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A planned march by Fascist Blackshirts on the capital. King Victor Emmanuel III, fearing a civil war, refused to declare martial law and instead appointed Benito Mussolini as Prime Minister. It was significant because it was a successful coup d'état that resulted in the legal appointment of Mussolini as the head of government, marking the beginning of the Fascist regime in Italy. -
Written by Adolf Hitler while imprisoned after the failed Munich Beer Hall Putsch. The book outlines his political ideology, including his extreme antisemitism, belief in a master Aryan race, and plans for German expansion (Lebensraum). It served as the ideological blueprint for the Nazi Party. It clearly laid out Hitler's goals and racist worldview, which he would later attempt to implement. -
A national economic plan initiated by Stalin to rapidly transform the Soviet Union from an agrarian society into an industrial power through forced industrialization and the collectivization of agriculture. It was significant because it achieved massive growth in heavy industry, setting the USSR on the path to military and economic modernization. It also violently uprooted the peasant class. -
Following the death of Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin eliminated his political rivals within the Communist Party, consolidating complete personal power over the Soviet Union. This was significant because It marked the transition from collective leadership to a totalitarian dictatorship. This shift enabled Stalin to implement his radical,brutal, domestic policies. -
Why: The Japanese Kwantung Army staged the "Mukden Incident" a small explosion on a Japanese-owned railway, as a pretext for a full-scale invasion of China's Manchuria region. It was important because it was a flagrant act of aggression and a major test for the League of Nations. The League's failure to stop Japan demonstrated its weakness and its inability to prevent aggressive nations from violating international law, encouraging future acts of aggression. -
The Holodomor was a man-made famine caused by Soviet policies under Joseph Stalin, mostly to forcibly implement collectivization and crush Ukrainian resistance to Soviet rule and nationalism. It was significant because it was an act of political terror that destroyed the independent peasantry and secured Moscow's absolute control over Ukraine. -
Adolf Hitler was legally appointed Chancellor by President Paul von Hindenburg, who believed he could control the volatile Nazi leader in a coalition government. This date marks the Nazis' legal assumption of power. Hitler quickly exploited his position and a subsequent national emergency (the Reichstag Fire) to dismantle democracy and establish a totalitarian dictatorship. -
A purge orchestrated by Hitler against the leadership of the SA, particularly its head, Ernst Röhm. Hitler viewed the SA as a threat to his power and needed to appease the German Army and conservative elites. It was important because it consolidated Hitler’s absolute power. It eliminated political rivals, secured the loyalty of the German Army, and established the SS as Hitler's primary, loyal security force. -
What were they: Two sets of laws: the Reich Citizenship Law (stripping Jews of German citizenship) and the Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor (forbidding marriage or sexual relations between Jews and non-Jewish Germans). They were important because they formalized and legally defined antisemitism, providing the legal framework for the systematic persecution of Jews in Germany, which was a necessary precursor to the Holocaust. -
Benito Mussolini’s Italian forces invaded the independent African nation of Ethiopia after a border skirmish, using modern weapons and poison gas. It was a brutal act of Italian imperial expansion that, like the invasion of Manchuria, demonstrated the impotence of the League of Nations, that failed to stop the aggression. -
A campaign of political repression in the USSR during which Joseph Stalin ordered the systematic arrest, imprisonment in forced-labor camps (gulags), and execution of millions of alleged enemies, including rival politicians, military leaders, and ordinary citizens. It eliminated all remaining opposition to Stalin within the party and military, centralizing his totalitarian control. The gulag system provided forced labor for Soviet industrial projects. -
A military revolt led by Nationalist generals against the democratically elected Republican government. The war became an ideological testing ground for fascist (Italy, Germany) and communist (USSR) powers. Germany and Italy provided military support (including the testing of new military tactics like aerial bombing) to the Nationalist forces, while the USSR supported the Republicans. -
The six-week period following the capture of Nanjing, then the Chinese capital, where the Imperial Japanese Army committed mass murder, widespread rape, and looting against Chinese civilians and disarmed soldiers. It is important because it is one of the most horrific war crimes of World War II, showing the extreme brutality of Japan's war in Asia and remaining a major source of historical and diplomatic tension between China and Japan. -
A coordinated wave of violent anti-Jewish pogroms across Nazi Germany, Austria, and the Sudetenland. Synagogues were burned, Jewish homes and businesses were destroyed, and thousands of Jewish men were arrested and sent to concentration camps. It was a turning point, marking the transition from legislative discrimination to open, organized, state-sponsored physical violence against the Jewish population. -
German forces invaded Poland using the Blitzkrieg tactic. This was carried out under the pretense of self-defense after staging a fake Polish attack on a German radio station.This was significant because this invasion was the action that triggered World War II in Europe, since it led Britain and France to declare war on Nazi Germany two days later, honoring their treaty obligations with Poland. -
A surprise attack by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. It was important because the attack immediately brought the United States into World War II. The U.S. Congress formally declared war on Japan the next day.