Download International Relations Timeline

International Relations Timeline
1920s
 1929 the Wall Street Crash causes the Great Depression.
1930s
 1931 -- Japan invaded Manchuria – railway explosion at Mukden.
 1932 -- the Japanese set up the puppet state of Manchukuo, League of Nations sent
Lord Lytton to investigate. Japanese ignored the report.
 1933 -- Japan resigned from League.
 By the mid-1930s Italy suffering very badly from the effects of the Depression
 1935 -- Italy invaded Abyssinia, fighting broke out.
 1936 -- collapse of the Abyssinian forces against superior technology / the capital
Addis Ababa occupied / Emperor Haile Selassie fled to Britain and then asked the
League of Nations for help.
 1935 – British and French Hoare-Laval Pact secretly offer 2/3 Abyssinia to Italy
having already formed the Stresa Front in 1934 to keep Italy happy and away from
alliance with Germany.
 1935 -- Hitler began rearmament in Germany. Naval agreement with Britain.
 1936 -- Germany reoccupied the Rhineland.
 1937 -- Italy left the League of Nations and formed the Pact of Steel with
Germany. Hitler also opened links with Japan and in 1939 the Axis was created
with Germany, Italy and Japan.
 1938 -- Austria and Germany united by the Anschluss - Germany now surrounded
Czechoslovakia on three sides.
 September 1938 – Sudetenland Crisis – Hitler demanded German speaking
Sudetenland area of Czechoslovakia be given to Germany. GB prime minister
Chamberlain agreed, Hitler asked for more, Chamberlain gave in after Munich
Conference = Appeasement.
 March 1939 -- Hitler occupied most of the rest of Czechoslovakia.
 March 1939 -- Britain made defensive alliances with Poland and then Romania.
 June – August 1939 -- France, Britain and the Soviet Union discussed an alliance
against Hitler.
 August 1939 -- Germany and the USSR signed the Nazi-Soviet Pact.
 August 1939 -- Britain responded by signing a formal alliance with Poland.
 1 September 1939 Germany invaded Poland.
 2 September 1939 The British Government sent an ultimatum to Germany
demanding that all forces should be withdrawn from Poland or war would
be declared. This was ignored.
 3 September 1939 Britain declared war on Germany.
1940s
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1943: Tehran Conference to discuss end of war = uneasy allies!
1945: February -- Yalta Conference
1945: July – Potsdam Conference – anti-Russian Truman replaced Roosevelt.
August 6 -- United States first used atomic bomb in war
1945: August -- Russia enters war against Japan and Japan surrendered. End WW2!
1945 – 1949 Soviets take over Eastern Europe / Stalin set up buffer zone
1946: Winston Churchill delivers "Iron Curtain" Speech.
1947: Truman Doctrine
1947: June -- Marshall Plan is announced offering assistance to war damaged
countries. Stalin set up Comecon and Cominform.
1948: February -- Communist takeover in Czechoslovakia
1948: June -- Berlin Blockade begins
1949: July -- NATO set up
1949: May 12 -- Berlin Blockade ends
1949: Germany divided finally into East and West Germany after western allies
unified zones and set up new currency.
1949: September -- Mao Zedong, a Communist, takes control of China
1949: September -- Soviets explode first atomic bomb
1950s
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1955: May -- Warsaw Pact formed after West Germany allowed to join NATO.
1956: October - November -- Rebellion put down in Communist Hungary (Nagy!)
by Soviets / Warsaw Pact troops.
1957: October 4 -- Sputnik launched into space – space race underway!
1958: November -- Khrushchev demands withdrawal of troops from Berlin
1959: January -- Cuba taken over by Fidel Castro
1960s
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1960: May -- Soviet Union reveals that U.S. spy plane was shot down over Soviet
territory
1960: November -- John F. Kennedy elected President
1961: April – Bay of Pigs invasion in Cuba – failed!
1961: July -- Kennedy requests 25% spending increase for military
1961: August – Berlin border closed.
1961: August -- Construction of Berlin Wall begins
1962: October – Cuban Missiles Crisis.
1963: July -- Nuclear Test Ban Treaty ratified
1968: August -- Soviet troops crush Czechoslovakian revolt after Prague Spring.