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WWI Ended
Treaty of Versailles is signed, ending WWI. 414 of 440 clauses of the treaty were punishing Germany. Provisions included reparation payments, military restrictions, and a war guilty clause that forced Germany to take responsibility for WWI. -
The German Workers’ Party was formed by Anton Drexler
The German Workers’ Party was founded by Anton Drexler, a toolmaker, and Dietrich Eckhart, a journalist. On September 19th, 1919, Adolf Hitler became the party’s seventh member.The German Workers’ Party held its first public meeting on February 24th 1920 in a Munich beer hall. It was at this meeting that Hitler stated that the party had to adopt his ‘25 Points’, which later became known as the ‘Twenty Five Points Programme’. -
Renamed the National Socialist (Nazi) Party
In April, 1920, Hitler advocated that the party should change its name to the National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP). Hitler had always been hostile to socialist ideas, especially those that involved racial or sexual equality. However, socialism was a popular political philosophy in Germany after the First World War. This was reflected in the growth in the German Social Democrat Party (SDP), the largest political party in Germany. -
Adolf's First Public appearance
Hitler makes one of his first public appearances at a “German Day” rally in Munich. When he spoke, he turned heads. Many people were captivated by him and were swayed towards the Nazi party. -
Beer Hall Putsch
Nazis try to depose the government of Bavaria, a German province – they failed. Hitler is put on trial and convicted of high treason and was sentanced 5 years but he only served 9 months in which he writes “Mein Kampf”. -
Stock Market crashes creating a worldwide depression
Black Tuesday hit Wall Street as investors traded some 16 million shares on the New York Stock Exchange in a single day. Billions of dollars were lost, wiping out thousands of investors. In the aftermath of Black Tuesday, America and the rest of the industrialized world spiraled downward into the Great Depression (1929-39), the deepest and longest-lasting economic downturn in the history of the Western industrialized world up to that time. -
Japan invaded Manchuria
The Soviet Union officially declares war on Japan, pouring more than 1 million Soviet soldiers into Japanese-occupied Manchuria, northeastern China, to take on the 700,000-strong Japanese army. The dropping of the bomb on Hiroshima by the Americans did not have the effect intended: unconditional surrender by Japan.The only Japanese civilians who even knew what happened at Hiroshima were either dead or suffering terribly. -
Hitler Loses Germany President
In February 1932, Germany's President, Hindenburg, reluctantly agreed to run again and announced his candidacy for re-election. Hitler decided to oppose him and run for the presidency himself. Hitler lost to Hindenburg but the Nazis did become a controlling party in the German Parliament. -
Hitler is appointed Chancellor of Germany
This appointment was made in an effort to keep Hitler and the Nazi Party “in check”; however, it would have disastrous results for Germany and the entire European continent. In the year and seven months that followed, Hitler was able to exploit the death of Hindenburg and combine the positions of chancellor and president into the position of Führer, the supreme leader of Germany. -
German Parliament Building Burned
The Reichstag, or German Parliament building was burned to the ground. Hitler blamed communists, but used this as an excuse to declare a national emergency. Within 24 hours, freedom of press, expression, and public assembly was suspended. -
Parliament Votes Itself Out Of Existance
Hitler proposed to the new Reichstag a new law that would give him the power he longed for. The "Enabling Law" would effectively give Hitler control of parliament and the country. Parliament voted to consolidate all power in Adolf Hitler, making him a dictator. The Germans celebrated across country in honor of their all powerful leader. -
Nationalist's Boycott of Jewish Businesses
Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels delivers a speech to a crowd in the Berlin Lustgarten urging Germans to boycott Jewish-owned businesses. He defends the boycott as a legitimate response to the anti-German "atrocity propaganda" being spread abroad by "international Jewry." -
Institution of Nazi Racial Ideology
In line with other Nazi thinkers, Hitler believed that mankind did not have a common origin, but consisted of several distinct and separately created races. The Aryan race was the superior race, with other races such as Jews and Slavs being literally “sub-human”. Hitler believed that the Aryans had enjoyed a golden past, and that Germany’s current troubles were the result of allowing racial inter-mixing, which was destroying the master race, leading to a degeneration of society. -
Berlin hosts Summer Olympics
