Events Preceding World War II in Asia

Japanese Imperial Army soldiers during the Battle of Shanghai, 1937.

 Kuomintang and Communism in China

The revolution led by the Kuomintang (KMT, or Chinese Nationalist Party) and others ended the last Chinese dynasty, the Qing Dynasty, which was replaced by a republic, the Republic of China, in 1912. Prior to World War I, however, the ROC central government failed to effectively rule its territory. China fell into a fragmented region of local warlords. Other than the warlord-controlled central government, two primary forces aimed to unite China under their ideology. The KMT was reorganized in 1919, and the Communist Party of China was formed in 1921. The two parties were not immediate enemies and had short-term partnership. In 1924, KMT started a military campaign to defeat the northern warlords. In 1927, with much of southern and central China under the KMT control, the KMT openly turned on the CPC. The KMT took most parts of China under its power in 1928, and the warlord controlling Manchuria agreed to KMT leadership of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek.

 Noteworthy Events

The following events played a significant role in setting the stage for the involvement of Asia and the Pacific in World War II:

1839: First Opium War in China against the west, forcing China to import British opium. Britain won the war and as a result gained control over Hong Kong.

1853: American Commodore Matthew Perry arrives in Tokyo harbor and forces Japanese to allow trade with American merchants with threat of military action.

1856: Outbreak of the Second Opium War or the Arrow War in China. Resulting Treaties of Tianjin at 1858, Treaty of Aigun, etc., Unequal Treaties and also burning, looting of the Old Summer Palace and New Summer Palace. "Beyond any doubt, by 1860 the ancient civilization that was China had been thoroughly defeated and humiliated by the West."

1858: Western nations force Japan to sign the Unequal Treaties. These articles established export and import tariffs and the concept of "extraterritoriality" (i.e. Japan held no jurisdiction over foreign criminals in its land. Their trials were to be conducted by foreign judges under their own nation's laws). Japan had no power to change these terms.

1868: Japan, in an effort to modernize and prevent future Western dominance, ousts the Tokugawa Shogunate and adopts a new Meiji Emperor. The next few decades see arguably the most rapid and successful industrialization of any economy in world history during the Meiji Restoration.

1894–1895: The First Sino-Japanese War ends in Japanese victory, results in Japanese dominance in Korea and Japanese control of Liaodong Peninsula (later returned to China for payment), Taiwan and Penghu Islands. Balance of power in Asia permanently altered.

1899: With newly gained power from recent industrialization, Japan successfully renegotiates aspects of the Unequal Treaties.

1899–1901: The Boxer Rebellion led China to a humiliating defeat by the Eight-Nation Alliance of Western powers including the United States and Japan, ceding more territory, and dealing one of the final blows to the struggling Qing Dynasty.

1904–1905: The Russo-Japanese War begins with a surprise attack and ends by an eventual Japanese victory over Imperial Russia. Japanese control over Korea until World War II is assured.

1910: Empire of Japan annexes Korea.

Republic of China Era

1911: The Chinese Revolution overthrows the Manchu Qing Dynasty and establishes the Republic of China. Warlord factions, however, continue to fight for personal gains, resulting in near-constant warfare as the Chinese Nationalists struggle to gain international recognition and support while bringing peace to volatile regions of China.

1914: During World War I Japan and other Allies seize German colonial possessions.

1919: The May Fourth Movement erupts in Beijing to protest to the Chinese government's weak response to the Treaty of Versailles. Japan, as a member of the victorious Allies during World War I, gains a mandate over various Pacific islands previously part of the German colonial empire. The primary island chains are the Marshall Islands, Marianas, the Carolines, and Truk Lagoon. Japan joins the League of Nations.

1921: Foundation of the Communist Party of China.

1922: The Washington Naval Treaty is signed, limiting the fleets and vessels of the navies of the United States, United Kingdom, Japan, France, and Italy. Japan is limited to about two-thirds of the fleet allowed for the United States and Britain. This is seen in Japan as a denial of Japanese equality amongst European powers.

1924: Vladimir Ilyich Lenin dies in Moscow. After internal political intrigues, primarily against Leon Trotsky, Joseph Stalin takes power a year later. The first congress of the Kuomintang under Sun Yat-Sen is held.

1925: Dr. Sun Yat-sen dies in Beijing. After internal political intrigues, primarily against Wang Jingwei, Chiang Kai-shek takes over the leadership of the KMT

1927: Open conflict between the CCP and KMT commences.

1929: The Sino-Soviet conflict over the Manchurian Chinese Eastern Railway demonstrated the military weakness of the Republic of China (KMT). Later the Soviet Union sell its stocks to the Manchukuo government.

1930: The London Naval Treaty is signed, putting a halt to battleship production until 1937. Limitations on submarines and other surface combatants are also made.

World War II in Asia

1931–37: Japan Vs. China

September 18, 1931: Mukden Incident, known as the "9.18 Incident": Japanese agents blow up part of the Japanese owned South Manchurian Railroad at Mukden in northeastern China, and label it sabotage by Chinese forces. Using the incident as a pretext, the Japanese invasion of Manchuria is launched. Within six months the occupation of Manchuria is complete.

