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Mussolini's March on Rome
The march on Rome, in which Benito Mussolini came to power in Italy, the march marked the beginning of fascist rule and meant the doom of the preceding parliamentary regimes of socialists and liberals. This resulted in the creation of Mussolini's nationalist party ascending to power in the kingdom of Italy. This event marked the first fascist takeover of power in the world, and set in place a regime that would govern for 20 years. -
Stalin becomes dictator of USSR
Stalin ruled by terror, with a totalitarian group that grip in order to eliminate anyone who might oppose him. He expanded the powers of the secret police with the communist party, he was responsible for the death of millions in his time as dictator. Stalin's death left a huge legacy, it was said it was the beginning of the end of the USSR. -
Hitler writes Mein Kampf
The work describes the process by which Hitler became antisemitic and outlines his political ideology and future plans for Germany. -
1st five year plan in USSR
The first five-year plan was created in order to initiate rapid and large-scale industrialization across the union. It would introduce more efficient methods of agriculture including highly mechanized farming on cooperative lines. -
Japan invades Manchuria
Japan invaded Manchuria seeking lots of raw materials to fuel its growing industries, Japan was desperate to establish political and cultural hegemony. This resulted in Japanese imperialism which started with its modernization a century earlier. This invasion led to the second Sino-Japanese war. -
Holodomor
Holodomor was the starvation of millions of Ukrainians due to Soviet policies. Stalin felt threatened by Ukraine's strengthing cultural autonomy, Stalin took measures to destroy the Ukrainian peasantry and the Ukrainian intellectuals to prevent them from seeking independence. -
Hitler appointed Chancellor of Germany
The Nazi party came to power through Germany's political processes, Hitler was appointed chancellor in 1933. The party was entitled to choose the President of the Reichstag.
He expanded the army tremendously, reintroduced conscription, and began developing a new air force. -
Night of the Long Knives
The night of the long knives was a triumph for Hitler, a turning point for the German government. The purge of the head of the Nazi paramilitary organization, lead to the murder of over 400 people without a trial. This showed very clearly that Hitler would get rid of anyone standing in his way. -
Italian invasion of Ethiopia
The aim of invading Ethiopia was to boost Italian prestige, a border incident between Ethiopia and Italian Somaliland gave Benito Mussolini an excuse to intervene. Hundreds of thousands of Ethiopian civilians died due to the Italian invasion. -
Nuremberg laws added
The Nuremberg laws were two race-based measures depriving Jews of rights designed by Adolf Hitler and approved by the Nazi party at a convention in Nurnberg in 1935. The laws deprived Jews of German citizenship, designating subjects of the state. The other forbade marriage or sexual relations between Jews and citizens of German blood. -
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish civil war was the bloodiest conflict western Europe had experienced since the end of world war 1. The war started when general Emilio Mola and Francisco Franco launched an uprising aimed at overthrowing the country's democratically elected republic. For many Liberals and leftists throughout the world, the Spanish civil war represented a dress rehearsal for World War 2. -
The great Purge and Gulags
Led by Joseph Stalin, also known as the great terror, was meant to eliminate dissenting members of the communist party and anyone else he considered a threat. At least 750,000 people were executed during the terror. More than a million survivors were sent to forced labor camps, known as gulags. This caused terror throughout the soviet union and impacted the country for many years. -
The Rape of Nanking
The Rape of Nanking was the Japanese butchering of an estimated 150,000 male war prisoners, as well as massacring over 50,000 male civilians and raping at least 20,000 women and girls of all ages, many of who were mutilated or killed in the process. Many of the Japanese troops were exhausted from weeks of marching and brutal fighting, they were seeking revenge for the comrades lost in that earlier battle. They wanted to break the spirit of the Chinese resistance. -
Kristallnacht
Nazis torched synagogues and vandalized Jewish homes and stores, and schools. They murdered almost 100 Jews. In the aftermath, almost 30,000 Jewish men were arrested and sent to concentration camps. After Kristallnacht, conditions for German Jews grew increasingly worse. -
Nazi Germany invades Poland
Germany invaded Poland to regain lost territory and rule their neighbor to the east. Hitler wanted to have a convenient staging point for the planned invasion of the Soviet Union. This invasion was a way for Hitler to show his attack strategy known as Blitzkrieg. The attack on Polland demonstrated Germany's ability to combine air power and armor in a new kind of mobile warfare. -
Japan bombs Pearl Harbor
The moving of pearl harbor was a threat to Japan which wanted to expand in the Pacific, military leaders and politicians saw a war between the U.S. and Japan as inevitable. Pearl Harbor was driven by its political self-interest, its scarcity of economic resources, and perceived opportunity cost. Following the attack on pearl harbor, the US declared war on Japan.