Download Timeline #5 Diplomatic Developments, 1919

Timeline #5
Diplomatic Developments, 1919-1945
1918-19
1919
1920
1921
1922
1923
1924
1925
1926
1928
1929
1930
1931
1933
1934
1935
1936
1937
Massive (but Basic) Chronology
Victory of conservative & nationalist parties in elections of principal Allies
Treaty of Versailles signed
American Congress refuses to ratify Versailles Treaty and League Covenant
Conclusion of Franco-Belgian alliance
Outbreak of Russo-Polish war
Conclusion of Franco-Polish alliance
Formation of Little Entente: Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia & Romania
Treaty of Rapallo between Germany & Soviet Russia1
French occupation of the Ruhr region
Introduction of the Dawes Plan
Locarno Agreements (guarantee existing frontiers in western Europe)
Admission of Germany to League of Nations
Briand & Stresemann jointly receive the Nobel Peace Prize
Kellogg-Briand pact (originally between France and US)
Cominterm Congress orders communists to oppose reformist socialists.
French begin construction of Maginot Line
French withdrawal of occupation from Rhineland completed
Japanese invasion of Manchuria
Creation of the Second Spanish Republic
Hitler becomes Chancellor of German Reich (January)
Germany withdraws from the League of Nations (October)
Polish-German non-aggression pact signed
USSR joins the League of Nations
Unsuccessful coup attempt by Austrian Nazis against Dollfuss regime
Cominterm begins to encourage broad opposition to fascism
Hitler reinstitutes draft & announces formation of air force
Pact of mutual assistance between France, USSR, & Czechoslovakia
Creation of Popular Front in France
US Congress passes Neutrality Act: no arms shipments to belligerents.2
Seventh Comintern officially announces new policy on popular fronts
Italian troops invade Ethiopia
Electoral victory of French Popular Front
Hitler remilitarizes the Rhineland (March)
Italian King Victor Emmanuel III declared emperor of Ethiopia
Anti-fascist Popular Front coalition gains electoral victory in Spain
Conservative generals initiate Spanish Civil War (July)
Mussolini and Hitler form the Rome-Berlin Axis (Nov.)
German Condor Legion air units bomb Basque market town of Guernica
1 Weimar Germany was thus in effect the first country to recognize Soviet Russia on a formal diplomatic level.
2 Neutrality Act reflected isolationist sentiment in US–that is, the desire to avoid any kind of association that might
draw the US into war.
Month-by-Month!
1938
March
Sept
Hitler invades Austria, thus creating a greater Germany (the Anschluss)
Munich conference grants Sudetenland to Germany
1939
March
Germany occupies remainder of Czechoslovakia.3
Britain offers unilateral guarantee of security to Poland
Conservative insurgents capture Madrid, ending Spanish Civil War
Soviets propose Anglo-Soviet-French triple alliance against Germany
Italians invade & occupy Albania
Germany annexes Memel (Klaipeda) area from Lithuania
Britain & France guarantee Romania's independence
Soviet negotiations with France and Britain stall
USSR signs non-aggression pact with Nazi Germany
German invasion of Poland precipitates the Second World War (1 Sept)
Soviet occupation of eastern Poland (17 Sept)
Second Nazi-Soviet Pact: German-Soviet Boundary & Friendship Treaty.4
German decree subjects Poles to "compulsory public labor"
Soviet invasion of Finland initiates the "Winter War"
US Congress authorizes revision of Neutrality Act (see 1935).5
April
Aug
Sept
Oct
Nov
1940
March
April
May
June
Aug
Sept
Oct
Dec
Finnish surrender to Soviets at Vyborg after considerable resistance
German invasion and occupation of Denmark & Norway
Germans launch attack against France, enter Paris in June
Evacuation of British & French forces from Dunkirk
Incorporation of Baltic states into USSR, as well as Bessarabia & Bukovina
Germans begin bombing Britain, initiating "Battle of Britain" (until Nov)
Romania cedes part of Transylvania to Hungary, South Dobruja to Bulgaria
Italy, Germany and Japan sign Tripartite Pact to coordinate military efforts.6
Pact of Mutual Assistance between USSR & Estonia
Pacts of Mutual Assistance between USSR, Latvia & Lithuania
German troops stationed in now pro-Nazi Romania to protect oil fields
Unsuccessful Italian invasion of Greece
Danubian conference: conflict over predominance in Rumania
Hitler issues orders for preparation of Operation Barbarossa (against USSR)
3 Slovakia thus became an independent country (of sorts), though it was forced to cede southern & eastern territories
to Hungary.
4 This was a follow-up pact after Poland had been occupied from both sides. Lithuania was reassigned to Soviet
sphere (it had been under German sphere by August pact), while a portion of Soviet-occupied Poland was assigned
to Germany. In effect, border between Germany & the USSR now coincided with boundary between predominantly
Polish regions and predominantly non-Polish (Ukrainian & Belarusian) ones.
5 By this revision, US would sell arms, but only for cash and only if the purchaser transported them.
6 Eventually almost all the states of eastern Europe join the Tripartite Pact, thus formally becoming Axis states:
Slovakia, Hungary & Romania joined by the end of 1940; Bulgarian & Yugoslavia technically become Axis states
by March, 1941.
1941
March
April
(End)
US Lend-Lease Act vastly broadens US ability to provide material aid
German invasion of the Balkans (Yugoslavia & Greece) to bail out Mussolini
USSR signs pact of neutrality with Japan
German invasion of USSR
Atlantic Charter between Roosevelt & Churchill.7
First Soviet counteroffensive recaptures Rostov-on-the-Don
Soviet General Zhukov counterattacks against Germans just outside Moscow
Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor brings US into war
Permanent killing centers established for Jews & other "subhumans"
1942
Jan
Nov
Nov
Roosevelt & Churchill discuss military planning, decide on North Africa
Germans reach Stalingrad, initiating Battle of Stalingrad
Allied landing in North Africa against Rommel (Operation TORCH)
1943
Jan
Feb
April
May
July
Nov
Roosevelt & Churchill decide on Italian campaign at Casablanca conference
German forces, under Field Marshal Paulus, surrender at Stalingrad
Uprising in the Warsaw ghetto (about 50,000 Jews killed)
Stalin dissolves Comintern as good-will gesture towards allies
Allied invasion of Italy; Hitler rushes to reinforce Italians
Soviet victory over Nazis at massive tank battle at Kursk (USSR)
Teheran Conference: Stalin, Roosevelt, & Churchill meet together for 1st time
1944
June
Sept
Dec
Allies open second front in West with D-Day invasion of Normandy
Soviet troops begin advance into Yugoslavia and Hungary
German counterattack leads to Battle of the Bulge
1945
Feb
May
Conference of Big Three at Yalta
Unconditional German surrender to Allied forces in West & East
June
Aug
Nov
Dec
7 The Charter spelled out ultimate aims of US and Britain: to seek no territory for themselves; to create a world in
which people could choose their own form of government; to seek the "final destruction of Nazi tyranny."