Download WWII Timeline

APUSH WWII Timeline
Event/Battle
Location
Significance
1922
USA
The U.S. and nine other countries discussed naval disarmament. They felt
that a naval arms race had contributed to the start of WW I. They created
quotas for different classes of ships that could be built by each country
based on its economic power and size of existing navies.
Mussolini becomes Italian
1922
fascist dictator
Italy
Fascist dictator of Italy from 1922-1943. Wanted to recreate the Roman
Empire.
Washington Naval
Conference
Date
Kellogg-Briand Pact
1928
Clark Memorandum
1928
USA
Revokes the Roosevelt Corollary
“Good Neighbor Policy”
1928-1936
U.S. & Latin
America
Refers to the Hoover-Roosevelt policy of refraining from armed
intervention in Latin America. Franklin D. Roosevelt is usually credited
with setting the policy, but President Herbert Hoover coined the phrase
and put the policy into practice.
NY Stock Market Crashes
10-29-1929
NYC, NY
NY Stock Market Crashes causing a world wide depression.
Hawley-Smoot Tariff
1930
USA
Congressional compromise serving special interest, it raised duties on
agricultural and manufactured imports. It may have contributed to the
spread of the international depression.
Japan invades Manchuria
1931
Manchuria
It was the first step on the path to World War II. Violates all Kellogg
Treaty & League of Nations. Nobody stops them. (Imperialism: needs
resources & more space.)
Stimson Doctrine
1931
USA
U.S. reaction to Japan’s invasion of Manchuria. It stated that the U.S.
would not recognize any treaty that impinged on the sovereignty of China.
FDR elected President
1932
USA
FDR pledges “a new deal for the American people.”
-U.S. extends diplomatic recognition to U.S.S.R. (communist) in 1933.
Hitler becomes Chancellor
1933
of Germany
Outlaws war unless attacked
Germany
1.
2.
Germany and Japan resign from League of Nations
Germany and Japan begin rearmament
1
Nye Munitions Report
1934-1937
U.S.A.
Italy invades Ethiopia
1935
Ethiopia
Spanish Civil War
1935-1936
A Senate Committee under Sen. Nye examined the influence of eco.
interests on America’s decision to enter WWI.
 Concluded that profiteers, “merchants of death,” maneuvered
the U.S. into the war to save their investments.
 Resulted in isolationist sentiment & laws regulating foreign
arms & munitions sales.
Mussolini invaded, conquering it in 1936. The League of Nations failed to
take any effective action against Mussolini, and the U.S. just looked on.
Spain
-Spain had established a leftist, democratic government in the 1930s.
-A civil war between loyalist Republican forces (aided by Russia) and
Franco's Fascist party (aided by Mussolini and Hitler) later resulted.
-The U.S., France & U.K. offered official no assistance to either side BUT
American volunteers, the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, assisted the
Loyalists.
-Fascists win. 
U.S.A.
Authorized the president to declare an embargo of up to 6 months on arms
shipments to any country where a state of war existed.
 Also, he could forbid U.S. citizens from traveling on vessels of
such countries except at
their own risk.
 The act did not prohibit the sale of steel, copper, or oil.
Neutrality Act
1935
Neutrality Act
1936
Gave the president the authority to determine when a state of war existed
and prohibited loans to belligerents.
Germany occupies the
Rhineland
March 1936
Violates the Treaty of Versailles
2nd Sino-Japanese War
begins
Jan. 19371945
Neutrality Act
May 1937
Chamberlain elected
British Prime Minister
May 1937
China
Japan invades China's northern provinces and eventually occupies much
of China's coastal regions.
-Gave the president the authority to determine whether a civil war was a
threat to world peace and prohibited arms sales to belligerents.
-Stated the warring nations wishing to trade with the U.S. would have to
pay cash and carry the goods away in their own ships. Benefited the
Allies, since German ships could not reach the U.S. due to the Allied
blockades.
U.K.
