World War 2

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    World War 2

  • Japan invades Manchuria

    In 1931, the Japanese Kwangtung Army attacked Chinese troops in Manchuria in an event commonly known as the Manchurian Incident. Essentially, this was an attempt by the Japanese Empire to gain control over the whole province, in order to eventually encompass all of East Asia.
  • FDR elected president of the United States of America

    Assuming the Presidency at the depth of the Great Depression, Franklin D. Roosevelt helped the American people regain faith in themselves. He brought hope as he promised prompt, vigorous action, and asserted in his Inaugural Address, "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself." He was elected President in November 1932.
  • Hitler appointed Chancellor of Germany by President Paul von Hindenburg

    On the morning of 30 January 1933, in Hindenburg's office, Adolf Hitler was sworn in as Chancellor during what some observers later described as a brief and simple ceremony. His first speech as Chancellor took place on 10 February. The Nazis' seizure of power subsequently became known as the Machtergreifung or Machtübernahme.
  • Enabling Act passed by Reichstag; Hitler assumes dictatorial power

    The Enabling Act (German: Ermächtigungsgesetz) was passed by Germany's Reichstag and signed by President Paul von Hindenburg on March 23, 1933. It was the second major step, after the Reichstag Fire Decree, through which Chancellor Adolf Hitler legally obtained plenary powers and established his dictatorship.
  • Nazi party declared official party of Germany; all other parties banned

    The Nazi party was now in control of germany and all other parties were killed off. Hitler now has mostly full control and is starting to get into the full swing of his dictatorship.
  • Germany quits League of Nations

    The Nazi regime’s first measure in foreign policy was to pull out of the League of Nations on October 14, 1933. This step, meant to release Germany from international controls over its rearmament, marked a departure from the Weimar policy. As a result, Germany could no longer claim that it was pursuing the conciliatory policy that it had adopted in the 1920s. The idea of German disarmament gradually receded.
  • German President Paul von Hindenburg dies

    Paul von Hindenburg was born in 1847 and died in 1934. He was Weimar Germany's second president, after Ebert, and he led the nation through the catastrophe of the Wall Street Crash. Hindenburg dismissed the last hope germany really had and he appointed Hitler chancellor on January 30th 1933, as the constitution allowed him to do.
  • Hitler combines the offices of president and chancellor; assumes the title of fuhrer

    Hitler combines his powers and assumes total control of his dictatorship. He now assumes the title of fuhrer and begins his terror reign over europe.
  • Military conscription introduced in Germany in violation of Versailles treaty

    Conscription had begun in germany illegaly and this started to beef up hitlers army for the ensuing war.
  • The German Gestapo is placed above the law.

    Hitlers secret police were able to cary out atrocities and do it without penalty. They were ablr to commit vile and unspeakable crimes under the shadow of hitler. This german secret police had free reign to do as the please under hitler's order.
  • Nazis invade Poland.

    On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland. The Polish army was defeated within weeks of the invasion. From East Prussia and Germany in the north and Silesia and Slovakia in the south, German units, with more than 2,000 tanks and over 1,000 planes, broke through Polish defenses along the border and advanced on Warsaw in a massive encirclement attack