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The Great Depression Begins
After the stock market crashes and banks fail in the United States, the global economy (already weak due to post World War I issues) enters the Great Depression. Unemployment is high, production grinds to a near halt, and poverty and famine strike the world. New and challenging systems of political thought, society, and the economy such as Communism and Fascism emerge around the world in order to address the issues individual countries are facing. -
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From the Nye Committee to Pearl Harbor
How the United States went from neutrality to billigerence in WWII -
Japan Invades China
The Japanese army, acting on its own volition (without orders from the civilian government) begins its invasion of Manchuria, a large province in the North East of China. Japan is now under the control of Militarist factions. -
Dachau: The First Nazi Concentration Camp
The same day that Hitler rose to power the first Nazi concentration camp opened in Germany. Designed to hold and persecute political prisoners and other "undesirable" members of Nazi society Dachau saw the slaughter of thousands of homosexuals, the disabled, those speaking out against the Nazi party, and Jews. -
Hitler comes to power
Amidst turmoil in Germany, Hitler seizes power and forces the Reichstag (German Congress) to vote in favor of the Enabling Act. This law granted Hitler the freedom to act without parliamentary consent or constitutional limitation. -
Nye Committee convenes
The Nye Committee documented the huge profits that arms factories had made during World War I. The report created the impression that these businesses influenced the United States to enter World War I. Also European nations began refusing to pay their World War I debt, most of which was owed to America. The committee's findings, along with the growing turmoil in Europe and Asia, made Isolationists (Americans who wished to stay out of the rest of the world's problems) become even more prominent. -
Neutrality Act 1935
Worried that growing German, Japanese, and Italian aggression might lead to war, Congress passed the Neutrality Act of 1935. Based on the belief that arms sales had helped bring the United States into World War I, the act made it illegal for Americans to sell arms to any country at war. -
Nuremberg Laws Passed: The seeds for holocaust planted
Germany passes laws that deprive German Jews of their citizenship, effectively making them entirely disposable by law and void of civil rights. These laws also put bans on the intermarriage of Jews and "pure blooded" German's. This is the first step in Hitler's steps to answer what he called Germany's "Jewish Question" and his "Final Solution." Hitler's philosophy was highly racist, nationalistic, and delusional, but was accepted by the German people for many reasons including fear and anger. -
Mussolini, Italy Invades Ethiopia
Mussolini, the dictator of Italy, turns his sights on expansion and invades the less developed Ethiopia. -
Neutrality act of 1937: Rape of Nanking, Japan threatens U.S. interests in Asia
In July 1937 Japan had continued its invasion of China via Manchuria. By December, the Japanese Army reached the capital city of Nanking. Here, a terrible massacre of 300,000 Chinese civilians and soldiers occurred along with widespread rape, looting, and destruction of Chinese property. Truly a violent and atrocious episode leading to WWII. During the aggression of Japan towards China, FDR authorized the sale of weapons to China since no official war had every been declared. -
Anschluss: Germany Annexes Austria
In 1938 Hitler threatened to invade German-speaking Austria, his native land, unless Austrian Nazi's were given important government posts. Austria's chancellor quickly gave in to this demand. In March, in order to force unification with Austria, Hitler sent troops into Austria and announced "Anschluss", or unification, of Austria and Germany. -
The Munich Crisis: Germany takes Czechoslovakia
Hitler announced German claims to the "Sudetenland," an area of Czechoslovakia with a large German-speaking population. The Czechs strongly resisted Germany's demands. Both the Soviet Union and France promised to protect Czech should the Germans invade. To prevent another war leaders of Great Britain France and the Soviet Union met with Hitler in Munich to discuss Czech's fate. An "appeasement" deal was made: Hitler could take Czech but had to promise to stop expanding. He did. Until 1939. -
Kristallnacht: the Nazi's Terrorize Jews in Germany
Also known as "The Night of Broken Glass" this event was the systematic destruction and terrorization of Jewish business and property owners in Germany by the Nazi SS or "secret police." Hitler used this as a tool to not only terrorize the Jews but also blame them for the destruction of their shops and criminalize Jews across the nation. -
Neutrality act of 1939
President Roosevelt officially proclaims the United States neutral two days after Britain and France declared war on Germany. However, he still wanted to our allies, including China, in their struggle against Hitler and Japan. So Roosevelt called Congress into a special session to revise the neutrality laws. He asked Congress to eliminate the ban on arms sales to nations at war. Congress conceded, however, warring nations would have to buy with cash and carry the arms on their own ships. -
