-
The Treaty of Versailles was the peace agreement that officially ended World War I in 1919, forcing Germany to accept blame for the war, pay massive reparations, disarm, and cede territory to Allied nations. -
Japan invaded Manchuria primarily to secure vital natural resources like coal and iron for its industrial economy, to expand its imperial power and create a buffer against the Soviet Union, and to find a solution to its growing population and economic hardship caused by the Great Depression. -
The Second Italo-Ethiopian War, also referred to as the Second Italo-Abyssinian War, was a war of aggression waged by Italy against Ethiopia, which lasted from October 1935 to February 1937. In Ethiopia it is often referred to simply as the Italian Invasion, and in Italy as the Ethiopian War. -
The remilitarisation of the Rhineland began on 7 March 1936, when military forces of Nazi Germany entered the Rhineland, which directly contravened the Treaty of Versailles and the Locarno Treaties. Neither France nor Britain was prepared for a military response, so they did not act. -
The Anschluss, also known as the Anschluß Österreichs, was the annexation of the Federal State of Austria into Nazi Germany on 12 March 1938. The idea of an Anschluss arose after the 1871 unification of Germany excluded Austria and the German Austrians from the Prussian-dominated German Empire. -
The Munich Agreement was reached in Munich on 30 September 1938, by Nazi Germany, the United Kingdom, France, and Italy. The agreement provided for the German annexation of part of Czechoslovakia called the Sudetenland, where three million people, mainly ethnic Germans, lived -
Blitzkrieg, or "lightning war" in German, was a World War II German military tactic involving a fast, concentrated, and mobile attack using armored tanks, mechanized infantry, artillery, and close air support to achieve rapid, decisive victories by bypassing and paralyzing the enemy's defenses -
The Nazi-Soviet Pact was a non-aggression agreement signed in August 1939 between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, which included a secret agreement to partition Poland. This pact allowed Germany to invade Poland on September 1, 1939, without fear of Soviet interference. Subsequently, on September 17, 1939, the Soviet Union invaded Poland from the east, occupying the territory allocated to it by the secret protocol. The invasion divided Poland and marked the beginning of World War II. -
The Battle of Britain was a military campaign of the Second World War, in which the Royal Air Force and the Fleet Air Arm of the Royal Navy defended the United Kingdom against large-scale attacks by Nazi Germany's air force, the Luftwaffe. It was the first major military campaign fought entirely by air forces.