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Joseph Stalin used his position as General Secretary of the Communist Party in 1922 to gain control over the party bureaucracy. After Vladimir Lenin's death in 1924 -
The March on Rome in October 1922 was a demonstration of force by Benito Mussolini's Fascist Blackshirts. The outcome was that King Victor Emmanuel III refused to sign an order declaring martial law, fearing civil war. -
Adolf Hitler wrote Mein Kampf ("My Struggle") while imprisoned after the failed Beer Hall Putsch in 1923. It served as an autobiography and, more significantly, as a manifesto outlining his ideology, including his racial theories, antisemitism, plan for Lebensraum (living space) in the East, and his political program for Germany. -
Launched by Stalin in 1928, the primary purpose was to rapidly transform the Soviet Union from an agrarian society into a leading industrial power and strengthen its national defense. -
The Great Purge (late 1930s) was a campaign of political repression, including mass arrests, executions, and deportations, designed to eliminate perceived political opponents -
Japan invaded the Chinese province of Manchuria in 1931. The main reasons were to secure essential natural resources (especially coal, iron, and timber) -
A devastating famine in Soviet Ukraine which resulted in the deaths of millions. -
Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor on January 30, 1933, by President Paul von Hindenburg. Conservative politicians believed they could control Hitler and use the popular support of the Nazi Party to establish a stable majority government -
A purge that took place from June 30 to July 2, 1934. Its primary purpose was to consolidate Hitler's absolute power by violently eliminating his perceived political rivals within the Nazi Party -
A military campaign carried out by the armed forces of the Kingdom of Italy against the Ethiopian Empire (then known as Abyssinia) from October 1935 to May 1936. Driven by Mussolini's desire to expand the Italian empire, avenge a prior Italian defeat (Adwa, 1896), and boost national prestige -
Enacted in September 1935, these were antisemitic and racist laws introduced in Nazi Germany. They consisted of two main parts: the Reich Citizenship Law, which stripped Jews of German citizenship, making them "state subjects," the Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honour, which prohibited marriage and sexual relations between Jews and "Germans or related blood." -
Fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republicans (loyal to the democratic Second Spanish Republic) and the Nationalists (a rebel group led by General Francisco Franco). It served as a proxy war and testing ground for new military technology -
A horrific period of mass murder and mass rape committed by Japanese troops against the residents of Nanking (Nanjing), China, after the city fell to the Imperial Japanese Army in December 1937 -
The "Night of Broken Glass" was a coordinated series of violent anti-Jewish pogroms across Germany and annexed territories on November 9–10, 1938. Nazi officials and members of the SA and Hitler Youth, often disguised in civilian clothes, destroyed Jewish businesses, burned synagogues, and arrested thousands of Jewish men -
On September 1, 1939, Nazi Germany invaded Poland. This act is widely considered the start of World War II in Europe, as it led Britain and France to declare war on Germany. -
On December 7, 1941, the Imperial Japanese Navy conducted a surprise attack on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The key result was that it brought the United States officially into World War II the following day, as the U.S. declared war on Japan.