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World War 1 Ended
At 11 am on 11 November 1918, the armistice, signed by Germany earlier that morning, came into effect, finally signifying the long-awaited end to the war. The Armistice was agreed on at 5 am. It is estimated that somewhere between 9 and 15 million people died during the first world war. -
Treaty of Versailles Was Signed
World War I officially ended with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles on June 28, 1919. The treaty was written by the Allies with almost no participation by the Germans. The population and territory of Germany was reduced by about 10 percent by the treaty. Germany was reluctant to sign the treaty. -
League of Nations
The League of Nations came into being after the end of World War One. The League of Nation’s task was to ensure that war never broke out again. According to the Treaty of Versailles, Germany had started the war and for their punishment, were not allowed to join the league. This meant that the league couldn't use the strength that Germany had. -
The Nazi Party Was Formed
The German Workers' Party name was changed by Hitler to include the term National Socialist. The short name for this was Nazi.The Nazi Party’s membership grew from 25,000 in 1925 to about 180,000 in 1929. The Nazi party continued to grow and soon ruled Germany under the leadership of Hitler -
Dawes Plan
The Dawes Plan was an attempt to solve the World War I reparations problem that Germany had to pay. Payments started at 1,000,000,000 gold marks in the first year and grew to 2,500,000,000 by 1928. The plan was to give Germany longer to pay its reparations and American loans to Germany of 800 million gold marks was agreed upon.Germany ended up being in debt to American banks -
The Great Depression
In the United States, the Great Depression began soon after the stock market crash of October 1929, which sent Wall Street into a panic and wiped out millions of investors.
The country was hit with an extremely large unemployment rate. By 1933, the unemployment rate had climbed from 3% to 25%. -
Hitler Becomes The Chancellor of Germany
Hitler was the most powerful political leader in the country, but had no experience of government. Everyone believed they would be able to bring him under control, while an alliance with the Nazis would bring them the support they needed in the Reichstag.
In March the Reichstag granted dictatorial powers on him for four years. In June of the following year, in what he called ‘the night of the long knives’, Hitler eliminated about a hundred rivals. -
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil War was a civil war in Spain between Nationalists and the Spanish Republic and its Republican government and supporters. It is estimated that there were 500,000 deaths from all causes during the Spanish Civil War. An estimated 200,000 died from combat-related causes. Of these, 110,000 fought for the Republicans and 90,000 for the Nationalists. This implies that 10 per cent of all soldiers who fought in the war were killed. -
World War 2 Starts
Since 1933, Germany had been ruled by Adolf Hitler and his political party, the Nazis. They wanted to take revenge for Germany’s defeat in WW1 by expanding Germany’s empire. On 1st September 1939, over a million Nazi troops then invaded Poland. Hitler was given an ultimatum by threatening war if his troops did not withdraw by 3rd September. Hitler ignored this threat and so war which began the second world war
