by the West (who are pretty Nationalistic themselves), leads a battle against thousands of Communists. Overwhelmed, Mao and his Communists flee into the heart of China, on a 6,000 mile journey, the Long March, Mao is able to "swim in (his) peasant sea", and garner more Communist support. Meanwhile, Japan sets up a puppet state in "Manchukuo", China. -
Germany invades Poland; France and Britain declare war on Germany.
Hitler is fascit, which means he's got control over his own people like a totalitarian leader, in the Third Reich empire. Beginning in the late 1930's, Hitler sets out on controlling other people, too, to make more "lebensraum" ("living room") in Germany. The Third Reich does expand, into an area called the Sudetenland, and then Czechoslovakia, and the West doesn't do anything to stop the conquering. However, when Hitler invades Poland, France and Britain decide he's gone to far. War is on. -
Japan attacks Pearl Harbor.
As one can see from the secret war-plan meeting between FDR and Churchill off the coast of New Hampshire (the Atlantic Charter), Congress knows U.S. joining WW2 is inevitable. Japan had been attacking many Pacific islands (some colonies of the Allies), to show a dominance, and Japan had been succeeding. The Japanese attack at the Pacific Pearl Harbor island, which kills thousands of American soldiers stationed there, makes the U.S. say, "Alright, enough. Let me get my tanks." -
Germany surrenders.
The Germans repeatedly show their aggression, capturing lands (like France) and dominating the people there (like the French). Soon, however, the German generals begin to have second thoughts about Hitler. In Hitler's attempts to seige more cities, like at the Battle of Stalingrad, exhausted German forces question Hitler's order to not surrender. The Germans get more and more tired, and after Hitler's feeble one last attempt at the Battle of the Bulge fails, the Germans surrender to the Allies. -
The Allies use atomic bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
After the Americans capture Okinawa, they are very close the coast of main Japan. However, an invasion of Japan would cost the Allies thousands of soldiers; instead, President Truman orders the dropping of the new atomic bomb on two Japanese cities. The Allies terrorize the Japanese with these bombs; the bombs are the most destructive in human history. Fearing another attack, Emporer Hirohito surrenders Japan to the Allies, and World War 2 is over. -
The United Nations is formed.
After World War 1 ends, and the participants of it sign the Treay of Versailles, the League of Nations is born. The goal of the League of Nations is to unite countries to prevent another world war. However, constantly appeasing Hitler and his Third Reich expansions, the League of Nations might even have caused World War 2. After the second world war, delegates from 26 countries join to renew the League of Nations (FDR aptly calls it the U.N.), in an effort at world peace. It's worked so far.
