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Period: to
Europe 1933-1945
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Depression in Britain
The depression wrecked traditional manufacturing industries. The production of textiles fell by two thirds. Shipbuilding collapsed. -
Hitler appointed Chancellor
Hitler was appointed chancellor. -
Begining of Disarmament
Hitler ordered as a Chancellor to von Fritsch, the German general, to end disarmament and to create an army of the greatest possible strengh. This was the first violation to the Treaty of Versailles. Tanks, ships, and aircrafts were inmediatly began to be built. -
Depression in France
French industry was facing a great crisis. The social and economical trouble France was facing, avioded her to stand up to Hitler. -
Japan leaves the League of Nations
Japan leaves the League of Nations after her attack on Chinese land Manchuria. Japan was not prepared to receive any criticism. -
The Reichstag got on fire
The Reichstag got on fire, and Hitler blamed the communists that they have started the fire. Hitler gained popularity due to this. -
Hitler is appointed President
Hitler is appointes President of Germany after the elections carried out. -
Hitler becomes Der Fuhrer
When the Recihstag passed the Enabling Law, Hitler had all the control of the state and the army. This law also gave Hitler the power to pass new laws without the agreement of the Recihstag. -
Germany leaves the League of Nations
Hitler had despised the League since it was set up. Just after one year he took power, Germany left the League. -
Stalin is ready to negociate
Stalin made it clear that he was prepared to do bussines with Hitler, but the attempt of stalin failed as Hitler had no interest in good relations with Stalin at that time. -
"Night of the long knives"
The sa was gaining too much power in Germany, and Hitler thought that they might be organising a coup d' etat, so he gathered all the leader and had them killed that night. The officers that were not killed were persecuted and some died as they were confused with these leaders. -
The Soviet Union becomes member of the League of Nations
The Soviet Union became a member of the League of Nations, as it wanted to sing a pact either with Germany or Britain and France as it considered to be the determining factor on wich side would win the war. -
Hitler introduces Conscription
By this, the number of soldiers in Germany increases massively. The limits on German military power in the Treaty of Versailles had been completely overturned. -
The Stresa Front
France and Britain were keen to stop Italy joining with Germany, so they seemed ready to give Italy a free hand in Africa. It was considered to be an anti-German grouping of Italy, Britain and France. The whole idea of the declaration talked only about keeping peace in Europe, so Mussolini thought that they would not interfeer when he invaded Abyssinia -
The Anglo-German Naval Agreement
Britain signed a treaty with Germany over the strengh of their navies. This fixed the size of the German navy at 35 per cent of the British navy The treaty allowed Germany to have u-boats. -
Italian invasion to Abyssinia
Abyssinia was a member of the League of Nstions, and as Britain and France did not wanted to get involved in a dilemma with Italy, the League of Nations applied a trade ban on Italy, but it did not include oil and petrol. As long as the Italians had petrol the war would continue. -
The Hoare-Laval Pact
The British Foreign Secretary. Hoare, had secret talks with Laval, the Prime Minister of France. They designed this pact under wich Abyssinia would have been divided in two, with Italy given the richer part. As the details of the Pact were leaked, people thought that they were surreding toward Italian agression. Thanks to this the Pact was scrapped and Hoare was forced to resign -
British military recovery
During this year, the British spending on defence began to rise again. This further weakened Britiain's ability to stand up to Hitler. British generals and admirals became very pesimistic about how well Britain could do in war, knowing that the German air force was to close to overtake theirs. -
Re-militarization of the Rhineland
On the 7 March 1936, hitler ordered some of his troops to re-militarize the rhineland. He also gave the order that if the French shoot back to them, they should retrieve inmediatly as they were not ready for war yet. -
End of the war in Abyssinia, Italy won
Italians won the war against Abyssinia -
League of Nations failure: Abyssinia
The League of Nations fails again. Italy had won the war in May 1936 and all the sanctions against Italy were ended. -
Spanish Civil Wr began
The country was divided into two type of political ideologies "Republican" or "Loyalist" and "Nationalist". -
Rome-Berlin Axis
Hitler and Mussolini signed a pact in wich both countries became allies, and in the case of a war, they would support each oher. -
Anti-Comitern Pact
Leaders of Germany, Italy and Japan signed this Pact, to work together against communism. The comunitern was the Soviet organisation whose job was to spread communism world-wide. -
Austria is in crisis
Austria is in a crisis. Nazi parties in Austria were making the situation even more difficult for Schuschnigg. -
Nazi plot in Austria discovered
Austrian authorities discovered a Nazi plot in Austria, in order to create chaos by killing the German Ambassador. -
Schuschnigg visits Hitler
Schuschnigg visited Hitler for crisis talks, he was bad treated by the nazis and he received shouts from Hitler. Hitler had threathen Schuschnigg and agreed with Hitlers demands. -
Chamberlain's position towards Czechoslovakia
As the government of Czechoslovakia was looking towards Britain and France for help, Chamberlain said that Czechoslovakia could not be saved from the Germans. -
Schuschnigg last attempt to keep Aistria independant
This wast the last and most desperate attempt to keep Autria independant, calling a plebiscite wether or not Austria should join Germany and settle some conditions on voters, such as the minimun age of voting was 24, so that young Nazis would not be able to vote. -
Invation of Austria by Germany
Hitler invaded Austria by sending troops there. Hitler did not care about wether or not the Austrians wanted to join Germany. -
Hitler visits his home town Linz
Hitler visited Austria a day after he had invaded it. There he was received by cheering crowds. -
Hitler has a meeting with Henlein
