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Treaty of Versailles - End of WWl, Beginning of WWll
The Treaty of Versailles was a peace document that was signed to end World War l by the Allied Powers (mainly Great Britain, France, and the Russian Empire) and associated powers with Germany. Because of the harsh treaty and subsequent negligent enforcement of its contingencies, it eventually led to the uprising of the expansion of the German military and finally, to WWll. -
The Hitler Youth and The League of German Girls
Although the Nazis were already in control of power of Germany in 1933, by the time of the war it increased to over 2 million. Hitler’s plan was to brainwash the kids of Germany to join them in Nazi ideology. The main event they participated in was the Nuremberg rallies. Many of the Hitler Youth went off to fight for Germany once they were old enough. -
Hitler is voted to power in Germany
After being chancellor of Germany, Hitler was also elected to be the president of Germany. He forged the Nazi Party and instilled horrible discrimination within them. Hitler had an authoritarian type of rule (wanted to by the Fuhrer or supreme leader of Germany) and as the war drew on, he wanted more and more power for himself. -
"Hitler's Olympics" (1936 Summer Olympics)
At the 1936 Summer Olympics, the Germans were all required to salute Hitler while the Japanese could do whatever they wanted because they were allies with Germany. On the other hand, black people and Americans saluted the United States. Jesse Owens proved Hitler wrong that blond hair and blue eyes was not the superior race because he kept winning over and over again in the Olympics. -
Tripartite Pact is signed
Germany, Italy, and Japan make an allied agreement one year after the start of World War ll. The pact’s purpose was to turn away the United States from entering the war because it would change the tide of the war, in the favor of saving the Jews and away from Hitler’s attempt to rule the world. -
German invasion of Poland
The invasion of Poland by Hitler’s German forces was the beginning of the Second World War, as the capital of Warsaw fell, leaving the rest of Poland open for German conquest. Jews fled the German forces, hoping that the Poland defenses would hold up against the Nazis. However, they did not and Poland was under German control until the end of the war. -
Nazis establish gas chambers at Auschwitz
Experimentation with gas chambers began in 1941, with the goal of killing massive amounts of people with toxic gas at one time. In these chambers, hundreds of people could be killed at once. The types of people contained in the concentration camps were mainly disabled people and Jews. At Auschwitz-Birkenau, there were four gas chambers and allowed the Nazis to kill thousands of people every day. -
Attack on Pearl Harbor
In the early morning of December 7, the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor on Oahu Island, Hawaii was surprised by an aerial bombing attack by the Japanese. Many of the U.S. ships were completely destroyed and sunk, taking many lives with them into the depths of the ocean. As a result, President Roosevelt signed for the U.S. to join the war. -
Japanese Americans are sent to internment camps
Two months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt promulgated Executive Order 9066 which led to putting Japanese-Americans in internment camps in order to keep the West Coast safe and free of spying from the Japanese inside the United States. -
D-Day
The Battle of Normandy (D-Day) began when 156,000 American, British, and Canadian forces landed on five beaches near Normandy, France. With careful planning and clever tactics, they tricked the Germans and regained Western Europe from the Nazis. D-Day is considered the beginning of the end of WWll. -
The Battle of Iwo Jima
The Battle of Iwo Jima was a military campaign between the Imperial Army of Japan and the U.S. Marines on the island of Iwo Jima 750 miles off of Japan. 7,000 U.S. marines were killed and all but 200 or less out of 21,000 Japanese forces were killed. The fighting began when the U.S. invaded Iwo Jima and they eventually won over the Japanese after five weeks of bombardment. -
Atomic bombs are dropped on Japan (August 6th and 9th)
An American B-29 bomber dropped a deployed atomic bomb (the first in the world’s history) on the city of Hiroshima in Japan. This killed 80,000 people instantly and tens of thousands of more people would die due to the exposure from radiation. Three days later, another atomic bomb was dropped on the city of Nagasaki, Japan and killed 40,000 people. This ended World War ll, making Japan finally surrender. -
End of WWll - Axis powers surrender - Germany, Italy, and Japan
The first axis party member to give up was Italy, surrendering just six weeks after the Fascist leader and Italian dictator, Benito Mussolini was overthrown and taken out of office by the leaders of the Italian Fascist Party (September 8, 1943). Towards the end of the war, Germany and the Nazis surrendered on May 7, 1945, seven days after Hitler committed suicide. Thus, Japan was the last member of the axis group and fought alone until officially surrendering to the Allies on September 2, 1945.