Interwar Years Timeline

  • Hitler was born

    He was born in the small Austrian town of Braunau near the German border.
  • Kuomintang Party formed in China

    This party was the Nationalist Party of China. It was a highly centralized, hierarchical, and authoritarian government led by Chiang Kai-shek. It ruled China from the 1930s through WWII. It was defeated by the Chinese Communists led by Mao Zedong in 1949.
  • Weimar Republic began to govern Germany

    This was the name given by historians to the parliamentary republic established in 1919 in Germany to replace the imperial form of government.
  • Formation of the Nazi party (NSGWP)

    (Not a specific date) A political party in Germany between 1919 and 1945. It was known as the German Workers' Party (DAP) prior to a change of name in 1920 and stressed the failures of communism, liberalism, and democracy, supported the "racial purity of the German people" and that of other Northwestern Europeans, and claimed itself as the protector of Germany from Jewish influence and corruption. The Nazis persecuted those they perceived as either race enemies that is "life unworthy of living".
  • May 4th Movement in China

    It was the first mass movement in modern Chinese history. University students in Beijing protested the Versailles Conference. The May Fourth Movement spread and began a patriotic outburst of new urban intellectuals against foreign imperialists and warlords.
  • Treaty of Versailles signed

    One of the peace treaties signed at the end of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers.
  • Washington Naval Conference

    Washington Naval Conference was a diplomatic conference called by administration of President Warren G. Harding and held in Washington D.C. from Nov. 12th, 1921 to Feb. 6th, 1922. It was a successful disarmament movement and resulted in three major treaties: Four-Power Treaty, Five-Power Treaty (Washington Naval Treaty), and the Nine-Power Treaty.
  • Mussolini marches on Rome

    A march by which Italian dictator Benito Mussolini's National Fascist Party came to power in the Kingdom of Italy.
  • Lenin renames Russia, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics

    Russia became part of the Soviet Union as a result of the 1917 Revolution. The Soviet Union was dissolved in 1991 and new states were created.
  • Hitler attempts to seize power in Munich (Beer Hall Putsch)

    A failed attempt at revolution, when Nazi Party leader Adolf Hitler, Erich Ludendorff, and other heads of the Kampfbund unsuccessfully tried to seize power in Munich, Bavaria, and Germany. Putsch is the German word for a military coup d'état.
  • Mein Kampf written

    (Not a specific date) Hitler’s autobiographical book that also expresses his political ideology. He began the dictation of his book which imprisoned for political crimes after his fialed Putsch in Munich in November 1923.
  • Dawes Plan in Effect

    The Dawes Plan was an attempt following World War I for the Triple Entente to collect war reparations debt from Germany.
  • Locarno Pact signed

    The pact, which was formerly signed on December 1, 1925, settled the question of French security and Germany’s frontiers with France and Belgium were settled. Germany was allowed to enter the League of Nations but Hitler tore up the treaty when he sent the German Army into the Rhineland.
  • "Lucky Lindy" flies across the Atlantic

    He was the first person to fly nonstop across the Atlantic Ocean, from New York to Paris. He used his fame to promote the rapid development of U.S. commercial aviation.
  • Stalin takes power in the USSR

    Stalin takes power of the USSR in the 1920s. He launched a command economy, replacing the New Economic Policy with the Five-Year Plans and launching a period of rapid industrialization and economic collectivization. It disrupted food production, resulting in famine.
  • Japan signed the Kellogg-Briand Pact

    It was signed by the US, France, Britain, Germany, Italy, Japan, and other states. It renounced aggressive war and prohibited the war, except as self-defense. It was a part of the US’s effort to avoid involvement in the European alliance system.
  • Young Plan in effect

    The Young Plan was the program for the settlement of German reparation debts after WWI. It further reduced payments from the Dawes Plan when it became apparent that Germany would not be able to afford those payments.
  • Great Depression begins

    A severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II.
  • Japan invasion of Manchuria began

    The Japanese invasion of Manchuria began immediately following the Mukden Incident. The Japanese occupation of Manchuria lasted until the end of World War II.
  • Japanese invasion of China began

    The Japanese invasion of Manchuria by the Kwantung Army of the Empire of Japan was immediately following the Mukden Incident (railroads owned by Japan were blown up). The Japanese occupation of Manchuria lasted until the end of WWII.
  • 40% unemployment in Germany

