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Mussolini Takes Control of Italy
Mussolini was an Italian politician, journalist, and leader of the National Fascist Party, ruling the country as Prime Minister from 1922 until his ousting in 1943. -
U.S. Stock Market Crashes
This event screwed up the economies of the United States and much, if not all, of Europe. Many people were jobless and homeless. -
Japan Seizes Manchuria
Japan invaded Manchuria without a declaration of war, breaching the rules of the League of Nations. Japan was becoming a highly industrial country but it lacked the natural resources it really needed. They turned to Manchuria in order to obtain them. -
Franklin D. Roosevelt is Elected President of the United States
FDR leads the American people to try and bring them out of the Great Depression and boost the economy. He was also president during World War II. -
Hitler Named Chancellor of Germany
Hitler now becomes the leader of Germany, and enforces the Nazi ideals upon the German people, which eventually leads to the invasion of Poland, and World War II. -
Hitler Defies the Treaty of Versailles
Hitler defies the trreaty by demanding equal amount of arms as Britain and France. -
U.S. Neutrality Acts
These were passed by the United States Congress in the 1930s, in response to the growing turmoil in Europe and Asia that eventually led to World War II. They were spurred by the growth in isolationism and non-interventionism in the US following its costly involvement in World War I, and sought to ensure that the US would not become entangled again in foreign conflicts. -
Italy Invades Ethiopia
This event showed the weakness of the League of Nations due to their unwillingness to go to war. Mussolini declared the country as his own. -
Germany Militarizes the Rhineland
This was significant because it violated the terms of the Treaty of Versailles and the Locarno Treaties, marking the first time since the end of World War I that German troops had been in this region. -
Civil War Erupts in Spain
The Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) broke out with a military uprising in Morocco on July 17, triggered by events in Madrid. -
Japan Invades China
The Japan-China War started in July 1937 when the Japanese claimed that they were fired on by Chinese troops at the Marco Polo Bridge near Beijing. Using this as an excuse, the Japanese launched a full-scale invasion of China using the conquered Manchuria as a launching base for their troops. -
Anschluss
This was the annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany. Austria joined very willingly with its Germanic relative. -
The Munich Conference
The agreement was negotiated at a conference held in Munich, Germany, among the major powers of Europe, excluding the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia. Today, it is widely regarded as a failed act of appeasement toward Germany. -
Kristallnacht
German soldiers and citizens attacked Jewish people and their homes and businesses on this night. It is named for the amount of glass that was shattered during these attacks. -
The Nazi-Soviet Pact
By signing this pact, Germany had protected itself from having to fight a two-front war in the soon-to-begin World War II; the Soviet Union was awarded land, including parts of Poland and the Baltic States -
Germany Invades Poland
At 4:45 a.m., some 1.5 million German troops invade Poland all along its 1,750-mile border with German-controlled territory. Simultaneously, the German Luftwaffe bombed Polish airfields, and German warships and U-boats attacked Polish naval forces in the Baltic Sea. Nazi leader Adolf Hitler claimed the massive invasion was a defensive action, but Britain and France were not convinced. On September 3, they declared war on Germany, initiating World War II. -
The Phony War
The phase covered the months following Britain's and France's declaration of war on Germany (shortly after the Invasion of Poland) in September 1939 and preceding the Battle of France in May 1940. War was declared by each side, but no Western power had committed to launching a significant land offensive, notwithstanding the terms of the Anglo-Polish and Franco-Polish military alliances which obliged the United Kingdom and France to assist Poland. -
Winston Churchill is Elected Prime Minister of Great Britain
On May 13, in his first speech before the House of Commons, Prime Minister Churchill declared that "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat" and offered an outline of his bold plans for British resistance. -
The Miracle at Dunkirk
was the evacuation of Allied soldiers from the beaches and harbour of Dunkirk, France. The operation was decided upon when large numbers of British, French, and Belgian troops were cut off and surrounded by the German army during the Battle of France in the Second World War. -
France Surrenders to Germany
An armistice was signed between France and Germany, which resulted in a division of France whereby Germany would occupy the north and west, Italy would control a small Italian occupation zone in the southeast, and an unoccupied zone, the zone libre, would be governed by the newly formed Vichy government led by Marshal Pétain. -
The Battle of Britain
The name was given to the Second World War air campaign waged by the German Air Force (Luftwaffe) against the United Kingdom during the summer and autumn of 1940. The Battle of Britain was the first major campaign to be fought entirely by air forces, and was also the largest and most sustained aerial bombing campaign to that date. -
Japan Invades French Indo-China
The fighting, which lasted several days before the French authorities reached an agreement with the Japanese, took place in the context of the ongoing Sino-Japanese War and World War II. Japan was able to occupy Tonkin in northern Indochina, tightening the blockade of China and make a continuation of the drawn-out Battle of South Guangxi unnecessary. -
Lend-Lease Act
This was a program under which the United States supplied Free France, Great Britain, the Republic of China, and later the USSR and other Allied nations with food, oil, and materiel between 1941 and August 1945. -
The Atlantic Charter
The Charter stated the ideal goals of the war: no territorial aggrandizement; no territorial changes made against the wishes of the people; restoration of self-government to those deprived of it; reduction of trade restrictions; global cooperation to secure better economic and social conditions for all; freedom from fear and want; freedom of the seas; and abandonment of the use of force, as well as disarmament of aggressor nations. -
Pearl Harbor Attack
This was a surprise military strike conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. This brought the U.S. into World War II.
