Major Events

World War I

1914 - 1918

League of Nations

1919 - 1945

Joined Countries:
France: 1919- 1945
Britain: 1919-1945
Italy: 1919- 1937
Japan: 1919-1933
Germany: 1926-1933
USSR: 1934- 1939

Treaty of Versailles

28 June 1919

With Germany
-Had to take the blame for starting the war
- Had to pay £6,600,000,000 to the Allies for the damage caused
- Germany lost territories: Saarland, Rhineland, Baltic States,etc.
- Army was limited to 100,00 men, had to be volunteers; no conscription, no armored vehicles, submarines or aircraft, only six navy battleships Rhineland demilaterized

Treaty of Saint-Germain

10 September 1919

With Austria
-Separated Austria from Hungary
-Land lost: Bohemia and Moravia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, and Galicia

Treaty of Neuilly

27 November 1919

With Bulgaria
- Lost land to Greece, Romania, and Yugoslavia
-Limit armed forces to 20,000
- Had to pay £100,000,000

Upper Silesia

20 March 1920

Boarder between Germany and Poland. Plebiscite organized for which country they wanted to join.

The League divided the region so Industrial areas went to Germany and Rural areas went to Poland.
Accepted by both countries

Treaty of Trianon

4 June 1920

With Hungary
- Lost land: Transylvania, Slovakia, Ruthenia, Slovenia, Croatia

Treaty of Severes

10 August 1920

With Turkey
- Lost land: Smyrna, Syria, the straits into the Black Sea


24 August 1920

Polish army took control of the Lithuanian capital

The League did nothing.

Aaland Islands

20 October 1921

Sweden and Finland wanted control of Aaland islands. Threat of fighting.
The League said the islands should go to Finland. Sweden accepted to ruling.

Treaty of Lausanne

24 July 1923

Revision of Treaty of Sevres
With Turkey
- Returned Smyrna to Turkey


27 September 1923

Italy and Greece conflict. Italy occupied Greek islands of Corfu; 15 people killed.
The League insisted that Mussolini withdraw from Greece. Terms accepted.

Geneva Protocol

2 October 1924

Stating that
" if two members of the League were in dispute they would have to ask the League to sort out the disagreement and they would have to accept the Council's decision."

The Protocol was meant to strengthen the League but instead it weakened it.

Locarno Treaties

October 1925

Rhineland Pact
- Germany finally accepted the boarders with France and Belgium
-Germany accepted that the Rhineland would remain a demilitarized zone
- France and Germany agreed to settle any future disputes through the League of Nations


14 December 1925

Greek troops invaded Bulgaria after a dispute at the border.

The League ordered Greece to pull out . Greece obeyed.

Greece thought that the League had one rule for large states (like Italy) and another for the smaller states (like themselves)

The Kellog-Briand Pact

27 August 1928

No War for 5 Years

US Stock Market Crash


The Great Depression

1929 - 1941



Japan attacks China

The League did little to help Manchuria. Japan remained and left the League in 1933


1933 - 1939

Hitler began increasing Germany’s military by huge percents\


Warships- 1932: 30 ships
1939: 95 ships

Aircraft- 1932: 36 planes
1939: 8,250 planes

Soldiers- 1932: 100,000 people
1939: 950,000 people



Italy attacks Ethiopia

The League attempted to stop Italy with economic sanctions. These did not include a ban on the sale of oil and they failed.

After this the League of Nations was not taken seriously as a peace-keeping organization.

The Saar plebiscite



90% of the population voted to return to German rule

Big morale booster for Hitler

The Anti- Comintern Pact

1936 - 1937

Germany and Japan signed it in 1936
Italy signed in 1937


now called the Axis alliance

Spanish Civil War

1936 - 1939

Between Nationalists (Fascists) and Republicans (Communists and Socialists)

The League of Nations looked on helplessly

Re-occupation of the Rhineland

March 1936

Germany re-occupied

France refused to act without British support and so Hitler’s gamble paid off.



-German speaking section of Czechoslovakia
Hitler wanted to take over the Sudetenland

They didn’t consult the Czechs nor did they consult the USSR.


