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Treaty of Versailles is signed
This treaty of peace was brought up and signed after WWI had ended. It laid out 14 points of peace terms to be followed in the future. The treaty humiliated Germany. Stipping them of territory, etc. and failed to resolve the underlying issues that had led to the war. -
The Weimar Republic is established in Germany
This was Germany's government after the war formed by a national assembly after Kaiser Wilhelm II stepped down. It came form uncertain beginnings leading into a brief season of success and then down again into a devastating depression. -
The League of Nation is created
the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. -
French occupation of the Ruhr
In response to the lack of payment of reparations, France and Belgium invaded the Ruhr. The Ruhr was a region of Germany which contained resources such as factories. The French and Belgians intended to use these resources to make up for the unpaid reparations. -
Beer Hall Putsch
abortive attempt by Adolf Hitler and Erich Ludendorff to start a rebellion in Germany against the Weimar Republic -
The Dawes Plan is created
The plan was formulated to take Weimar Germany out of hyperinflation and to return Weimar’s economy to some form of stability. The Dawes Plan got its name as the man who headed the committee was an American called Charles Dawes. -
Benito Mussolini becomes dictator of Italy
Benito Mussolini was an Italian political leader who became the fascist dictator of Italy from 1925 to 1945. Originally a revolutionary socialist, he forged the paramilitary fascist movement in 1919 and became prime minister in 1922. -
The Locarno Treaties are signed
an agreement signed between Britain, France, Belgium, Italy and Germany. Stresemann believed that through signing the Pact, it would increase confidence in Germany amongst her own people but also other European powers. -
The Kellogg-Briand Pact is signed
a international agreement in which signatory states promised not to use war to resolve "disputes or conflicts of whatever nature or of whatever origin they may be, which may arise among them". There were no mechanisms for enforcement. -
Beginning of the Great Depression
a severe worldwide economic depression that took place mostly during the 1930s, beginning in the United States. The timing of the Great Depression varied across the world; in most countries, it started in 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s -
Japan invaded Manchuria
Japan had invaded Manchuria without declarations of war, breaching the rules of the League of Nations. Japan had a highly developed industry, but the land was scarce of natural resources. Japan turned to Manchuria for oil, rubber and lumber in order to make up for the lack of resources in Japan. -
Adolf Hitler is appointed Chancellor of Germany
after the Reichstag adopted the Enabling Act of 1933 in that month, giving expanded authority. President Paul von Hindenburg had already appointed Hitler as Chancellor after a series of parliamentary elections and associated backroom intrigues. -
Italy invaded Ethiopia
the Fascist leader of Italy, had adopted Adolf Hitler's plans to expand German territories by acquiring all territories it considered German. Mussolini followed this policy when he invaded Ethiopia. Mussolini claimed that his policies of expansion were not different from that of other colonial powers in Africa. The aim of invading Ethiopia was to boost Italian national prestige, which was wounded by Ethiopia's defeat of Italian forces at the Battle of Adowa -
Germany reoccupied the Rhineland
France and the USSR signed a treaty of friendship and mutual support. Hitler resented this and argued that it was a hostile move against Germany, and the area of the Rhineland could in turn be used by France to invade Germany. Hitler used this as an excuse to send German military forces into the Rhineland -
Creation of the Rome-Berlin Axis
This was a coalition formed between Italy and Germany. An agreement formulated by Italy's foreign minister Galeazzo Ciano informally linking the two fascist countries was reached.. The term Axis Powers came to include Japan as well. -
Creation of the Anti-Comintern Pact
the Agreement against the Communist International, was an anti-Communist pact concluded between Germany and Japan on November 25, 1936, and was directed against the Communist International. -
Germany’s anschluss with Austria
to the annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany on 12 March 1938. The idea of an Anschluss began after the unification of Germany excluded Austria and the German Austrians from the Prussian-dominated German Empire -
Signing of the Munich Agreement
an agreement concluded at Munich, by Nazi Germany, the United Kingdom, the French Third Republic, and the Kingdom of Italy. It provided "cession to Germany of the Sudeten German territory" of Czechoslovakia. -
Germany occupied Czechoslovakia
The German occupation of Czechoslovakia (1938–1945) began with the German annexation of Sudetenland as outlined by the Munich Agreement. Adolf Hitler justified the invasion by the purported suffering of the ethnic Germans living in these regions. -
Creation of the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact
nonaggression pact between Germany and the Soviet Union that was concluded only a few days before the beginning of World War II and which divided eastern Europe into German and Soviet spheres of influence. -
Germany invaded Poland
The German army under Adolf Hitler launched an invasion of Poland that triggered the start of World War II. The battle for Poland only lasted about a month before a Nazi victory. But the invasion plunged the world into a war that would continue for almost six years and claim the lives of tens of millions of people. -
Britain declared war on Germany
After Hitler's troops invade Poland Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain announced that Britain was at war with Germany on this day in 1939. Chamberlain's announcement that the country was at war came two days after Hitler's troops had invaded Poland
