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Stalin becomes dictator of USSR
In the years following the death of Vladimir Lenin, he became the dictator of the Soviet Union. After growing up in Georgia, Stalin became a political activist, conducting discreet activities for the Bolshevik Party for twelve years before the Russian Revolution in 1917. -
Mussolini’s March on Rome -outcome
Benito Mussolini's Blackshirts infamously March on Rome, seizing total control over the Italian government. The March on Rome marked the beginning of Fascist rule over Italy, ending all social-liberal parliamentary regimes. -
Hitler writes Mein Kampf
Mein Kampf, (German: “My Struggle”) political manifesto written by Adolf Hitler. It was his only complete book, and the work became the bible of National Socialism (Nazism) in Germany's Third Reich. It was published in two volumes in 1925 and 1927, and an abridged edition appeared in 1930. -
1st “five year plan” in USSR– purpose
The first five-year plan was created in order to initiate rapid and large-scale industrialization across the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). -
Japan invades Manchuria – why?
Japan had invaded Manchuria without declarations of war, breaching the rules of the League of Nations. Japan had a highly developed industry, but the land was scarce of natural resources. Japan turned to Manchuria for oil, rubber, and lumber in order to make up for the lack of resources in Japan. -
Holodomor
This suggests that the famine was caused by a combination of a severe drought, chaotic implementation of forced collectivization of farms, and the food requisition program carried out by the Soviet authorities. -
Hitler appointed chancellor of Germany
He feared a seizure of power by Hitler but came to believe he could control him and appointed him chancellor in 1933, with three other Nazis in the Cabinet and Goering controlling some police forces. Hitler then used the SA (Sturmabteilung, also known as the brownshirts) as his private army to intimidate opponents. -
“Night of the Long Knives” in Germany - purpose
Finally, Hitler used the purge to attack or eliminate German critics of his new regime, especially those loyal to Vice-Chancellor Franz von Papen, as well as to settle scores with old enemies. -
Nuremburg Laws enacted - what were they?
The Nuremberg Race Laws consisted of two pieces of legislation: the Reich Citizenship Law and the Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor. A special session of the Nazi-controlled Reichstag passed both laws at the Party’s rally in Nuremberg, Germany. These laws institutionalized many of the racial theories underpinning Nazi ideology and provided the legal framework for the systematic persecution of Jews in Germany. -
Italian invasion of Ethiopia
The Second Italo-Ethiopian War, also referred to as the Second Italo-Abyssinian War, was a war of aggression that was fought between Italy and Ethiopia. The aim of invading Ethiopia was to boost Italian national prestige, which was wounded by Ethiopia's defeat of Italian forces at the Battle of Adowa in the nineteenth century (1896), which saved Ethiopia from Italian colonization. This was used as a rationale to invade Abyssinia. -
The Great Purge and gulags
The Great Purge or the Great Terror, also known as the Year of '37 and the Yezhovschina, was Joseph Stalin's campaign of political repression in the Soviet Union that occurred from 1936 to 1938. -
Spanish civil war
The main cause of the Spanish Civil War was the failure of Spanish democracy. This was because there was a refusal by the Spanish parties and groups to compromise and respect democratic norms. The left side, known as the Republicans, was formed by the Spanish government together with unions, communists, anarchists, workers, and peasants. On the other side were the Nationalists, the rebel part of the army, the bourgeoisie, the landlords, and, generally, the upper classes. -
The Rape of Nanking
The Nanjing Massacre or the Rape of Nanjing was an episode of mass murder and mass rape committed by Imperial Japanese troops against the residents of Nanjing, at that time the capital of China, during the Second Sino-Japanese War. -
Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht or the Night of Broken Glass, also called the November pogrom, was a pogrom against Jews carried out by the Nazi Party's Sturmabteilung paramilitary forces along with civilians throughout Nazi Germany on 9–10 November 1938. The German authorities looked on without intervening. -
Nazi Germany invades Poland
Germany invades Poland, initiating World War II in Europe. German forces broke through Polish defenses along the border and quickly advanced on Warsaw, the Polish capital. -
Japan bombs Pearl Harbor
Japan intended the attack as a preventive action to prevent the United States Pacific Fleet from interfering with its planned military actions in Southeast Asia against overseas territories of the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and those of the United States.