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Mussolini's March on Rome
March on Rome, the insurrection by which Benito Mussolini came to power in Italy in late October 1922. The March marked the beginning of fascist rule and meant the doom of the preceding parliamentary regimes of socialists and liberals. Mussolini formed his coalition government. Mussolini's Blackshirts conquered strategic points across the country and gathered outside Rome. King Victor Emmanuel III refused to declare a state of emergency and transferred power to the Fascists. -
Hitler writes Mein Kampf
On 18 July 1925, Hitler’s book, Mein Kampf was published. He wrote it in prison, where he was serving a sentence for a failed coup he attempted in 1923. Mein Kampf is full of racist ideas and hatred of Jews and communists.The court sentenced him to five years imprisonment, of which he served less than 9 months. He hoped that publishing the book would earn him some money and serve as propaganda to air his radical views. -
1st “five year plan” in USSR
The first five year plan was created in order to initiate rapid and large-scale industrialization across the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. In order to become an industrial powerhouse, modern machinery was adopted across the country to maximize production efficiency and output. -
Japan invades Manchuria
Conflict in Asia began well before the official start of World War II. They invaded China because the Japanese were seeking raw materials to fuel its growing industries, Japan invaded the Chinese province of Manchuria in 1931. -
Holodomor
This was the starvation of millions of Ukrainians.
It stemmed from the fear that opposition to Stalin's policies in Ukraine could intensify and possibly lead to Ukraine's secession from the Soviet Union, is 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
German President Paul von Hindenburg appoints Nazi Party leader Adolf Hitler as Chancellor at the head of a coalition government. The Nazis and the German Nationalist People's Party are members of the coalition. -
“Night of the Long Knives” in Germany
The Night of Long Knives, also known as the Röhm Putsch, was the purge of the SA leadership and other political opponents from 30 June 1934 to 2 July 1934. Carried out primarily by the SS and the Gestapo, over 150 people were murdered and hundreds more were arrested.Hitler ordered his elite SS guards to murder the organization's leaders, including Ernst Röhm. -
Italian invasion of Ethiopia
An armed conflict that resulted in Ethiopia’s subjection to Italian rule. Often seen as one of the episodes that prepared the way for World War II, the war demonstrated the ineffectiveness of the League of Nations when League decisions were not supported by the great powers.Under Generals Rodolfo Graziani and Pietro Badoglio, the invading forces steadily pushed back the ill-armed and poorly trained Ethiopian army, winning a major victory near Lake Ascianghi. -
Nuremburg Laws enacted
the Nazi regime announced two new laws related to race: The Reich Citizenship Law
The Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor The Nazis enacted the Nuremberg Laws, because they wanted to put their ideas about race into law. They believed in the false theory that the world is divided into distinct races that are not equally strong and valuable. -
Spanish civil war
military revolt against the Republican government of Spain, supported by conservative elements within the country. When an initial military coup failed to win control of the entire country, a bloody civil war ensued, fought with great ferocity on both sides. The Nationalists, as the rebels were called, received aid from Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany. -
The Great Purge and gulags
The Great Purge while also known as the Great Terror, marks a period of extreme persecution and oppression in the Soviet Union during the late 1930s. It involved a large-scale repression of relatively wealthy peasants suppression of national and ethnic minorities, and a purge of the Communist Party, of government officials, and of the leadership of the Red Army. -
The rape of Nanking
The Rape of Nanking is also known as the Nanjing Massacre. It was the mass killing of Chinese citizens and capitulated soldiers by soldiers of the Japanese Imperial Army after its seizure of Nanjing. The death rates estimates range from 100,000 to more than 300,000. -
Kristallnacht
Nazi leaders unleashed a series of pogroms against the Jewish population in Germany and recently incorporated territories. This event came to be called Kristallnacht (The Night of Broken Glass) because of the shattered glass that littered the streets after the vandalism and destruction of Jewish-owned businesses, synagogues, and homes. -
Nazi Germany invades Poland.
On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland. To justify the action, Nazi propagandists accused Poland of persecuting ethnic Germans living in Poland. They also falsely claimed that Poland was planning, with its allies Great Britain and France, to encircle and dismember Germany. -
Stalin becomes dictator of USSR
Joseph Stalin served as Secretary General of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1922 until his death in 1953.
Why was this significant?
This event was important because Stalin launched a wave of radical economic policies that completely overhauled the industrial and agricultural face of the Soviet Union. This became known as the Great Turn. -
Japan bombs Pearl Harbor
The surprise aerial attack on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor on Oahu Island, Hawaii, by the Japanese that precipitated the entry of the United States into World War II. The strike climaxed a decade of worsening relations between the United States and Japan.