Neville Chamberlain becomes the New British Prime Minister
2
Concentration Camps
begin
“Quarantine” Speech
Aug. 1937
Oct. 1937
Germany
The 1st concentration camp at Buchenwald opens in Germany for people
who oppose the Nazi Party.
USA
FDR indicated his opposition to the isolationist attitude of the neutrality
acts.
-In this speech Franklin D. Roosevelt compared Fascist aggression to a
contagious disease, saying democracies must unite to quarantine aggressor
nations.
-He recommended a “quarantine” of aggressors to preserve peace.
-The speech was a response to Japan’s aggression against China.
Panay incident
Dec. 1937
China
Japanese planes bombed the U.S. gunboat Panay and 3 oil tankers on the
Yangtze River in China, killing 2 Americans.
-Yielding to U.S. public pressures on the administration, the Japanese
agrees to apologize for this “accident.”
Germany & Austria unite
March 1938
Austria
Hitler invades Austria and unites it with Germany.
Germany
Hitler wanted to annex the Sudetenland, a portion of Czechoslovakia
whose inhabitants were mostly German-speaking. On Sept. 29, Germany,
Italy, France, and Great Britain signed the Munich Pact, which gave
Germany the Sudetenland. British Prime Minister Chamberlain justified
the pact with the belief that appeasing Germany would prevent war.
Munich Conference
Sept. 1938
Germany invades
Sudetenland
Oct. 19381939
Kristallnact
Nov. 1938
Germany
Night of the Broken Glass…
Italian forces invade
Albania
April 1938
Albania
Italian forces invade Albania
Germany &
USSR
Germany and Russia agreed not to attack each other, which allowed Hitler
to open up a second front in the West without worrying about defending
against Russia. Granted Western Poland to Germany, but allowed Russia
to occupy Finland, Estonia, Latvia, and Eastern Poland. Hitler intended to
break the pact.
Nonagression pact between
Aug. 1939
Germany and U.S.S.R.
Hitler invades Sudetenland, and then occupies all of Czechoslovakia.
Germany invades Poland
September 1,
1939
PolishGerman
border
Following non-aggression treaty with Soviet Union, German troops
invade Poland. England and France declare war on Germany. Soviets
invade Poland from East.
American First Commitee
1940
USA
Formed by die-hard isolationists, by Charles Lindbergh and Sen. Nye,
who feared the U.S. going to war.
Western
Denmark, Norway, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, and France
Germany's blitzkrieg takes March-June
3
western Europe
1940
Europe
crushed by German offensive
Germany defeats France
June 1940
France
Germany invaded France and set up the Vichey government, which lasted
until the Allies invaded in 1944.
Battle of Britain
Begins July
1940
Great Britain
German bombers ruin British cities in attempt to obtain British surrender
before U.S. entry. Britain's breaking of German code ("Ultra") helps
overcome air attacks.
Tripartite Pact
Sept. 1940
Destroyers for Bases
Sept. 1940
US & UK
U.S. agreed to "lend" its older WWI destroyers to Great Britain.
(Destroyers were major warships that made up the bulk of most countries'
navies.) Signaled the end of U.S. neutrality in the war.
Selective Service &
Training Act
September
1940
Washington
D.C.
1st peacetime military draft in US History passed. Registration of all men
between 21 and 35 (later 18 & 64). Limit of 900,000 men in time of
peace.
FDR elected to 3rd term
Nov. 1940
USA
Democrat - Franklin D. Roosevelt, Republican - Wendel Wrillkie (lost by
almost 5 million votes). The issue was the New Deal, about which there
was a major debate.
Four Freedom Speech
Jan. 1941
USA
FDR speech to Congress: Freedom of speech, religion, freedom of want,
and freedom from fear.
Germany, Italy, and Japan sign it creating the “Berlin-Rome-Tokyo Axis”
Lend Lease Act
March 1941
USA
Authorized the president to transfer, lend, or lease any article of defense
equipment to any government whose defense was deemed vital to the
defense of the U.S. Allowed the U.S. to send supplies and ammunition to
the Allies without technically becoming a co-belligerent.
