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Japan Invades China
Japan invades Manchuria, China. Japan was also suffering through depression, and needed to industrialize to recover. It invaded China in order to gather the resources and territory needed to climb economically. Japanese and Chinese troops continued to clash even before WW11 was officially declared. By 1937, Japan controlled a large chunk of Chinese territory and continued committing war crimes -
The Anschluss
Germany's political union with Austria via annexation by hitler. months later, the Austrian chancellor Kurt von Schuschnigg was forced to give nazis a free hand over Austria. -
Invasion of Czechoslovakia
nazi Germany invaded Czech provinces of Bohemia and Moravia, which made up around half of Czechoslovakia. This was an extreme violation of the Munich pact, which agreed that Czechoslovakia must only surrender its defenses and border regions. Bohemia and Moravia, as i mentioned earlier, were definitely not border regions. Around 263,000 Jews that lived in the Czech-Republic were killed, most likely more -
Invasion of poland
Germans invaded Poland and triggered WW2. Great Britain and France declared war against nazi Germany -
neutrality act of 1939
An act passed by American congress that lifted the Arms embargo and put all trade with other nations under "cash and carry." This allowed them to sell weapons to other nations, but wouldn't ship them to those countries. The nations buying would have to pay and take the bought supplies back to their territory via their own ships -
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Fall of France
German invasion of France. At this point in time, nazi Germany was not being taken as a serious threat. The state of the war was "phony," so to speak. French troops had seemingly no reason to defend their borders and became weaker. As a result, German armed forces easily captured Paris and forced France to surrender. -
Period: to 142
Bataan Death March
American and Filipino troops surrendered to the Japanese after Japan invaded Luzon, Philippines. 750,000 Filipino and American soldiers were taken as prisoners of war (POWs) and forced to march 65 miles to prison camps. They suffered starvation, random beating and killings, and torture, all with no medical attention. Department of Veteran's Affairs estimated that 650 American and 16,500 Filipinos were killed during and after the march, but many believe the number of deaths is way higher.