    (Not a specific date) Germany’s Weirmar Republic was hit hard by the Depression, especially because American loans to rebuild the German economy stopped. Unemployment soared and the political system veered toward extremism. Reparations were suspended in 1932 because of the economic state. Hitler’s Nazi Party came to power in 1933.
  • Franklin Roosevelt first elected

    (Not sure about exact date, but month and year are correct) He was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war.
  • Hitler became chancellor of Germany

    He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and served as head of state as Führer und Reichskanzler from 1934 to 1945.
  • Reichstag Fire took place

    The Reichstag fire was an arson attack on the Reichstag building in Berlin. It was used as evidence by the Nazis that the Communists were beginning a plot against the German government. The government began mass arrests of Communists and the Nazis went from being a plurality party to a majority in the parliamentary seats.
  • New Deal put into effect by FDR

    The New Deal was a series of economic programs put into effect by FDR to help the economy during the Great Depression focused on relief for the poor and unemployed, recovery of the economy to normal levels, and reform of the financial system to prevent a repeat depression.
  • Enabling Act passed in Germany

    The Enabling Act was passed by Germany's Reichstag and signed by President Paul von Hindenburg. Hitler legally obtained power and established his dictatorship.
  • Night of the Long Knives

    The Night of the Long Knives was a purge that took place in Nazi Germany between June 30 and July 2, 1934, when the Nazi regime carried out a series of political executions. Most of those killed were members of the Sturmabteilung (SA) and the paramilitary Brownshirts.
  • "Long March" in China

    The "Long March" in China was a military retreat by the Red Army of the Chinese Communist Party to evade the Kuomintang army. It was a series of marches as various Communist armies in the south escaped to the north and west.
  • Social Security Act passed in the U.S.

    President Franklin D. Roosevelt was handed a petition supporting the Old Age Revolving Pension Plan that had been signed by over 20 million people. In response to the petition, Congress passed the Social Security Act.
  • Nuremberg Laws passed in Germany

    These were Anti-Semitic laws in Nazi Germany introduced at the annual Nuremberg Rally of the Nazi Party. After the takeover of power in 1933 by Hitler, Nazism became an official ideology incorporating scientific racism and anti-Semitism. There was a rapid growth in German legislation directed at Jews.
  • Mussolini invades Ethiopia

    Mussolini's invasion of Ethiopia resulted in war and in the military occupation of Ethiopia and its annexation into the newly created colony of Italian East Africa.
  • Germany occupied the Rhineland

    Hitler began sending troops into the demilitarized Rhineland in 1936. The Rhineland had been demilitarized under the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles. This was to show the public that Hitler could overpower the treaty and put troops into this area. This also led to the start of WWII.
  • Popular Front government is elected in France

    An alliance of left-wing movements, including the French Communist Party (PCF), the French Section of the Workers' International (FSIO) and the Radical and Socialist Party, during the interwar period.
  • Spanish Civil War began

    The Spanish Civil War was a major conflict that devastated Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939. It began after an attempted coup d'état by a group of Spanish Army generals against the government of the Second Spanish Republic, then under the leadership of president Manuel Azaña.
  • Anschluss between Germany and Austria

    Anschluss was the occupation and annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany in 1938. Nazi Germany had provided support for the Austrian National Socialist Party in order to try to seize control of Austria's leadership. The Austrian Nazi Party staged a coup so that Germany was allowed to take over Austria with popular support.
  • Munich Agreement

    The Munich Agreement was an agreement permitting Nazi German annexation of the Sudetenland. It was negotiated at a conference without the presence of Czechoslovakia. It is regarded as a failed act of appeasement toward Nazi Germany.
  • Kristallnacht takes place in Germany

    Kristallnacht was triggered by the assassination of German diplomat Ernst vom Rath by Herschel Grynszpan, a German-born Polish Jew.
  • German-Russian nonaggression pact signed

    It was signed in Moscow and it was a non-aggression pact under which the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany each pledged to remain neutral in the event that either nation were attacked by a third party. It remained in effect until 22 June 1941, when Germany implemented Operation Barbarossa, invading the Soviet Union.