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Mussolini Took Power in Italy
After the war Mussolini attacked Vittorio Orlando for failing to achieve Italy's objectives at the Versailles Peace Treaty and helped to organize the various right-wing groups in Italy into the Fascist Party. After a series of riots in 1922 King Victor Emmanuel III appointed Mussolini in an attempt to prevent a communist revolution in Italy. -
Stalin Came to Power in Russia
After Lenin's death in 1924, the 2 main candidates that could follow him were Leon Trotsky and Joe Stalin. The Russian communist party were worried that Trotsky would take Russia by force. Clearly this is unacceptable for him, so he created the secret police force, which is gathering everybody's information and using it to his advantage. -
FDR Elected For President
He was president during and near the end of the depression. He helped a lot when it came to assisting the U.S. -
U.S. Stock Market Crashes
The U.S. stock market crashes, sending chaos across the nation. This practically triggered tension between countries -
Japan Invades Manchuria
The U.S. began to import goods less because of the depression. This had a ripple effect and got spread to Japan. They felt as if attacking Manchuria was a good thing because they didn't want to rely so heavily on American goods. Manchuria was ideal for a Japanese expansion since it was already fighting a civil war between nationalists, communists and warlords. -
Hitler Named Chancellor of Germany
Hitler was named Chancellor for Germany, and this made him even more desireable to followers because it instantaniously creates power. This was just the beginning of what is bound to happen next. -
U.S. Passed Neautrality Act
There were acts passed in 1935, 1936, 1937, & 1939. It was a series of laws banning arms sales and loans to countries at war, in the hope that this would remove any possibility of the United States entering a European conflict. -
Italy Invades Ethiopia
The Italian invasion of Ethiopia took place in the month of October 1935. It was a brief colonial war that's remembered in history as the second Italo-Abyssinian war. Mussolini had his eye set on annexing Ethiopia into Italy’s newly created colony of East Africa. The Italian military was successful in occupying Ethiopia, but Abyssinians did not surrender to the Italian forces. This is when we noticed the League of Nations was weak. This is also the first time mustard gas and phosgene was used. -
Germany Remilitarized the Rhineland
In 1936 Germany sent troops into the Rhineland, which had been demilitarized under the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles. The purpose of remilitarization in 1936 was to show the public in Germany that Hitler was 'putting right' the wrongs of Versailles and also in order to build military installations and fortifications there. -
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil War was fought from July 17, 1936 to April 1, 1939 between the Republicans and the Nationalists. -
Anschluss
Anschluss was the annexation of Austria by Germany in 1938. -
Munich Conference
The Munich Conference was a meeting about Germany's occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1938, at which Western leaders agreed to. -
Germany Occupies Sudetenland
The Sudetenland was an ill defined area around the border of what was then Czechoslovakia. Czechoslovakia was a newly created multi-ethnic country and it had a sizable ethnically German community that mainly lived in the Sudetenland. One of Hitler's first objectives was to create a Greater Germany incorporating ethnic Germans in Germany proper, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland and other Central and Eastern European countries. -
Kristallnacht
This was a Nazi invasion throughout Germany and Austria. On the night of November 9–10, 1938, Jews were killed and their property was destroyed. -
The "Phony" War
After Germany subdued Poland, the war in Europe settled into a long, quiet lull that lasted through the winter and spring of 1939. Then in 1940, Germany launched a massive invasion - "Blitzkrieg" ("lightning war") - on Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium and finally France. -
Nazi-Soviet Pact
The Nazi-Soviet Pact is when Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Soviet Union pledged friendship and cooperation, as well as to refrain from aggression against each other. The secret protocols of the treaty provided for spheres of influence in Eastern Europe and a pledge by each signatory not to interfere should the other choose to invade and conquer one or more of the states assigned to its influence. -
Germany Invades Poland
Hitler wanted more land, especially in the East. He dressed up prisoners in Polish uniforms, and placed them just over the German border after shooting them and claimed that Polish tried to invade Germany. France then declared war. -
Miracle at Dunkirk
Dunkirk was the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of British and French Troops from France to Great Britain in May 1940 after the Germans had defeated the Belgian, French and British Armies. This was accomplished over a period of nine days under constant bombardment and air attacks from the Germans by ships of the Royal Navy and hundreds of small fishing vessels and pleasure craft. -
Churchill Elected Prime Minister of England
He leaded the UK throughout WWII. He is thought to be the world's best politician. He entered an army, and this caused him to travel to many countries around the world. -
France Surrenders
It only took Germany 6 weeks to bring France to it's knees. France had 2 million troops on the Maginot line, expecting Germany to attack from the east. Hitler & his generals had other plans. The blitzkrieg attack caught the Allies by surprise. By June of 1940, France was in Germany's hands. -
The Battle of Britain
This was a battle between Germany and Britain. (From July 10-October 31 1940). It was started after Germany attacked France and Britain stepped in to help then retreated back to Britain where Germany attacked next. -
The Lend-Lease Act
Lend-Lease was a program of the United States Federal government during World War II which enabled the United States to provide the Allied nations with war material while the US was still officially a neutral country. The Lend-Lease program began in March 1941, nine months before the US entered the war in December of 1941. -
Japan Seizes French Indo-china
There was a blockade of China to prevent imported goods. AKA the Vietnamese Expedition, it was a move by the Empire of Japan in September 1940, during the Second Sino-Japanese War, to prevent China from importing arms and fuel through French Indochina. -
The Atlantic Charter
The Allied goals for the post-war world. Agreed to by all the Allies. The Charter stated the ideal goals of the war: no territorial aggrandizement; no territorial changes made against the wishes of the people; restoration of self-government to those deprived of it; free access to raw materials; reduction of trade restrictions; global cooperation to secure better economic and social conditions for all; freedom from fear and want; freedom of the seas; and abandonment of the use of force. -
Japan Attacks Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
