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The Weimar Republic is established in Germany
The Weimar Republic was Germany's government from 1919 to 1933. The time after World War I until the rise of Nazi Germany. It was named after the town of Weimar where Germany's new government was formed from a national assembly after Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicated. -
Treaty of Versailles is signed
The Treaty of Versailles was a peace treaty that was signed on 28 June 1919. It was the most important treaty of World War I, it ended the war between Germany and most of the Allied Powers. It was signed in the Palace of Versailles, exactly five years after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, which led to the war. -
The League of Nation is created
The League of Nations came into existence officially on the 10th of January, 1920. On the 15th of November, 1920, 41 members states gathered in Geneva for the opening of the first session of the Assembly. This represented a large portion of existing states and corresponded to more than 70% of the world's population. The League of Nations was created to promote national security -
French occupation of the Ruhr
The occupation of the Ruhr (German: Ruhrbesetzung) was a period of military occupation of the Ruhr region of Germany by France and Belgium between 11 January 1923 and 25 August 1925. French soldiers and a German civilian in the Ruhr in 1923. Goods in Germany became even more difficult to obtain, and therefore very expensive. To fix this problem and pay the striking Ruhr workers, the government again printed more money. This led to hyperinflation -
Beer Hall Putsch
The Beer Hall Putsch was a group that failed at attempting to stop Adolf Hitler. during the Weimar Republic. Approximately two thousand Nazis marched on the Feldherrnhalle, in the city centre, but were confronted by a police cordon, which resulted in the deaths of 16 Nazi Party members and four police officers -
The Dawes Plan is created
In late 1923, with the European powers stalemated over German reparations, the Reparation Commission formed a committee to review the situation. Headed by Charles G. Dawes (Chicago banker, former Director of the Bureau of the Budget, and future Vice President), the committee presented its proposal in April 1924. -
Benito Mussolini Becomes Dictator of Italy
Mussolini did not become a dictator overnight, but a speech he gave to the Italian parliament on January 3, 1925, asserting his right to supreme power is generally seen as the effective date that Mussolini declared himself dictator of Italy. Mussolini initially came to power by demanding the king to make him prime minister, and created a dictatorial state in Italy by persecuting his opponents, controlling all aspects of the media, and promoting his nationalist rhetoric. -
The Locarno Treaties are signed
The document presented here is the archival copy of the treaty concluded by the governments of Germany, Belgium, France, Great Britain, and Italy in the city of Locarno, Switzerland, on October 16, 1925. The treaty guaranteed Germany's western frontier, which the bordering states of France, Germany, and Belgium pledged to treat as inviolable. As signatories of the agreement, Britain and Italy committed themselves to help to repel any armed aggression across the frontier. -
The Kellogg-Briand Pact is signed
Sponsored by France and the U.S., the Pact is named after its authors, United States Secretary of State Frank B. Kellogg and French foreign minister Aristide Briand. The pact was concluded outside the League of Nations and remains in effect. This was signed to prevent future conflicts, however failed. -
Beginning of the Great Depression
The longest and deepest downturn in the history of the United States and the modern industrial economy lasted more than a decade, beginning in 1929 and ending during World War II in 1941.The American economy entered a mild recession during the summer of 1929, as consumer spending slowed and unsold goods began to pile up, which in turn slowed factory production. -
Japan invaded Manchuria
The Empire of Japan's Kwantung Army invaded Manchuria on 18 September 1931, immediately following the Mukden Incident. At the war's end in February 1932, the Japanese established the puppet state of Manchukuo. Seeking raw materials to fuel its growing industries, Japan invaded the Chinese province of Manchuria. Japan controlled large sections of China, and war crimes against the Chinese became commonplace. -
Adolf Hitler is appointed Chancellor of Germany
On January 30, 1933, President Paul von Hindenburg names Adolf Hitler, leader or führer of the National Socialist German Workers Party (or Nazi Party), as chancellor of Germany. The year 1932 had seen Hitler’s meteoric rise to prominence in Germany, spurred largely by the German people’s frustration with dismal economic conditions and the still-festering wounds inflicted by defeat in the Great War and the harsh peace terms of the Versailles treaty. -
Italy invaded Ethiopia
The Second Italo-Ethiopian War, also referred to as the Second Italo-Abyssinian War, was a war of aggression which was fought between Italy and Ethiopia from October 1935 to February 1937. In Ethiopia it is often referred to simply as the Italian Invasion.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 in the nineteenth century which saved Ethiopia. -
Germany reoccupied the Rhineland
On 7 March 1936 German troops re-occupied the Rhineland, a de-militarised zone according to the Treaty of Versailles. This action was directly against the terms which Germany had accepted after the First World War. This move, in terms of foreign relations, threw the European allies, especially France and Britain, into confusion. -
Creation of the Rome-Berlin Axis
Rome-Berlin Axis, Coalition formed in 1936 between Italy and Germany. An agreement formulated by Italy's foreign minister Galeazzo Ciano informally linking the two fascist countries was reached on October 25, 1936. It was formalized by the Pact of Steel in 1939. The term Axis Powers came to include Japan as well. -
Creation of the Anti-Comintern Pact
Ribbentrop and Japanese Ambassador Kintomo Mushanokōji signed the Anti-Comintern Pact on November 25, 1936. Two days later, Hitler gave his approval to the agreement.The Anti-Comintern Pact was an agreement between Germany, Italy and Japan, that they would work together to stop the spread of Communism around the globe. This was aimed squarely at the USSR. -
Germany’s anschluss with Austria
Anschluss, German: “Union”, political union of Austria with Germany, achieved through annexation by Adolf Hitler in 1938. Mooted in 1919 by Austria, Anschluss with Germany remained a hope (chiefly with Austrian Social Democrats) during 1919–33, after which Hitler’s rise to power made it less attractive. -
Signing of the Munich Agreement
September 29–30, 1938: Germany, Italy, Great Britain, and France sign the Munich agreement, by which Czechoslovakia must surrender its border regions and defenses (the so-called Sudeten region) to Nazi Germany. German troops occupy these regions between October 1 and 10, 1938. The agreement averted the outbreak of war but gave Czechoslovakia away to German conquest. -
Germany occupied Czechoslovakia
The military occupation of Czechoslovakia by Nazi Germany began with the German annexation of the Sudetenland in 1938, continued with the creation of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, and by the end of 1944 extended to all parts of Czechoslovakia. Following the Anschluss in March 1938 and the Munich Agreement in September of that same year, Adolf Hitler annexed the Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia. The loss of the Sudetenland was detrimental to the defense of Czechoslovakia, -
Creation of the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact
Joseph Stalin held similar views of Germany and the Nazi Party. To the surprise of almost everyone, the two dictators announced a nonaggression pact on August 23, 1939. The two men agreed that their countries would not to attack each other, either independently or along with other nations.
With Europe on the brink of another major war, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin viewed the pact as a way to keep his nation on peaceful terms with Germany, while giving him time to build up the Soviet military. -
Germany invaded Poland
The invasion of Poland was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany, the Slovak Republic, and the Soviet Union; which marked the beginning of World War II.
Hitler had attacked Poland because he wanted Germans to live there. He considered the Polish people inferior and only fit as a work force. In the last three months of 1939, the Nazis murdered 65,000 Jewish and non-Jewish Poles. -
Britain declared war on Germany
Britain went to war in 1939 to defend the balance of power in Europe and safeguard Britain's position in the world. The Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, raising his hat to the crowd as he left 10 Downing Street on the day that Britain declared war on Germany, 3 September 1939. in response to Hitler's invasion of Poland, Britain and France, both allies of the overrun nation declare war on Germany.