-Act was designed to help Great Britain who was running out of cash,
extended to USSR in 1941.
Germany attacks USSR
June 1941
PolishRussian
border
Germany begins two-front war with invasion of Russia. Germans halt 15
miles from Moscow in December 1941. Germany breaks non-aggression
pact and invades USSR after failure of Battle of Britain.
Japan takes control of
French Indochina
July 1941
Indochina
Easy target after France is taken by Germany. (Indochina = Laos,
Cambodia & Vietnam)
Aug. 1941
Document issued by FDR & Churchill during their secret meeting near
Newfoundland. It had these 8 main principles: 1. Renunciation of
territorial aggression
Newfoundland
2. No territorial changes without the consent of the peoples concerned
3. Restoration of sovereign rights and self-government
4. Access to raw material for all nations
Atlantic Charter
4
5. World economic cooperation
6. Freedom from fear and want
7. Freedom of the seas
8. Disarmament of aggressors
U.S. undeclared naval war
Fall 1941
with Germany
4 significant events: 1. In Sept., a German U-boat fired on U.S. destroyer
Greer.
2. FDR ordered U.S. ships to fore on German subs “on sight.”
3. U.S. destroyer, Reuben James, sunk by Nazi sub killing Americans in
October.
4. Congress passes a bill allowing merchant ships to be armed & sail into
belligerent ports.
US oil embargo on Japan
Sept. 1941
REALLY upsets Japan. In response to Japanese aggression in Asia.
Japans plans to attack U.S.
U.S.- Japanese negotiations
Nov. –Dec.7,
1941
Negotiations between Japan & the U.S. over Indochina, China, and oil
fail.
Dec. 7, 1941
7:50-10:00 AM, December 7, 1941 - Surprise attack by 361 Japanese
warplanes on the main U.S. Pacific Fleet harbored in Pearl Harbor,
Hawaii.
They disabled 19 U.S. ships and 200 aircraft (no aircraft carriers).
American losses were 2300, Japanese losses less than 100. In response,
the U.S. declares war on Japan.
Japanese attack Pearl
Harbor
Japanese attack
Philippines, Guam & Hong Dec. 7, 1941
Kong
Japan simultaneously attacks Pearl Harbor and the U.S.’s territories Guam
and the Philippines. Japan takes the territories. The Japanese force the
U.S. soldiers on the Bataan Death March in the Philippines. Gen.
MacArthur has to evacuate the island.
U.S. declares war on Japan Dec. 8, 1941
FDR - “A day which will live in infamy.”
U.S. declares war on
Germany & Italy
Dec. 11, 1941
(**US are going to focus on war in Europe 1 st.)
War Powers Acts passed
Dec. 1941 &
March 1942
USA
Gave the president emergency authority to create new executive agencies
& reorganize existing ones, est. control over trade, provide censorship,
take property, establish ration controls to protect consumer’s interests and
prevent inflation.
Office of Price
Administration (OPA)
created
Jan. 1942
USA
Government agency which successful combated inflation by fixing price
ceilings on commodities and introducing rationing programs during World
War II.
War Productions Board
Jan. 1942
USA
Converted factories from civilian to military production. Manufacturing
5
created
output tripled.
Pearl Harbor created widespread fear that the Japanese living in the U.S.
were actually spies. FDR issued executive order 9066, which moved all
Japanese and people of Japanese descent living on the west coast of the
U.S. into internment camps in the interior of the U.S.
Executive Order 9066
Feb. 1942
West Coast
USA
Battle of Coral Sea
May 1942
South Pacific
Carrier-based U.S. planes halt Japanese advance on Australia.
Midway
June 1942
Central
Pacific
Threat on Hawaii ended as 4 Japanese aircraft carriers are sunk. Turning
point in the Pacific for U.S.
