Download [HIS 212] The twentieth century: Some basic events

[HIS 212] The twentieth century: Some basic events
International relations: war and
peace
Dictatorship, Communism and
Fascism
Other issues
1914: outbreak of First World War
1917: USA enters war
1917: Russian Revolution:
Bolsheviks (Communists) take
power in Russia
1918: Russia loses to Germany but
Germany then loses in west; end of
First World War
1919: Paris Peace settlement
1918–c.1920: Russian Civil War
1922: Fascists take power in Italy
(full power 1925); Mussolini =
dictator
1922: Irish independence
1924: death of Lenin
1925: Locarno Treaty
1925–6: Stalin emerges as Soviet
leader
1929: Soviet collectivization begins 1929: Depression: Wall Street Crash
1931: Depression: collapse of
Creditanstalt; banking crisis
1932–3: famine in Ukraine
[1932 F. D. Roosevelt elected U.S.
President]
1933: Nazis take power in Germany;
Hitler = dictator
1930s: Soviet Terror
1935–36: Italy invades Ethiopia
(Abyssinian War)
c. 1933: establishment of
authoritarian Estado Novo in
Portugal under Salazar
1938: Munich conference: Britain
and France abandon Czechoslovakia
1936–39: Spanish Civil War; won
by fascist-supported Franco
1936–38: Popular Front government in
France
1939: outbreak of Second World
War: Germany versus Britain and
France
1940: Germany conquers western
Europe except Britain
1940: France: Vichy government
formed, accepting defeat
c. 1940–45: Nazi Holocaust
1940: Churchill coalition formed in
Britain
1945: end of Nazi regime
1945: election of Labour government
in Britain
1947–51: Marshall Plan assists
European recovery
1941: June: Germany attacks Soviet
Union;
Dec: USA enters war
1945: Germany defeated—end of
Second World War in Europe;
invention and use of atomic bomb
by USA against Japan
c. 1947: start of Cold War
1949: Soviet Union tests atomic
bomb; nuclear stalemate between
superpowers; NATO established;
[1949 Communists win Chinese
Civil War]
[1950; Korean War starts]
1952: Britain tests atomic bomb
1953: death of Stalin;
Khrushchev becomes Soviet leader
1956: Hungarian revolt
1958: European Economic
Community established
1958: collapse of 4th Republic in
France; Gen. de Gaulle empowered to
refound Republic; establishes 5th
Republic and is elected President
[1960s: decolonization]
1960s: social liberalization in western
Europe
1960: France tests atomic bomb
[1962: Cuban missile crisis]
1964 Khrushchev deposed;
Brezhnev becomes Soviet leader
1968: attempt to reform communism
in Czechoslovakia (Prague Spring)
1967–1974: Colonels’ regime in
Greece
1970s: détente
1968: Student revolt in Paris
1970s: Left-wing terrorism in western
Europe
1974: Coup in Portugal overthrows
Estado Novo
1973: End of post-war boom
1975: Franco dies; succeeded by
King Juan Carlos, who begins to
move Spain to democracy
Early 1980s: new Cold War
1979: Election of Conservative
government under Thatcher in Britain
1980–81: Solidarity movement in
Poland
1982: Brezhnev dies, Andropov
becomes Soviet leader
1984: Andropov dies; Chernenko
becomes Soviet leader
1985: Chernenko dies;
Gorbachev becomes Soviet leader &
begins reforms
1988–89: end of Cold War
1989: revolutions in Eastern Europe
overthrow Communist regimes
1989: Congress of People’s
Deputies meets in Soviet Union
1991: Yeltsin elected president of
Russia; failed Soviet coup;
collapse of Soviet Union
1990: Germany re-unified;
1993: EEC becomes European Union
1991–2001: Yugoslav wars
1999: Vladimir Putin becomes
President of Russia
[2001: Sept. 11th attacks in USA]