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Treaty of Versailles is signed
The Treaty of Versailles was the most important of the peace treaties that brought World War I to an end. The Treaty ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. The treaty included a number of punishing conditions imposed upon Germany, and posed a major factor in Adolf Hitler seizing power in Germany. -
The Weimar Republic is established in Germany
The Weimar Republic was Germany’s government from 1919 to 1933, the period after World War I until the rise of Nazi Germany. It was characterized by political and economic crises, violence, and drastic social changes in Germany. It was fragile, and easily replaced by Hitler’s Nazi Party. -
The League of Nation is created
The League of Nations was a international organization founded after the Paris Peace Conference, 1919. The League's goals included disarmament, preventing war through collective security, settling disputes between countries through negotiation diplomacy and improving global welfare. -
French occupation of the Ruhr
On the 9 January 1923, in response to the lack of payment of reparations, France and Belgium invaded the Ruhr. The Ruhr was a region of Germany which contained resources such as factories. The French and Belgians intended to use these resources to make up for the unpaid reparations. -
Beer Hall Putsch
Hitler and his followers attempted an overthrow of the Weimar Republic (putsch in German) in hopes to create their own government. -
The Dawes Plan is created
The Dawes Plan of 1924 was an agreement between the Allies and Germany. The basic idea behind the plan was to make it easier for Germany to pay reparations and had two key parts. -
Benito Mussolini becomes dictator of Italy
Benito Mussolini was an Italian political leader who became the fascist dictator of Italy from 1925 to 1945. Originally a revolutionary socialist, he forged the paramilitary fascist movement in 1919 and became prime minister in 1922. Mussolini and his Blackshirts eliminated all opposition and terrorized the people and the king into allowing him to come to power. This had a great influence on Adolf Hitler when he became dictator of Germany. -
The Locarno Treaties are signed
The Locarno Pact of 1925 was an agreement signed on 1st December 1925 between Britain, France, Belgium, Italy and Germany. Its 3 main goals were to secure borders of the nations of Europe after the First World War, to ensure the permanent demilitarization of the Rhineland, and to begin negotiations to allow Germany into the League of Nations. -
The Kellogg-Briand Pact is signed
The overall aim of the agreement was for countries to agree not to use war as a method of ending international disputes. For Germany the Kellogg-Briand Pact was significant. World War 2 began partially due to Hitler breaking this pact, while the Allies agreed to it. -
Beginning of the Great Depression
The Great Depression was the worst economic downturn in the history of the industrialized world, lasting from 1929 to 1939. It began after the stock market crash of October 1929, which sent Wall Street into a panic and wiped out millions of investors. -
Japan invaded Manchuria
During 1931 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. -
Adolf Hitler is appointed Chancellor of Germany
Hitler was appointed chancellor on 30 January 1933. Hitler’s emergence as chancellor on January 30, 1933, marked a crucial turning point for Germany and, ultimately, for the world. His plan, embraced by much of the German population, was to do away with politics and make Germany a powerful, unified one-party state. -
Italy invaded 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 (1896), which saved Ethiopia from Italian colonisation. -
Germany reoccupied the Rhineland
This action was directly against the Treaty of Versailles which had laid out the terms which the defeated Germany had accepted. This move, in terms of foreign relations, threw the European allies, especially France and Britain, into confusion. -
Creation of the Rome-Berlin Axis
The Rome-Berlin Axis was a coalition formed between Italy and Germany on 25 October 1936, which served to informally link the two fascist countries. Lead to the integration of the military aims of Germany, Italy and Japan. -
Creation of the Anti-Comintern Pact
Anti-Comintern Pact, agreement concluded first between Germany and Japan, and then between Italy, Germany, and Japan, ostensibly directed against the Communist International but, by implication, specifically against the Soviet Union. It created a defense alliance between the countries and was largely intended to deter the United States from entering the conflict. -
Germany’s anschluss with Austria
Anschluss refers to the concept of uniting Germanic-speaking peoples in Germany and Austria after World War I. Hitler believed that Germany and Austria must be united as they are both Germanic peoples even though the Treaty of Versailles forbid Germany from having an alliance with Austria. -
Signing of the Munich Agreement
The Munich Agreement or Munich Betrayal was an agreement concluded at Munich on 30 September 1938, by Nazi Germany, the United Kingdom, the French Third Republic, and the Kingdom of Italy. The agreement averted the outbreak of war but gave Czechoslovakia away to German conquest. -
Germany occupied Czechoslovakia
Hitler's invasion of Czechoslovakia was the end of appeasement for several reasons, proving that Hitler had been lying at Munich. -
Creation of the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact
Hitler wanted to gain more power over Europe but needed help from the Soviet Union in order to do so. He made this agreement with Stalin so that they would not fight each other but Hitler later broke this pact in 1941 by invading the Soviet Union. -
Germany invaded Poland
The German army under Adolf Hitler launched an invasion of Poland that triggered the start of World War II. The battle for Poland only lasted about a month before a Nazi victory. Germany’s invasion of Poland violated the terms of the Munich Agreement, and was evidence that the policy of appeasement of Hitler’s aggression had failed. -
Britain declared war on Germany
Britain realized they failed to help maintain peace after Germany invaded Poland. This lead them to declaring war on Germany in efforts to stand up to their aggression and was the start of the second world war.
