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Mussolini's march on Rome
Mussolini wanted to advance the economic state of Italy and his plan was based on a two-fold approach: attacking the power of the trade unions and therefore controlling the workers, and setting Italy targets as he had with his Battle for Births. -
Hitler writes Mein Kampf
In the book, Hitler blamed Germany's chief woes on the parliament of the Weimar Republic, the Jews, and Social Democrats, as well as Marxists, though he believed that Marxists, Social Democrats, and the parliament were all working for Jewish interests. He announced that he wanted to completely destroy the parliamentary system, believing it to be corrupt in principle, as those who reach power are inherent opportunists. -
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1st "5 Year Plan" in the USSR
The plan, overall, was to transition the Soviet Union from a weak, poorly controlled, agricultural state, into an industrial powerhouse. While the vision was grand, its planning was ineffective and unrealistic given the short amount of time given to meet the desired goals. -
Stalin becomes dictator of USSR
In the years following the death of Vladimir Lenin, Stalin became the dictator of the Soviet Union, by manipulating and terrorizing others in order to destroy his opponents. -
Japan invades Manchuria
Japan had invaded Manchuria without declarations of war, breaching the rules of the League of Nations. Japan had a highly developed industry, but the land was scarce of natural resources. Japan turned to Manchuria for oil, rubber, and lumber in order to make up for the lack of resources in Japan. -
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Holodomor
The term Holodomor refers to the starvation of millions of Ukrainians as a result of Soviet policies. The Holodomor can be seen as the culmination of an assault by the Communist Party and Soviet state on the Ukrainian peasantry, who resisted Soviet policies. -
Hitler appointed chancellor of Germany
In a series of complicated negotiations, ex-Chancellor Franz von Papen, backed by prominent German businessmen and the conservative German National People's Party (DNVP), convinced Hindenburg to appoint Hitler as chancellor. -
“Night of the Long Knives” in Germany
Night of the Long Knives, in German history, the purge of Nazi leaders by Adolf Hitler on June 30, 1934. Fearing that the paramilitary SA had become too powerful, Hitler ordered his elite SS guards to murder the organization's leaders. -
Nuremburg Laws enacted
Nazi racial laws led to the marginalization of German Jews and ultimately to their segregation, confinement, and extermination. More significantly they laid the foundation for future antisemitic measures by legally distinguishing between German and Jews. -
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Italian invasion of Ethiopia
The aim of invading Ethiopia was to boost Italian national prestige, which was wounded by Ethiopia's defeat of Italian forces at the Battle of Adowa in the nineteenth century, which saved Ethiopia from Italian colonization. Another justification for the attack was an incident during December 1934, between Italian and Abyssinian troops at the Wal-Wal Oasis on the border between Abyssinian Somaliland, where 200 soldiers lost their lives. -
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Spanish civil war
The war was a result of many factors, but the one primary causes of the Spanish Civil War was the failure of Spanish democracy. This failure resulted from the refusal of the Spanish political parties and groups to compromise and respect democratic norms. -
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The Great Purge and Gulags
The exact motives for the Great Purge are debated among historians. Some claim the actions of Stalin were prompted by his desire to maintain authority as a dictator. Others see it as his way to preserve, enhance and unify the Soviet Communist Party. -
The Rape of Nanking
The Japanese butchered an estimated 150,000 male “war prisoners,” massacred an additional 50,000 male civilians, and raped at least 20,000 women and girls of all ages, many of whom were mutilated or killed in the process. -
Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht was the result of that rage. Starting in the late hours of November 9 and continuing into the next day, Nazi mobs torched or otherwise vandalized hundreds of synagogues throughout Germany and damaged, if not completely destroyed, thousands of Jewish homes, schools, businesses, hospitals, and cemeteries. Nearly 100 Jews were murdered during the violence. Nazi officials ordered German police officers and firemen to do nothing as the riots raged and buildings burned. -
Nazi Germany invades Poland
Germany invaded Poland to regain lost territory and ultimately rule their neighbor to the east. The German invasion of Poland was a primer on how Hitler intended to wage war–what would become the “blitzkrieg” strategy. -
Japan bombs Pearl Harbor
Japan intended the attack as a preventive action to keep the United States Pacific Fleet from interfering with its planned military actions in Southeast Asia against overseas territories of the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and the United States. They hoped that the defeat at Pearl Harbor would be so devastating, that Americans would immediately give up.