This timeline covers the events that led to World War II in Europe and eventually drew the United States into war.
World War I ends; all nations end hostilities
Allies force Germany to accept Treaty of Versailles, including a "war guilt clause." Germany is forced to pay reparations to England and France, and to accept the new Weimar Republic as its government. Finally, it becomes demilitarized. Included in the treaty is a clause to create an international League of Nations. Republicans and Democrats, alike, in U.S. congress attack the treaty, stating, among other objections, that League membership is unconstitutional. It would remove the Senate's right to declare war.
Benito Mussolini and his National Fascist Party (Partito Nazionale Fascista, or PNF) staged a coup d'état and seized political power in the Kingdom of Italy.
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s.
Japan begins takeover of Manchuria, which is later renamed Manchukuo.
FDR is elected by the Electoral College as President of the United States.
Hindenburg appointed Hitler Chancellor of Germany
Japan leaves the League of Nations. Nazi Germany had withdrew in October.
Head of Government of Italy and Duce of Fascism
FDR implements the beginning of the New Deal with the Hundred Days
FDR is the only American president to serve more than 2 terms.
Dachau, the first concentration camp, is established in Germany.
Germany passes law restricting college enrollment of Jews. Similar legal discrimination already exists in the United States.
In Germany, legislation is passed making the Nazi party the only legal political party. The Law for the Prevention of Hereditary Diseases is also passed, providing for the serilization of unfit parents and the "euthanasia" of "the defective" and "useless eaters."
Hitler assumes the presidency of Germany when Hindenburg dies and thus gains full control of the government.
In Germany, the first Nuremberg Laws are passed revoking citizenship from Jews and prohibiting them from marrying non-Jews.
imposed a general embargo on trading in arms and war materials with all parties in a war. It also declared that American citizens traveling on warring ships traveled at their own risk. The act was set to expire after six months. In the United States, the first Neutrality Acts are passed authorizing the president to deny American firms the right to sell or ship munitions to belligerent nations. The Neutrality Acts are later expanded in 1936.
The Second Italo–Abyssinian War (also referred to as the Second Italo-Ethiopian War or just the Ethiopian War, Italian: Guerra d'Etiopia) was a colonial war that started in October 1935 and ended in May 1936. The war was fought between the armed forces of the Kingdom of Italy (Regno d'Italia) and the armed forces of the Ethiopian Empire (also known as Abyssinia). The war resulted in the military occupation of Ethiopia and its annexation into the newly created colony of Italian East Africa (Africa Orientale Italiana, or AOI).
The Neutrality Act of 1936, passed in February of that year, renewed the provisions of the 1935 act for another 14 months. It also forbade all loans or credits to belligerents. However, this act did not cover "civil wars," such as that in Spain (1936-1939), nor did it cover materials such as trucks and oil. U.S. companies such as Texaco, Standard Oil, Ford, General Motors, and Studebaker used this loophole to sell such items to Franco on credit. By 1939, Franco owed these and other companies more than $100,000,000.
Germany and Italy lent support to the Nationalist insurrection led by general Francisco Franco in Spain. The Soviet Union supported the existing government, the Spanish Republic. Both sides used this war as an opportunity to test improved weapons and tactics. The Bombing of Guernica was a horrific attack on civilians which foreshadowed events that would occur throughout Europe.
Berlin Olympic Games. Nazis disguise outward signs of anti-Semitism
In November 1936 the term "axis" was used by Italian dictator Benito Mussolini when he spoke of a Rome-Berlin axis arising out of the treaty of friendship signed between Italy and Germany on 25 October 1936. This treaty was forged when Italy, originally opposed to Nazi Germany, was faced with opposition to its war in Abyssinia from the League of Nations and received support from Germany. Later, in May 1939, this relationship transformed into an alliance, which Mussolini called the "Pact of Steel".
The Neutrality Act of 1937, passed in May, included the provisions of the earlier acts, this time without expiration date, and extended them to cover civil wars as well. Further, U.S. ships were prohibited from transporting any passengers or articles to belligerents, and U.S. citizens were forbidden from traveling on ships of belligerent nations. In a concession to Roosevelt, a "cash and carry" provision that had been devised by his advisor Bernard Baruch was added: the President could permit the sale of materials and supplies to belligerents in Europe as long as the recipients arranged for the transport and paid immediately in cash, with the argument that this would not draw the U.S. into the conflict.
The Second Sino-Japanese War (July 7, 1937 – September 2, 1945) was a military conflict fought primarily between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. From 1937 to 1941, China fought Japan with some economic help from Germany (see Sino-German cooperation), the Soviet Union (1937–1940) and the United States (see American Volunteer Group).
The systematic rape, torture, and murder of more than 300,00 Chinese civilians by Japanese soldiers.
Austria is annexed by Germany
France and Britain enact a policy of appeasement, agreeing to the German annexation of Sudenten, Czechoslovakia. Appeasement is a diplomatic policy aimed at avoiding war by making concessions to an aggressor. he term is most often applied to the foreign policy of the British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain towards Nazi Germany between 1937 and 1939. His policies of avoiding war with Germany have been the subject of intense debate for seventy years among academics, politicians and diplomats. The historians' assessments have ranged from condemnation for allowing Hitler to grow too strong, to the judgement that he had no alternative and acted in Britain's best interests. At the time, these concessions were widely seen as positive, and the Munich Pact among Germany, Britain, France and Italy prompted Chamberlain to announce that he had secured "peace for our time"
Kristallnacht- the Night of the Broken Glass. Nazis violently attack Jews and destroy Jewish property, 91 Jews are killed and others are beaten.
