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The Treaty of Versailles was the main peace treaty that ended World War I. It was signed on 28 June 1919 in Versailles between Germany and the Allies, five years after the start of the war.
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The League of Nations was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation with the purpose of maintaining world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 following the Paris Peace Conference that ended WW1.
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As Italy slipped into political chaos, Mussolini declared that only he could restore order and was given the authority in 1922 as prime minister. He gradually dismantled all democracy in the country. By 1925, he had made himself dictator, taking the title "Il Duce" ("the Leader").
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The Wall Street Crash of 1929 was a major stock market crash that occurred in late October 1929. It started late October and ended later that month, when share prices on the New York Stock Exchange collapsed. It led to the Great depression and ultimately WW2.
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Japan had invaded Manchuria in 1931 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.
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Adolf Hitler's complete rise to power came when he was appointed chancellor of Germany in 1933, by President Paul von Hindenburg after a series of parliamentary elections and associated backroom intrigue
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On 1935, Italy invaded Abyssinia, or Etheopia. This began the Second Italo-Ethiopian War, was a seven-month armed conflict, fought between October 1935 and May 1936.
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On March 7, 1936, Adolf Hitler sent over 20,000 troops back into the Rhineland, an area that was supposed to remain a demilitarized zone according to the Treaty of Versailles. The area known as the Rhineland was a strip of German land that borders France, Belgium, and the Netherlands.
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By 1938, Hitler felt strong enough to plan a union or Anschluss with Austria. This was part of his aim to unite all German-speaking people in one country.
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The Munich Agreement or Munich Betrayal was an agreement concluded at Munich on 30 September 1938, 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.
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The invasion of Poland, marked the beginning of World War II. The German invasion began on 1 September 1939, breaching the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact between Germany and the Soviet Union, one week after the signing. The Soviets invaded Poland on 17 September.
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In 1939, Adolf Hitler sent German troops to occupy Czechoslovakia, allegedly to revive the privations suffered by the ethnic German population living in those regions. The invasion of Czechoslovakia began with the German annexation of Czechoslovakia's border regions known as the Sudetenland, under terms outlined by the Munich Agreement. The Allies hoped this would appease Germany, but rather it proved Hitler considered the Munich agreement as a worthless piece of paper.