Adolf Hitler’s Nazi dictatorship scored a huge propaganda success as host of the Summer Olympics in Berlin. The Games were a brief, two-week interlude in Germany’s escalating campaign against its Jewish population and the country’s march toward war. The olympics were supposed to show the strength of Germany and the superiority of the Aryan Race. It ended in African-American Jesse Owens winning 4 Gold Medals. -
Japan invaded China
The Japan-China War started in July 1937 when the Japanese claimed that they were fired on by Chinese troops at the Marco Polo Bridge near Beijing. Using this as an excuse, the Japanese launched a full-scale invasion of China using the conquered Manchuria as a launching base for their troops. The Japanese came up against little organised resistance. In November 1937, China’s most important port, Shanghai, fell and Nanjing (Nanking), Chiang Kai-shek’s capital, fell in December 1937. -
Chinese city of Nanking surrenders to Japanese
For six weeks the Japanese Troops: killed between 250,000 to 300,000 people, raped 20,000 women, looted and burned much of the city. Japan did not have enough troops to continue expansion and occupy China with a large force. Fear of brutality was used to keep the Chinese in line. -
Germany Annexation of Austria
Germany annexation of Austria, unification was celebrated in Austria. This added 5 million citizens to the German Europe. This was the true beginning of German expansion. Within days 70,000 Austrians were sent to concentration camps. -
Hitler demands Czechoslovakia to give back German Land
Hitler demands Czechoslovakia to give Germany back the German portion of their country. If Czechoslovakia did not agree to give up a portion of the country to Hitler, Germany would invade and take over everything. -
Hitler Wins Czechoslovakia
Europe power grants Hitler Czechoslovakia. Czechoslovakia agreed to give up German land but Germany still prepares to invade them. Germany walked in and took over everything. Unlike Austria, Czechoslovakia was not happy that Germany did not hold to their word. -
Kristallnacht: The Night of Broken Glass
“The Night of Broken Glass” Synagogues and Jewish businesses across Germany are smashed and burned to the ground. In two days, over 250 synagogues were burned, over 7,000 Jewish businesses were trashed and looted, dozens of Jewish people were killed, and Jewish cemeteries, hospitals, schools, and homes were looted while police and fire brigades stood by. The pogroms became known as Kristallnacht, "Night of Broken Glass," for the shattered glass from the store windows that littered the street. -
Fascists win Civil War and Franco becomes a dictator in Spain
He rose to power during the bloody Spanish Civil War when, with the help of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, his Nationalist forces overthrew the democratically elected Second Republic. Adopting the title of “El Caudillo” (The Leader), Franco persecuted political opponents, repressed the culture and language of Spain’s Basque and Catalan regions, censured the media and otherwise exerted absolute control over the country. Some restrictions eased over time. After his death they became a democracy. -
Germany invaded Poland: WWII Begins
The German invasion of Poland was a primer on how Hitler intended to wage war, what would become the "blitzkrieg" strategy. This was made by extensive bombing early on to destroy the enemy's air capacity, railroads, communication lines, and munitions dumps, followed by a massive land invasion with overwhelming numbers of troops, tanks, and artillery. Once the German forces had plowed their way through, devastating a swath of territory, infantry moved in, picking off any remaining resistance. -
The President (FDR) moved the Pacific Fleet Headquarters to Pearl Harbor, HI
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt Moved the Pacific Fleet Headquarters to Pearl Harbor as a sign of American Power. Japan was taking over so FDR froze all Japanese assets in the United States, closed the Panama Canal to Japanese ships, and cut off the sale of American oil to Japan, until they withdrew from China. -
Japan invaded Indo-China
Japan began pressuring the Vichy government to close the railway and on September 5th, the South China Front Army organised the amphibious Indochina Expeditionary Army under its command to be the Japanese garrison in Indochina. Led by Major-General Takuma Nishimura, it was supported by a flotilla of ships, and planes from aircraft carriers and air bases on Hainan Island. -
Japan attacked the United States Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor
On the morning of December 7, 1941, the Japanese launched a surprise air attack on the U.S. Naval Base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. After just two hours of bombing, more than 2,400 Americans were dead, 21 ships had either been sunk or damaged, and more than 188 U.S. aircraft destroyed. -
US Enters WWII
Although the war began with Nazi Germany's attack on Poland in September 1939, the United States did not enter the war until after the Japanese bombed the American fleet in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941. Between those two events, President Franklin Roosevelt worked hard to prepare Americans for a conflict that he regarded as inevitable.