1.
2.
US Homefront
1942
USA
3.
4.
5.
Defense jobs begin to draw hundreds of thousands to West.
Price Freezing and rationing go into effect as mobilization
increases.
2nd Black Migration to industrial cities in the North.
Race riots occur throughout the war in 41 cities.
Women played an active role in the war effort. (Rosie the
Riveter)
Fair Employment Practices
1942
Commission
USA
In 1941, A. Philip Randolph, president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car
Porters, demanded that the gov’t require companies receiving defense
contracts to integrate the work forces. He planned a march on
Washington, but it was cancelled in return for FDR creating this
commission, which would investigate discrimination against black people
in war industries.
C.O.R.E.
USA
Congress of Racial Equality (C.O.R.E.) est. to implement aggressive
tactics, such as sit-ins and demonstrations against discrimination.
1942
FDR’s promise to Stalin
May 1942
USA
FDR promises USSR diplomat that the US would create a second front in
Europe by the end of the year. Why? USSR was & had been fighting
Germany alone.
** This will not be fulfilled though until D-Day, June 6, 1944.
Allies attack Germans in
North Africa
November
1942
North Africa
Huge Allied landing forces Germany to retreat to Tunisia, where they are
surrounded by British and American forces.
Morocco
FDR and Churchill met to settle the future strategy of the Allies following
the success of the North African campaign. They decided to launch an
attack on Italy through Sicily before initiating an invasion into France
over the English Channel. Also announced that the war would continue
until the “unconditional surrender” of all Axis enemies.
Casablanca Conference
Jan. 1943
6
Guadalcanal
February
1943
Solomon
Islands, South Americans take first island in start of island-hopping strategy.
Pacific
Germans surrender at
Stalingrad
February
1943
Central Russia
Germans surrender at
Tunisia
May 1943
Tunisia, North Over 250,000 German and Italian troops are captured and Allies prepare
Africa
to invade Sicily and Italy.
Allies invade Sicily
July 1943
Sicily
In largest amphibious invasion in history, over 250,000 American and
British troops land. Germans and Italians escape to mainland of Italy.
Italy surrenders
September
1943
Italy
Although Italian troops quit fighting Allies, Germans continue in fierce
fighting. Rome finally surrenders on June 4, 1944.
Egypt
A meeting of Allied leaders Roosevelt, Churchill, and Chiang Kai-Shek in
Egypt to define the Allies goals with respect to the war against Japan, they
announced their intention to seek Japan's unconditional surrender and to
strip Japan of all territory it had gained since WW I.
Iran
FDR, Stalin, and Churchill (“the big three”) agreed to a second front in the
west to the relieve the Russians within 6 months.
-USSR pledged to enter the war against Japan when Germany was
defeated.
-An international organization for peace was planned (future United
Nations.)
Cairo Conference
Teheran Conference
Nov. 1943
Nov-Dec.
1943
Germans surrender after fierce hand-to-hand fighting and huge casualties
for each side. (Turning point in the war: Germans lose Eastern Front
D-Day Invasion
June 6, 1944
Normandy
coast of
France
-Largest amphibious attack. Led by Eisenhower, over a million troops (the
largest invasion force in history) stormed the beaches at Normandy and
began the process of re-taking France.
-The turning point of World War II.
-Allies use 4600 ships to invade German-held France. Suffering heavy
casualties, the Allies were able to retake Paris in August.
(Fulfills FDR’s obligation to Soviets of creating a second frontal attack on
Germany. This was promised in 1942 & at Tehran.)
G.I. Bill of Rights
1944
USA
Provided education, medical care, job training, unemployment pensions,
compensation, and offered mortgage loans to male and female war
veterans.
Dumbarton Oaks
Conference
1944
Representatives of the US, USSR, UK & China formulated a plan to
create the United Nations (UN):
-Every nation would be represented in the General Assembly.