Hitler gave instructions to Henlein the Nazi leader in the sudenten lands in Czechoslovakia, to keep making demansa on the Czech government. Hitler aimed to create a crisis in Czechoslovakia. -
France has a new Prime Minister: Daladier
Elected by the French, Daladier had a lot of trouble to solve in his country. In front of the problem with Czechoslovakia, France had signed a pact with them, but they were not willing to go on a war with Germany at their instance, so they avoided war by ignoring the pact with Czechoslovakia. -
Australia and South Africa
Both countries told Chamberlain that they would not give military support in case of a war. -
Henlein leaves Czechoslovakia
Henlein levaes Czechoslovakia as a result of the violence, and the failure of negitiatons between Sudeten Germans and the Czech government. -
Talks in Berchtesgaden
Hitler and Chamberlain met, and Hitler claimed Chamberlain about the Sudeten Germans, and they agreed that the Sudetenland should be annexed by Germany, but in exchange Hitler was asked not to use force to take control of those lands. -
Munich Conference
A day after the British and the French Prime Ministers agreed with Hitler on the terms of the annexation of the Sudetenland, this conference was carried out. Britain and France agreed to give hitler what he wanted. -
Sudentenlands now belong to Germany
German troops marched unopposed into the Sudentenland. The Czech President was forced to go into exile. -
Germany invades whole Czechoslovaquia
Germany invaded what was left of Czechoslovaquia. -
Soviet victory over Finland
The battle lasted from October 1939-March 1940 with Soviet victory. The Finnish had fought with great skill and ferocity and it took the Soviet Union several months to defeat it's small neighbour. -
Britain supports Poland
the British government stated that Britain would stand by Poland in case of a war. -
Litvinov's offer to Britain and France
The Soviet Union Foreign Minister, Litvinov, outlined the basis for a treaty. This would have involved all three promising to defend the existing borders of the states of Eastern Europe from German attack, and each country promising to help the others in case of German attack. -
Soviet talks with Western powers fails
Talks beteween the Soviet Union and the Western powers came to an end as Soviet troops were not allowed to cross over Polish and Romanian territories. -
Non-aggression pact between Germany and the Soviet Union
On the 20 th of August hitler had written personally a letter to Stalin offering him high level talks in Moscow. In the pact there was a clause called "secret protocol" and it said that Germany and the Sovien Union agreed to carve up most of the territory that layed between the two countries. -
German invation of Poland
The German forces entered Polish territories. -
Britain and France declare war on Germany
After the German invation to Poland, Britain and France declared the war to Germany. The Second World War had begun. -
The Soviet Union invades eastern Poland
Soviet forces crossed the Polish frontier and and took control over the east of Poland. This was stated in the Nazi-Soviet pact. -
French and British mine Norwegian waters
The French and the British started mining Norwegian waters in order to stop the trade in iron ore. Later Germany invaded Finalnd and Denmark. Both French and British Prime Ministers were forced to resign. -
Chamberlain resigns
Due to a political crisis after the invation of Denmark and Norway by Germany, Chamberlain was forced to resign. -
Churchill becomes the Prime Minister of Britain
Chruchill was appointed Prime Minister of Britain. -
German struck on the west
The Netherlands, Belguim and France were rapidly invaded by german troops. A Britsh army was forced to leave the continent back to Britain. Germany took direct control over France, leaving part of the south. At this point it seemed that Hitler had virtually won the war. Most of Europe was already under German control. -
Mussolini joins forces with Germany
Mussolini joined forces with Germany, as Italy wanted some of the reward of the victory. -
Attempt of invasion on Britain
The German Air Force, the Luftwaffe, set out to win control of the air over Britain. Many places in London were bombed, such as factories and miitary sites. The air strike on Britain lasted from August 1940- September 1940. Althoug there were great losses on both sides, the RAF got the upper hand the battle and hitler had to postpone his plans over the invation of Britain. -
Operation "Barbarossa"
Germany invaded the Soviet Union, disrupting the agreement they had signed just two years before. Hitler sent there more than 3 million men stormed into the USSR, along with more than 3000 tanks and 5000 aircfrafts. German forces penetrated depp inside the Soviet Union capturing key cities. By mid-October over 3 million Soviet troops had been captured and the Germans were moving to Moscow. There they found fierce resistance and failed to capture the city due to freezing cold and no equipment. -
Holocaust "Final Solution"
A final decition was made on how jewish people should be treated by Nazi authorities. -
Japana goes to war with USA
A Japanese attack on the US naval base of Pearl Harbour made the USA join the war. USA joined forced along with Britain and the USSR. -
British forces defeat German forces in Africa
During the battle of El Alamein, the German army was defeated. -
Germans and Italians lost all territories in North Africa
Germans and Italians were driven out completely of Northern Africa. -
German forces retrieve
The Germans abandoned the siege of Leningrad. -
Rome under allies hands
Rome was invaded and is under American and British control. -
German forces retrieve from the Soviet Union
The German forces were in retreat across the Soviet Union. -
The "D Day"
Invasion of France. British and American forces entered the French territory. -
Invasion of France result: recovery of Paris
Paris was recovered by the allies. -
Germany launches counter-attack
The Germans launched a counter-attack in the Ardennes area of Belgium, after some early succes the German attack was turned back. -
Mussolini is executed
Mussolini is captured and killed, after he had escaped from prision. -
Hitler kills himself
Hitler killed himself in the bunker where he was hiding. -
Germany surrenders
After Hitlers suicide, the war continued for a month, but Germany was already too weak to continue with the war. -
Japan surrenders, World War II is over
The Japanese government surrendered because of the devastation caused by the two atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.