-
Japan attacks 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. -
Germany and Japan leave League of Nations
Then, in January 1933 Adolf Hitler became German Chancellor. The League was at the time fixated on reaching an international disarmament agreement, but efforts to limit army sizes prompted the departure of Japan in March 1933 and then Germany a few months later. -
Japan attacks China
Japanese Kwangtung Army attacked Chinese troops in Manchuria in an event commonly known as the Manchurian Incident. Essentially, this was an attempt by the Japanese Empire to gain control over the whole province, in order to eventually encompass all of East Asia. -
Germany takes Austria
ustrian Nazis conspired for the second time in four years to seize the Austrian government by force and unite their nation with Nazi Germany. Austrian Chancellor Kurt von Schuschnigg, learning of the conspiracy, met with Nazi leader Adolf Hitler in the hopes of reasserting his country’s independence but was instead bullied into naming several top Austrian Nazis to his cabinet. -
Munich Peace Conference
Hitler was now determined to seize the Sudetenland, which was in Czechoslovakia but had a substantial German population and important industrial resources. It was clear he would do so by force if he had to and that the Czechs by themselves had not the faintest hope of resisting him. - See more at: http://www.historytoday.com/richard-cavendish/munich-conference#sthash.M46xdaxE.dpuf -
Germany takes Czechoslovakia
On 15 March 1939, German troops marched into Czechoslovakia. They took over Bohemia, and established a protectorate over Slovakia. -
Non-Aggression Pact
Europe–enemies Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union surprised the world by signing the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact, in which the two countries agreed to take no military action against each other for the next 10 years. -
Germany Invades Poland
German forces bombard Poland on land and from the air, as Adolf Hitler seeks to regain lost territory and ultimately rule Poland. World War II had begun. -
France Falls to the Germans
France's vaunted Maginot Line failed to hold back the Nazi onslaught and the German Blitzkrieg poured into France. Thousands of civilians fled before it. -
Battle of Britain
The Battle of Britain was a struggle between the German Luftwaffe (commanded by Hermaan Göring) and the British Royal Air force (headed by Sir Hugh Dowding’s Fighter Command) which raged over Britain between July and October 1940. The battle, which was the first major military campaign in history to be fought entirely in the air, was the result of a German plan to win air superiority over Southern Britain and the English Channel by destroying the British air force and aircraft industry.