-5 permanent members (US, USSR, UK, China and France) would be the
7
Security Council (SC), along with temporary delegates from other nations.
-Each major power could veto SC decisions
*These agreements were the basis for the drafting of the UN charter at a
conference of 50 nations in San Francisco in April 1945. The UN charter
is ratified by the US Senate, Aug. 8, 1945.
FDR wins 4th term
Battle of the Bulge
Nov. 1944
December
1944
USA
FrenchGermanBelgian
border
FDR defeats Thomas E. Dewey, Republican Gov. of NY. Dewey received
strong support from labor’s CIO Political Action Committee (PAC). FDR
won on promise to begin postwar planning.
After recapturing France, the Allied advance became stalled along the
German border. In the winter of 1944, Germany staged a massive
counterattack in Belgium and Luxembourg which pushed a 30 mile
"bulge" into the Allied lines. The Germans almost won, but the Allies
stopped the German advance and threw them back across the Rhine with
heavy losses.
Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin met to make final war plans, arrange the
post-war fate of Germany, and discuss the proposal for creation of the
United Nations as a successor to the League of Nations.
-They announced the decision to divide Germany into three post-war
zones of occupation, although a fourth zone was later created for France.
-Russia also agreed to enter the war against Japan, in exchange for the
Kuril Islands and half of the Sakhalin Peninsula. The USSR was given
half of Poland and an occupation zone in Korea.
-The plan for the UN was ratified.
-Stalin gets a lot from this. Sets the stage for future Cold War clashes.
Yalta Conference
Feb. 1945
Tokyo Bombing Raids
March 1945
FDR dies; Truman
becomes President
April 1945
Russians take Berlin
April 1945
Berlin,
Germany
Russians take German capital after house-to-house fighting. Hitler
commits suicide.
V-E Day
May 8, 1945
Europe
V-E Day = Victory in Europe Day
German government issues unconditional surrender to Allied forces. War
in Europe in over.
Okinawa
April to June
Southern tip
The U.S. Army in the Pacific had been pursuing an "island-hopping"
Tokyo, Japan
American bombers destroy 250,000 buildings and kill 83,000 in massive
fire-bombing.
Truman becomes president and must end the war. Learns about the
Manhattan Project.
8
Gen. MacArthur retakes
Philippines
1945
of Japan
campaign, moving north from Australia towards Japan. On April 1, 1945,
they invaded Okinawa, only 300 miles south of the Japanese home
islands. By the time the fighting ended on June 2, 1945, the U.S. had lost
50,000 men and the Japanese 100,000.
July 1945
Philippine
Islands
After Manila's fall to Americans in May, Japanese surrender here after
inflicting 60,000 US casualties.
Allied leaders Truman, Stalin and Churchill (Atlee) met in Germany to set
up zones of control in Europe and to inform the Japanese that if they
refused to surrender unconditionally at once, they would face total
destruction.
Potsdam Conference
July 1945
Hiroshima
August 6,
1945
Japan
U.S. drops “little boy” atomic bomb, secretly dev. during the war via the
Manhattan Project. 180,000 killed, wounded, or missing after atomic
bomb is dropped. 2 days later USSR enters war against Japan.
UN charter ratified
Aug. 8, 1945
USA
Pres. Truman signs the UN charter. US joins UN.
Nagasaki
August 9,
1945
Japan
Second atomic bomb, “fat man,” is dropped after Japanese delay
surrender. 80,000 killed or missing.
V-J Day
August 15,
1945
Tokyo Bay
V-J Day = Victory over Japan Day
The war with Japan ended. On September 2, 1945, Japan signs surrender
papers with one term: the emperor must retain his throne. They are signed
on the battleship Missouri.
Nuremberg War Crime
Trials
1945-1948
Germany &
Japan
International military tribunal tried major war criminals at Nuremberg,
Germany (1945-46) and in Tokyo, Japan (1946-48). In Germany, 12
criminals were sentenced to be hanged; in Japan, 7.
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