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The March on Rome was a mobilization of Fascist Blackshirts created to seize power from the liberal Italian government. Its outcome was a political triumph, as King Victor Emmanuel III refused to declare martial law and instead invited Benito Mussolini to become Prime Minister. This event was historically significant because it ended Italian parliamentary democracy and created the way for Mussolini to make the first totalitarian Fascist dictatorship in Europe that inspired other movements. -
Mein Kampf was written by Adolf Hitler during his imprisonment and served as the political manifesto for the Nazi Party. Its purpose was to lay out Hitler's radical ideology, including intense antisemitism, the doctrine of supremacy, and the crucial foreign policy goal of achieving Lebensraum in the East. The book is historically significant because it provided a detailed, published blueprint for the horrific expansionist and genocidal policies that the Nazi regime would later implement. -
The First Five-Year Plan was Joseph Stalin's order to transform the Soviet Union from a poor and agrarian nation into a modern power through aggressive, industrialization and the brutal collectivization of agriculture. The Plan was historically significant because, despite causing immense suffering and millions of deaths, its focus on rapid development created the industrial and military foundation that enabled the USSR to survive World War II and become a global superpower. -
Stalin became the dictator of the USSR by using his role as General Secretary to put loyalists throughout the Communist Party. After Lenin's death in he got passed and eliminated his political rivals. He has then secured total control over the party's direction. This consolidation of power led straight to the terror of Stalinism, marked by forced industrialization, collectivization, and the Great Purge, which transformed the USSR into a ruthless totalitarian state.
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Stalin became the dictator of the USSR by using his role as General Secretary to put loyalists throughout the Communist Party. After Lenin's death in he got passed and eliminated his political rivals. He has then secured total control over the party's direction. This consolidation of power led straight to the terror of Stalinism, marked by forced industrialization, collectivization, and the Great Purge, which transformed the USSR into a ruthless totalitarian state. -
Japan invaded Manchuria starting in September, motivated by the need for things like coal and iron to go against the economic effects of the Great Depression and to create a strategic contrast against the Soviet Union. This invasion was profoundly significant as it exposed the weakness of the League of Nations, established a precedent that military aggression would go unpunished, and marked the true beginning of World War II in Asia. -
The Holodomor was a man-made famine created by Joseph Stalin's Soviet regime. It came from the brutal enforcement of forced collectivization and the collection of all grain and food from Ukrainian peasants, who were resisting Soviet rule. This event starved around 3.5 to 5 million Ukrainians to death, cementing Stalin's totalitarian control and crippling the Ukrainian national movement. -
Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany by President Paul von Hindenburg, who was mistakenly convinced that conservatives could control him. This event was very significant because it granted Hitler immediate, legal authority over the state. He swiftly invoked emergency powers, taking apart German democracy, and establishing a brutal totalitarian dictatorship, which directly precipitated World War II and the Holocaust. -
The Great Purge was political terror created by Joseph Stalin to get rid of all internal opposition, including party rivals, military leaders, and normal citizens. The other expansion of the Gulag served to both punish the Purge's victims and provide free labor for massive state projects. The Purge's purpose was to keep total compliance with Stalin's rule, and its historical significance was in making the Soviet Union as a truly totalitarian state built on systemic fear and state violence. -
The purpose of the "Night of the Long Knives" was for Adolf Hitler to secure the loyalty of the German Army and keep his absolute power by removing the leadership of the large paramilitary group, the Brownshirts, and eliminating its leader. Carried out by the SS, this event was historically significant because it permanently bound the German Army to Hitler, elevated the SS as the state's main terror organization, and definitively established that Hitler's will was the supreme law in Germany. -
The Italian invasion of Ethiopia was ordered by Benito Mussolini to achieve imperial glory, avenge a prior defeat, and secure resources. Using modern weapons against a poorly equipped force, Italy conquered Ethiopia. This event was historically significant because it exposed the impotence of the League of Nations, which condemned the attack but failed to enforce meaningful sanctions, thus setting a dangerous precedent that encouraged further aggression by Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany. -
The Nuremberg Laws, enacted by Nazi Germany were two pieces of legislation towards legally formalizing antisemitism. Their purpose was to classify Jews based on ancestry, take their German citizenship and political rights, and strictly forbid marriage and sexual relations between Jews and non-Jews. This was historically significant because it legally institutionalized state formed racial discrimination and segregation, which escalated the Nazi program that would eventually lead to the Holocaust. -
The Spanish Civil War began when General Francisco Franco led the Nationalist military against the democratically elected Republican government. It was historically significant because it pitted the fascist-backed Nationalists against the Republican coalition (backed by the Soviet Union). The war allowed the Axis powers to test new tactics like aerial bombing, resulting in a Nationalist victory and the establishment of Franco's authoritarian dictatorship until 1975. -
The Rape of Nanking was a six-week spree of violences committed by the Imperial Japanese Army after capturing the Chinese city of Nanjing. Japanese soldiers murdered an estimated 200,000 to 300,000 disarmed Chinese soldiers and civilians, engaging in widespread rape, looting, and arson. This event is supremely significant as a notorious war crime of World War II that continues to fuel intense historical and political tension between China and Japan today. -
Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass) was a wave of anti-Jewish pogroms created by the Nazi's. Its purpose was to terrorize and punish the Jewish population, and take their property. Mobs destroyed hundreds of synagogues and thousands of businesses, and arrested 30,000 Jewish men and sent them to concentration camps. This event was historically significant because it marked the transition from legal persecution to systemic, physical terror, serving as a critical step toward the Holocaust. -
The invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany using Blitzkrieg tactics, was Hitler's move to capture territory (Lebensraum). Its biggest historical significance is that it directly triggered Great Britain and France's declarations of war, officially starting World War II in Europe. The invasion also led to the brutal joint occupation of Poland by Germany and the USSR, quickly setting the stage for the systematic atrocities of the Holocaust. -
Japan's surprise attack on the US base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, was aimed at crippling American naval power to buy time for Japanese expansion in Asia. The attack, which sank or damaged 18 ships and killed over 2,400 Americans, was historically significant because it immediately shattered American isolationism, prompting President Franklin D. Roosevelt to declare war on Japan the next day, thus bringing the United States decisively into World War II.