Mussolini Invades Albania
Hoping to reunite Albania, historically a part of the Roman Empire (Italy) and gain a strategic port connected to the middle east, Mussolini sends troops to quickly annex the smaller and less powerful country. -
Germany Takes Poland: WWII begins
After agreeing to nonaggression with the USSR, Germany made a move to invade Poland. Poland's democratic ally's France and Great Britain declare war on Germany. Poland falls, and a "Phoney War" occurs where months go by without anyone really making and belligerent moves besides the invasion of Poland. The Germans secure a major port city in Danzig, giving it access to sea trade and naval power. -
The Winter War: Soviet Union invades Finland
Stalin, hoping to create a "buffer" state between the Soviet Union and the rest of Europe demanded that Finland cede (relinquish, give) part of their land to the belligerent country. When the Finnish government refused, Stalin's forces invaded. Fighting in sub-zero weather, it came to be known as the "Winter War." By 1940 the Soviets gained 11% of Finland's territory but were expelled from the League of Nations as a result of their belligerence. -
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Germany Expands: The Fall of France and the Bombardment of Great Britain, WWII under way
Germany uses a technique called Blitzkrieg, meaning to achieve military victory through a swift and decisive attack, to quickly burst through and conquer France. Once France is conquered, Germany turns its eyes to Great Britain and begins a violent campaign of bombing in preparation for land invasion. By this time, Germany now occupies most of western Europe, except for Great Britain. The war is looking bad for American's European allies. -
Destroyers-for-bases Deal
In May British prime minister Winston Churchill asked FDR to transfer old American battleships to Britain. Britain needed more to protect its cargo ships from German submarines and to block any German invasion. Determined to give Churchill the destroyers, FDR used a loophole in the provision of the Neutrality Act: In exchange for military bases in the Carribean (instead of cash), Roosevelt sent 50 destroyers to Britain. Technically, the Neutrality Act did not apply. The public was astonished. -
America First Committee Established
Roosevelt's destroyers-for-bases deal led to the founding of the America First Committee, a staunchly isolationist group that firmly opposed any American intervention or aid to the Allies. The Group had many famous members, including aviator Charles Lindbergh, former governor Philip LaFollette, and Senator Gerald Nye (of the Nye Committee). -
Tripartite Pact
A military alliance agreement between Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and Militarist Japan essentially cementing the Axis Powers as one side of World War II. The alliance was later joined by Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, and Yugoslavia further strengthening the European Axis power during the war. -
The Hemispheric Defense Zone
German submarines patrolling the Atlantic Ocean were sinking hundreds of thousands of tons of goods being shipped to Britain each month. The British navy simply did not have enough ships in the Atlantic to stop them. So, Roosevelt declared the entire western half of the Atlantic Ocean as part of the Western Hemisphere and therefore neutral. He then sent the American navy to patrol the western Atlantic and reveal the location of German submarines to the British. -
Lend-Lease Act
By December 1940, Britain (the last bastion of democracy in Europe), had run out of funds to defend against Germany. FDR proposed the Lend-Lease Act as a way to fund Britain's effort. He declared the United States must remain "the great arsenal of democracy" to keep British Fighting and make it unnecessary for Americans to go to war. Ultimately, this act contributed to over $40 billion in weapons, vehicles, and other supplies to be funneled towards Great Britains war efforts in Europe. -
America Embargoes Japan
In order to protect British interests in Asia, where Japan was on a similar ramage of imperialist expansionism as Germany, President Roosevelt introduced policies to discourage the Japanese from attacking the British Empire. When these policies did not work and Japan continued military expansion into China and the British Empire FDR responded by freezing all Japanese American assets (which Japan's economy was heavily reliant on) and began building up American defenses in the Phillipines. -
The Atlantic Charter: American inches closer to war
Aboard American and British warships anchored near British Newfoundland, FDR and Winston Churchill meet face to face and agreed on the Atlantic Charter. This charter committed the two leaders to a postwar world of democracy, nonaggression, free trade, economic advancement, and freedom of the seas. FDR agrees to "force an incident" in which the US would be justified to enter hostilities with Germany. An incident was presented when a German U-Boat attacked the American destroyer the Reuben James. -
December 7th, 1941, Pearl Harbor: A day that will live in infamy
The Japanese Empire, hoping to eliminate the American Navy in the Pacific and continue it's military expansion in Asia, launches a surprise attack on the United States Pacific Naval base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
