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Stalin becomes the dictator of the USSR
After the death of Vladimir Lenin, the first head of the USSR, Stalin headed the government at the instructions of Lenin and held onto absolute power through the repression of opposition within the Communist Party itself. -
Mussolini's March on Rome
The march on Rome was an insurrection that started on October 28th, 1922, and ended on October 30th, 1922. The march resulted in Benito Mussolini taking control of the Italian government and the beginning of fascist rule. -
Mein Kampf is published
The first volume of Adolf Hitler's philosophical autobiography Mein Kampf is published. It contains the entire agenda for Hitler's Third Reich, which almost comes to complete fruition from 1939 to 1945. -
The first USSR five year plan
The first five-year plan was created and enacted in order to create rapid and large-scale industrialization across the Soviet Union. -
Japanese invasion of Manchuria
From September 1931 to February 1932, Japan invaded Manchuria. At the end of the invasion, Japan had established a puppet state of Manchukuo. -
Holodomor
The Holodomor was a man-made famine caused by a series of political moves to collectivize farming. This slowed food production, caused famine, and caused peasant uprisings from 1932-to 1933. -
Hitler is appointed Chancellor of Germany
President Paul von Hindenburg, after several rounds of backroom negotiation with former chancellor von Papen, Hindenburg's own son, and Hitler, acquiesced and formally named Adolf Hitler as the chancellor of Germany. -
The Night of Long Knives
The Night of Longs Knives was a purge of Nazi leaders by Adolf Hitler whom he perceived as a threat to his power. The result was the death of hundreds of Germans who opposed Hitler and cemented him as the country's sole power. -
Italy Invades Ethiopia
A border conflict between Ethiopia and Italian Somaliland (as it was known then) resulted in Benito Mussolini invading Ethiopia with an excuse to intervene. Italy was sanctioned by some countries for its unreasonable actions, but the sanctions were too weak to make an impact. The League of Nations condemned the invasion and the event caused tensions to increase between Western democracies and fascist states within Europe. -
The Nuremberg Laws
The Reich Citizenship Law and the Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor were announced at a Nazi rally in the city of Nuremberg. These laws were enacted to separate Jews from the perceived German race by stripping them of their German citizenship and banning marriages between Germans of "pure blood" and Jews. -
The Great Purge and the gulags
The Great Purge took place between 1936 and 1938(roughly) with the goal of eliminating all dissenters of the Communist party and anyone Stalin perceived as a threat. It is estimated that 750,000 were killed and over 1 million were sent to forced labor camps known as gulags. -
The Rape of Nanking
When Japanese forces invaded Nanking, China's capital, it was ordered that the city be completely destroyed. 150,000 male war prisoners and 50,000 male civilians were killed. 20,000 women and girls were raped, and many of them were mutilated and killed. -
Kristallnacht - The Night of Broken Glass
On November 9-10 of 1938, German Nazis and civilians attacked Jewish people and their property. More than 1,000 synagogues were burned or damaged, 7,500 Jewish businesses were ransacked, 30,000 Jewish males were arrested, and at least 91 Jews were killed. Due to the high volume of Jews arrested, concentration camps were built at Dachau, Buchenwald, and Sachsenhausen, effectively starting the Holocaust. -
The Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil War took place from 1936 to 1939 and broke out after a failed coup to remove the republican government. The nationalist rebels were supported by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. The war was the outcome of the polarization of Spanish life and politics that had been forming over the last decade. -
Germany invades Poland
Germany began its invasion of Poland in September of 1939 and fully seized control in early October of the same year. Russia was also involved in the invasion of Poland in secret. This event begins WWII. -
The Bombing of Pearl Harbor
Japan suicide bombers launched a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor and destroyed a great deal of the US navy fleet. This brought the US into WWII.