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1919 BCE
Fascism
Fascism is a nationalistic political philosophy which is anti-democratic, anti-communist, and anti-liberal. It puts the importance of the nation above the rights of the individual.Fascist dictators began to take over in parts of Europe in the 1920’s and 1930’s due to bad economic conditions created by WWI and the Great Depression. -
Benito Mussolini
Benito Mussolini became the Prime Minister of Italy in 1922. He used this position to outlaw all non-fascist political parties and soon became and dictator. -
First Soviet invasion
The Soviet Union, backed Jin, an opportunist who had arms dealings with the Soviets, as an attempt to wrestle Xinjiang from China. White Russians, despite of their politically differences with the Soviets, organized units in support of Jin. A number of ethnic Manchurians would later join the side of Xinjiang provincial forces. -
Adolph Hitler
Adolph Hitler became the Chancellor of Germany in January, 1933. Through a variety of manipulative actions, Hitler soon dismantled the German government and became a dictator. -
Europe Moves Toward War
German troops moved into the Rhineland. This was prohibited by the Treaty of Versailles. Hitler and Mussolini signed an alliance, creating the Axis. -
The Spanish Civil War
Spanish Civil War: Fascist forces aided by Italy and Germany take over Spain. (WWII dress rehearsal). -
Second Soviet invasion
ww2dbaseIn 1937, another Uyghur rebellion broke out in southern Xinjiang against increasing White Russian and Soviet influence in the provincial government. In response, Soviet aircraft bombed Yangi Hissar and Yarkand in Xinjiang, NKVD agents arrested and executed 400 Uyghur in Tashkent in Uzbekistan, and other Soviet agents arrested Soviet Consul-General in Urumchi Garegin Apresoff (who was later brought back to Moscow, Russia for his execution). -
Marco Polo bridge incident
A key moment came in 1937. Under agreements going back to the beginning of the century countries with legations in China had the right to keep troops there in modest numbers for protection. Small numbers of both Japanese and Chinese soldiers were stationed near what in the West was called the Marco Polo Bridge, because the explorer had seen and described its predecessor, near the town of Wanping outside Beijing. -
Nanking massacre
The Japanese occupation of Nanjing from December 1937, often referred to as the ‘Rape of Nanjing’, is the most infamous example of Japanese brutality in China. Historian Jonathan Fenby describes the Rape of Nanjing as a uniquely “urban atrocity” because of “the way the Japanese went about their killing, the wanton individual cruelty, the reduction of the city’s inhabitants to the status of sub-humans who could be murdered, tortured and raped at will”. Thousands of civilians were buried alive. -
Munich agreement
Hitler had threatened to unleash a European war unless the Sudetenland, a border area of Czechoslovakia containing an ethnic German majority, was surrendered to Germany. The leaders of Britain, France, and Ital y agreed to the German annexation of the Sudetenland in exchange for a pledge of peace from Hitler. Czechoslovakia, which was not a party to the Munich negotiations, agreed under significant pressure from Britain and France. -
Europe war begins
Germany annexed Austria. Munich conference: Hitler forced the British and French to give him the Sudetenland in return for a promise not to invade the rest of Czechoslovakia.
Hitler took over Czechoslovakia.Britain and France agreed to protect Poland in case of a German invasion. Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact Hitler invaded Poland, starting WWII. Britain and France declared war on Germany and Germany and Italy declared war on them. -
Germany invade Poland
Some 1.5 million German troops invade Poland all along its 1,750-mile border with the German-controlled territory. Simultaneously, the German Luftwaffe bombed Polish airfields, and German warships and U-boats attacked Polish naval forces in the Baltic Sea. Nazi leader Adolf Hitler claimed the massive invasion was a defensive action, but Britain and France were not convinced. On September 3, they declared war on Germany, initiating World War II. -
Battle of France
The attack began on 10 May 1940, with German air raids on Belgium and Holland, followed by parachute drops and attacks by ground forces. The two beleaguered nations were hastily added to the anti-German ad-hoc coalition that included France and Britain, but this only served to further complicate Allied command and control arrangements. -
Italy becomes the ally of Germany
The three principal partners in the Axis alliance were Germany, Italy, and Japan. These three countries recognized German domination over most of continental Europe; Italian domination over the Mediterranean Sea; and Japanese domination over East Asia and the Pacific. Italy entered World War II on the Axis side on June 10, 1940, as the defeat of France became apparent. -
Battle of Britain
A significant turning point of World War II, the Battle of Britain ended when Germany’s Luftwaffe failed to gain air superiority over the Royal Air Force despite months of targeting Britain’s air bases, military posts and, ultimately, its civilian population. -
Japan and Russia signed a pact
During World War II, representatives from the Soviet Union and Japan sign a five-year neutrality agreement. Although traditional enemies, the nonaggression pact allowed both nations to free up large numbers of troops occupying disputed territory in Manchuria and Outer Mongolia to be used for more pressing purposes. -
Pearl Harbor attack
Pearl Harbor is a U.S. naval base near Honolulu, Hawaii, that was the scene of a devastating surprise attack by Japanese forces on December 7, 1941. Just before 8 a.m. on that Sunday morning, hundreds of Japanese fighter planes descended on the base, where they managed to destroy or damage nearly 20 American naval vessels, including eight battleships, and over 300 airplanes. More than 2,400 Americans died in the attack, including civilians, and another 1,000 people were wounded. -
D-day
Codenamed Operation Overlord, the battle began on June 6, 1944, also known as D-Day, when some 156,000 American, British and Canadian forces landed on five beaches along a 50-mile stretch of the heavily fortified coast of France’s Normandy region. The invasion was one of the largest amphibious military assaults in history and required extensive planning. -
Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
On August 6, 1945, during World War II, an American B-29 bomber dropped the world’s first deployed atomic bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The explosion wiped out 90 percent of the city and immediately killed 80,000 people; tens of thousands more would later die of radiation exposure. Three days later, a second B-29 dropped another A-bomb on Nagasaki, killing an estimated 40,000 people. Japan’s Emperor Hirohito announced his country’s unconditional surrender in World War II. -
Soviets declare war on Japan
Japan had not been too worried about the Soviet Union, so busy with the Germans on the Eastern front. The Japanese army went so far as to believe that they would not have to engage a Soviet attack until spring 1946. But the Soviets surprised them with their invasion of Manchuria, an assault so strong that Emperor Hirohito began to plead with his War Council to reconsider surrender. The recalcitrant members began to waver.
