-
Period: to
Alliance Systems
Throughout the timespan of 1879-1904, many countries formed alliances with others to ensure safety, gain power, and to fight other countries. These alliances strengthened many nations, such as Germany, Austria-Hungary, Russia, Serbia, and more. -
Assassination of Franz Ferdinand
On June 28th, 1914, Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie were shot dead by six Bosnian Serbs. The bomb thrown by Nedeljko Čabrinović was the bomb that killed the two. It also wounded 20 people near the car in which Franz Ferdinand and his wife were in. -
Trench Warfare
The first major trench lines were completed in late November of 1914. The trenches were built by both sides extended nearly 400 miles from Nieuport on the Belgian coast to the Swiss border. The Belgians occupied 40 miles, British 90 and French the rest. The allies used 9 types of trenches. -
Bolshevik Revolution (Russia)
The Bolshevik Revolution was a communist revolution led by Lenin. The revolution was a plan to spread equality. -
Zimmermann Telegram
The Zimmerman Telegram was sent by the German Empire to Mexico to make war against America. It said that if the U.S. entered the war, the ambassador of Mexico was to make an alliance with Germany. Mexico turned down this offer. -
Period: to
U-Boats
U-Boats (an abbreviation for the German word Unterseeboot, which means Undersea boat) were German submarines used in battle. The Germans were some of the first people to think of using them for fighting. Germany had many successes while using their submarines for battle. They defeated the British numerous times, but hesitated before adopting unrestricted U-Boat Warfare. -
Period: to
Fascism in Italy
Benito Mussolini was the founder of Fascism and leader of Italy. In March of 1919 Mussolini formed the first Fascist party, and his group members became known as the Black Shirts. Mussolini declared himself dictater in 1925. Hitler influenced him to become anti-jewish in Italy. In July of 1943 Allied troops landed in Sciily and Mussolini was overthrown and on April 28, 1945, he was shot. -
Treaty of Versailles
The Treaty of Versailles was a treaty at the end of World War I that ended the war between Germany and the Allies. Although the signing of the treaty ended in November of 1918, it took six more months for Paris to negotiate the closing of the treaty. One of the main points made in the treaty was that Germany had to take responsibility for causing the war. -
League of Nations
The League of Nations was a government organization formed as a result of the Paris Peace Conference at the end of World War I. Their main goal was to maintain world peace. This included preventing wars and settling disputes between the nations. -
Period: to
Stalin Coming to power in Russia
Stalin was the supreme ruler of the Soviet Union for a quarter of a century. After Lenin's death in 1924, Stalin promoted himself as the heir to the throne and then later on became dictator of the Soviet Union. Hitler attacked in June of 1941 but luckily Stalin led his country into victory. After World War Two, Stalin died of stroke on March 5, 1953. -
Period: to
The Great Depression
The Great Depression was an economic depression that spread all over the world before World War II. It started when the stock prices began to slip. then on October 29th, 1929 the stock market crashed. Unemployment rose to 25% in the U.S. and as high as 33% in some places. The Depression lasted for about 10 years in most places, ending in the late 1930s or early 1940s, however, the negative effects of the Depression lasted until the start of World War II in some areas. -
Period: to
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil War started after a declaration of opposition was called by a group of generals under José Sanjurjo against the Government of the Second Spanish Republic, under the leadership of President Manuel Azaña. The result of the war was a victory by the conservative Nationalists and a dictatorship led by Francisco Franco. -
German invasion of Austria
German troops entered the country on March 12 receiving support of must of the population. 99 percent of Austrian people wante the union with Germany. In 1938 Hitler threathed to unleash a European war unless the subetenland, a border area of Czechoslovakia containing an ethnic German majority, was surrendered to Germany. -
German invasion of Poland
At 4:45 A.M on September 1st, 1939 the German battleship Schleswig opened fire on the Polish garrison of the Westerplatte fort Danzig. 1,3000 aircraft commence the invasion. Germany had 11 tanks compared to Poland’s 1. By the end of the month Poland had surrendered to the Germans. -
Fall of France
On May 10 1940, Germany launched an invasion on France. Over two million German troops landed on and flew in the air of France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands while using Blitzkrieg tactics to invade. The smaller countries fell within weeks, but France held on until June 22 -
Period: to
Evacuation of Dunkirk
The Evacuation of Dunkirk was the evacuation of allied soldiers from the beaches of Dunkirk, France. The evacuation occurred because the troops (British French and Belgian) were cut off from the German army during the Battle of Dunkirk. By the ninth day of the evacuation, a total of 338,226 soldiers had been evacuated from the beaches. -
Period: to
Battle of Britain
The Battle of Britain was the first battle to be fought almost entirely by air forces. The two sides were fighting to gain air superiority over the Royal Air Force. The battle ended in a victory for the British. -
United Nations
It was founded after world war 2 to replace the League of Nations, to stop wars between countries and to provide a platform for dialogue. The plan of the United Nations was to keep peace and equality between the countries. -
Attack on Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise bombing of naval base in Hawaii by the Empire of Japan. Their attempt was to keep the U.S. from interfering with military actions that Japan was planning. Pearl Harbor was attacked by 353 Japanese fighters, torpedo planes, and bombers launched from six aircraft carries. All of the 8 U.S. ships were damaged but luckily only 4 sunk. All together 2,000 Americans died that day. -
Battle of Midway
It is considered to be one of the most decisive battles of World War 2. The Battle of Midway destroyed Japans Navel strength when the Americans bombed four of its aircraft carriers. At 10:26 A.M USS Enterprise attacked two of Japanese aircraft carriers. They were in flames within minutes. Pretty soon the flames spread on two other ship and they were destroyed also. -
Period: to
Battle of Stalingrad
The Battle of Stalingrad was a battle for control of the city Stalingrad between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. It was one of the bloodiest battles in history, with deaths around 2 million, most of which came from the German side. This made their army weak which led to a Soviet victory! -
D-Day
Mighty armada crossed a narrow strip of sea from England to Nomandy, France and cracked the Nazi frip on Western Europe. 160,000 Allied troops landed along a 50-mile stretch of heavily fortifed French coastline to fight Nazi Germany on the beaches of Normandy, France. More than 5,000 ships and 13,000 air craft support D-Day. -
The Firebombing of Tokyo
The Americans wanted to make sure that Japan would not invade them so they dropped almost 2,000 tons of incendiaries on Tokyo, Japan and killed more than 100,000 people. Oxygen was replaced with lethal gases, which killed a lot of people. Also the winds spread the wall of fire across the city. -
Decolonization
the unequal relation of polities whereby one people or nation establishes and maintains dependent territory over another -
V-E Day
It was known as "Victory in Europe Day." It was the formal end of Hitlers war. With it came the end of six years of misery, suffering, courage and endurance across the world. -
The Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
American bomber dropped the world’s first deployed atomic bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima and killed over 90% of the city and immediately killed 80,000 people; thosands were later killed by radiation poisoning. 3 days later a second atomic bomb is dropped on Nagasaki and over 40,000 people died. Japans Emperor, Hironito, announces his surrender in world war 2. -
V-J Day
The Allies celebrated victory over Japan on 15 August 1945, although the Japanese administration under General Koiso did not officially surrender with a signed document until September 2. War with Japan had been brewing since the China incident in 1937, and the threat of war in the east intensified when Japan signed the Tripartite Pact with Germany in September 1940.