After German occupation of Czechoslovakia, Italy saw itself becoming a second-rate member of the Axis. Rome delivered Tirana an ultimatum on March 25, 1939, demanding that it accede to Italy's occupation of Albania. King Zog refused to accept money in exchange for countenancing a full Italian takeover and colonization of Albania. On April 7, 1939, Mussolini's troops invaded Albania. Albania was occupied after a 3 days campaign with minimal resistance offered by the Albanian forces.
In 1939, the Japanese attacked west from Manchuria into the Mongolian People's Republic, following the earlier Battle of Lake Khasan in 1938. They were decisively beaten by Soviet units under General Georgy Zhukov. Following this battle, the Soviet Union and Japan were at peace until 1945. Japan looked south to expand its empire, leading to conflict with the United States over the Philippines and control of shipping lanes to the Dutch East Indies. The Soviet Union focused on her western border, but leaving 1 million to 1.5 million troops to guard the frontier with Japan
The Jewish refugee ship the St. Louis arrives in Belgium after being denied access to Cuba and the United States. Most of the passengers are eventually murdered by the Nazis.
Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact announced in Moscow.
Germany invades Poland from the west.
Britain declares war on Germany at 11 am, France declares war on Germany six hours later.
Early in 1939, after Nazi Germany had invaded Czechoslovakia, Roosevelt lobbied Congress to have the cash and carry provision renewed. He was rebuffed, the provision lapsed, and the mandatory arms embargo remained in place. In September, after Germany had invaded Poland and Great Britain and France had subsequently declared war on Germany, Roosevelt invoked the provisions of the Neutrality Act but came before Congress and lamented that the Neutrality Acts may give passive aid to an aggressor. He prevailed over the isolationists and on November 4 the Neutrality Act of 1939.
the Battle of France was the German invasion of France and the Low Countries, beginning on 10 May 1940, which ended the Phony War. The battle consisted of two main operations. In the first, Fall Gelb (Case Yellow), German armoured units pushed through the Ardennes, to cut off and surround the Allied units that had advanced into Belgium. During the fighting, the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) and many French soldiers were evacuated from Dunkirk in Operation Dynamo. In the second operation, Fall Rot (Case Red), executed from 5 June, German forces outflanked the Maginot Line and pushed deep into France. Italy declared war on France on 10 June and soon afterwards the French government fled to Bordeaux. France's capital of Paris was occupied on 14 June. On 17 June, Philippe Pétain publicly announced France would ask for an armistice. On 22 June, an armistice was signed between France and Germany, going into effect on 25 June. For the Axis Powers, the campaign was a spectacular victory.
The Battle of Britain was the first major campaign to be fought entirely by air forces. The Battle of Britain is the name given to the World War II air campaign waged by the German Air Force (Luftwaffe) against the United Kingdom during the summer and autumn of 1940. The objective of the campaign was to gain air superiority over the Royal Air Force (RAF), especially Fighter Command. The name derives from a famous speech delivered by Prime Minister Winston Churchill in the House of Commons: "...the Battle of France is over. I expect that the Battle of Britain is about to begin."
The U.S. government passed the Export Control Act, cutting oil, iron and steel exports to Japan. This containment policy was seen by Washington as a warning to Japan that any further military expansion would result in further sanctions. However, Tokyo saw it as a blockade to counter Japanese military and economic strength. Accordingly, by the time the United States enforced the Export Act, Japan had stockpiled around 54 million barrels of oil.
The America First Committee (AFC) was the foremost non-interventionist pressure group against the American entry into World War II. Peaking at 800,000 paid members in 650 chapters, it was one of the largest anti-war organization in American history. Started in 1940, it shut down after the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941. One of its key speakers was Charles Lindbergh.
The United States halted shipments of airplanes, parts, machine tools, and aviation gasoline, which was perceived by Japan as an unfriendly act.
The president outlines the 4 Freedoms.
The program under which the United States of America supplied the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, China, Free France, and other Allied nations with materiel between 1941 and 1945. Formally titled An Act to Further Promote the Defense of the United States, the Act effectively ended the United States' pretense of neutrality. A total of $50.1 billion (equivalent to $647 billion today) worth of supplies were shipped: $31.4 billion to Britain, $11.3 billion to the Soviet Union, $3.2 billion to France, and $1.6 billion to China. Reverse Lend-Lease comprised services such as rent on air bases that went to the U.S.
All American men over the age of 21 are required to register for a draft. The Selective Training & Service Act was passed in 1940. The act set a cap of 900,000 men to be in training at any given time and limited military service to 12 months. An amendment increased this to 18 months in 1941.
All oil shipments were held back and Japanese assets in the United States were to be frozen. Since only 4.5 million barrels of oil were coming in from the Dutch East Indies, Japan's reaction was to organize an attack of the United States on the Pacific front.
Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill meet at NS Argentia, Newfoundland. The Atlantic Charter is created, signed, and released to the world press. 1. no territorial gains were to be sought by the United States or the United Kingdom; 2. territorial adjustments must be in accord with the wishes of the peoples concerned; 3. all peoples had a right to self-determination; 4. trade barriers were to be lowered; 5. there was to be global economic cooperation and advancement of social welfare; 6. the participants would work for a world free of want and fear; 7. the participants would work for freedom of the seas; 8. there was to be disarmament of aggressor nations, and a postwar common disarmament.
The US Naval Command orders an all-out war on Axis shipping in American waters.
The USS Kearny was attacked by a German submarine off the coast of Iceland. The USS Reuben James is sunk 14 days later: 100 American sailors die.
The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of December 7, 1941 (December 8 in Japan). The attack was intended as a preventive action in order to keep the U.S. Pacific Fleet from interfering with military actions the Empire of Japan was planning in Southeast Asia against overseas territories of the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and the United States.
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