March 1938

The annexation of Austria into Germany

99.75% voted for Anschluss while under the watch of Nazis

The Czech Crisis

15 March 1939

They did not trust Hitler after the Munich Agreement
In 1939, Germany troops took over the rest of the country

The Pact of Steel

May 1939

Between Italy and Germany

The Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact

August 1939

Between Russia (Ribbentrop) and Germany (Molotov)

- agreed not to attack one another
- agreed to divide Poland between them
- Germany was to invade from the West
- USSR was to invade from the East

End of Appeasement

1 September 1939


On September 3rd Britain and France declared war on Germany

Pros- Britain and other Allied countries were not ready for war

Cons- It encouraged Hitler to continue invading Germany’s land lost by the Treaty of Versailles

World War II

3 September 1939 - 2 September 1945

United Nations

1945 - Present

Yalta Conference

February 1945

Between Allied Leaders (Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin)
-Stalin agreed to enter the war against Japan once Germany surrendered.

Germany would be divided into to four zones:
American, French, British, and Soviet Union
Berlin would also be divided into the same four zones
The Big Three agreed to hunt down and punish war criminals
The Big Three were to join the new UN
The Eastern-Bloc would be allowed to hold free-elections
The Big Three agreed that easter Europe should be seen as ‘a Soviet sphere of influence’
The main disagreement was about Poland:
USSR wanted Poland to move its border into German territory.
Churchill and Roosevelt agreed with this as long as Stalin didn’t interfere with the British preventing the spread of Communism in Greece.

Potsdam Conference

July 1945 - August 1945

Between Allied leaders (Churchill/Attlee, Truman, and Stalin)
Mostly between Stalin and Truman because Britain was in the middle of a new election.

Disagreed about:

Over what to do about Germany:
Stalin wanted to cripple Germany
Truman didn’t want to repeat the mistake of the Treaty of Versailles
They disagreed over reparations:
Stalin wanted compensation for the 20 million Russians lost in the war.
Truman again didn’t want to repeat the Treaty of Versailles.
They disagreed over Soviet policy in eastern Europe
At the Yalta conference, it was agreed that Stalin could set up pro-Soviet governments in eastern Europe.
Because of this Truman adopted a ‘get tough’ attitude towards Stalin.

US Leaders

US: Woodrow Wilson

1913 - 1921

- World Peace
- The Fourteen Points:
1) No secret treaties
2) Free access to the seas in peacetime or wartime
3) Free trade between countries
4) All countries to work towards disarmament
5) Colonies to have a say in their own future
6) German troops to leave Russia
7) Independence for Belgium
8) France to regain Alsace-Lorraine
9) Frontier between Austria and Italy to be adjusted
10)Self-determination for the peoples of Eastern Europe
11) Serbia to access to the sea
12) Self-determination for the people in the Turkish Empire
13) Poland to become an independent state with access to the sea
14) League of Nations to be set up

US: Warren Harding

1921 - 1923

US: Calvin Coolidge

1923 - 1929

US: Herbert Hoover

1929 - 1933

US: Franklin D. Roosevelt

1933 - April 1945

US: Harry Truman

April 1945 - 1953

US: Dwight D Eisenhower

1953 - 1961

US: John F. Kennedy

1961 - 1963

US: Lyndon B. Johnson

1963 - 1969

US: Richard Nixon

1969 - 1974

UK Leaders

UK: David Lloyd George

1916 - 1922

- Wanted Germany to not be harshly punished
- Wanted Germany to lose its Navy
- Wanted Germany to lose its colonies
-Wanted Britain and Germany to begin trading again

UK: Neville Chamberlain

1937 - 1940

UK: Winston Churchill

1940 - 1945

UK: Clement Atlee

1945 - 1951

Russian Leaders

Russia: Joseph Stalin

1922 - 1952

German Leaders

Germany: Adolf Hitler

1934 - 1945

- Wanted to abolish the Treaty of Versailles
- Expand German territory
- Defeat Communism

Other Important Leaders

France: Georges Clemenceau

1917 - 1920

- Wanted to cripple Germany
-Wanted Germany to be broken into smaller states

Italy: Benito Mussolini

1922 - 1943