January 28, 1932: The January 28 Incident: fighting erupts between Chinese boycotters and Japanese troops protecting the Japanese section of Shanghai. The Japanese dispatch a naval invasion force in an attempt to capture Shanghai. However, the invasion ended in a stalemate. United Kingdom and United States broker a cease-fire between China and Japan three months after the hostilities begin.

February 1932: Manchukuo is announced as an independent nation, in reality a Japanese puppet government for Manchuria. It encompassed the three northeastern Chinese provinces occupied by Japan since the "9.18 Incident." Japanese control remains direct however, and Japanese owned interests gain considerable power. Additionally, the opium trade is encouraged. Manchukuo was not recognized by the League of Nations and Japan subsequently withdraws from the organization.

May 15, 1932 incident: Japanese Prime Minister Inukai Tsuyoshi assassinated by a group of young officers for his support of the London Naval Treaty, which is seen in Japan as preventing parity of forces.

January 1934: The Soviet Union invades the Republic of China in the Soviet Invasion of Xinjiang.

October 1934 – November 1935: The Chinese Communists led by Mao Zedong conduct the Long March, retreating from Kiangsi to Yan'an in Shensi.

December 29, 1934: Japan abrogates the Washington Naval Treaty.

December 1935: Large-scale anti-Japanese riots take place in Beijing.

February 1936 - February 26 Incident: Japanese junior officers coup attempt.

November 1936: Japan joins Germany in signing the Anti-Comintern Pact, concluded to provide a two-front threat to the Soviet Union. Japan is however not interested in being drawn into a European war, and thus the pact is not a true alliance.

December 25, 1936: Xi'an Incident: Arrest of Chiang Kai-shek by Zhang Xueliang leads to Second United Front alignment against Japan.

July 7, 1937: Marco Polo Bridge Incident. Japanese forces conducting military exercises outside Peking claimed that several Japanese soldiers were not accounted for after the exercise. Japanese launch an all-out assault. Nanking government declares its intent to resist Japan, marking the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War. (Note: For political reasons, war was not declared by either side at this point. The Chinese declaration of war came on December 8, 1941).

1937-39: The War Expands

August–October 1937: Soviet Union invades Republic of China in the Xinjiang War (1937)

August–November 1937: Full scale fighting erupts throughout northern China, and Japan overcomes initial failures with landings and reinforcements in Shanghai. Before the Battle of Shanghai, the Tokyo government announced that Japan would complete the conquest of Shanghai in three days, and all of China within three months. KMT troops held Shanghai for over three months.

December 1937: Nanking captured and subjected to months of rampage. The Rape of Nanking resulted in the deaths of up to 300,000 Chinese civilians. This is in line with the Three Alls Policy: kill all, burn all, loot all.

April 1938: Chinese Nationalists gain a major victory over Japanese forces in Shantung province.

June 1938: The Japanese advance along the Yellow River is halted by the breaking of dams by the Chinese. The surprise flood kills many Japanese but also as many as 1,000,000 civilians.

July 1938: Japanese forces provoke a battle with the Soviets at Lake Hassan in Manchukuo. The Soviets handily defeat the Japanese.

October 1938: The Japanese Central China Army captures Hankow, ending their advance up the Yangtze River. Landings near Hong Kong capture Canton, cutting off of the Chinese Nationalists from ocean ports.

November 1938: The New Order for East Asia is declared by Japan. This declaration of Japanese plans for dominance of East Asia further deteriorates their relations with western nations.

February 1939: Japan captures Hainan Island, which is seen to have strategic implications by the British.

May–September 1939: Japan and the Soviet Union engage in border clashes around the Khalka River in Mongolia, culminating in the Battles of Khalkhin Gol. Crushing defeats lead the Strike South Group to avoid conflict against the powerful Soviet Army, preferring to confront the United States instead.

July 1939: The United States announces its withdrawal from its commercial treaty with Japan.

The Conquest of Southeast Asia and the Road to Pearl Harbor

September 1940: Japan invades French Indochina.

April 1941: American volunteer pilots secretly recruited in U.S. Their first actual combat will be in December 1941 in Burma where they will begin to wreak havoc upon Japanese forces and will soon be named the Flying Tigers.

June 22, 1941: Germany invades the Soviet Union in what became known as Operation Barbarossa.

August 1941: The United States, which at the time supplied 80% of Japanese oil imports, initiates a complete oil embargo. This threatens to cripple both the Japanese economy and military strength once the strategic reserves run dry, unless alternative oil-sources can be found.

December 7, 1941: Japan invades Malaya and attacks Pearl Harbor. The United States, the Republic of China, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom formally declare war on Japan the next day.

Japanese warships repel a Chinese air raid in Shanghai harbor in 1937.

 

First pictures of the Japanese occupation of Peiping (Beijing) in China, on August 13, 1937. Under the banner of the rising sun, Japanese troops are shown passing from the Chinese City of Peiping into the Tartar City through Chen-men, the main gate leading onward to the palaces in the Forbidden City. Just a stone's throw away is the American Embassy, where American residents of Peiping flocked when Sino-Japanese hostilities were at their worst.

 

Japanese troops in street battle in Tientsin, China, July 1937.

  

A Japanese soldier stands guard over part of the captured Great Wall of China in 1937, during the Second Sino-Japanese War. The Empire of Japan and the Republic of China had been at war intermittently since 1931, but the conflict escalated in 1937.

 

Japanese troops atrocities.

 

A Japanese Yokosuka B3Y1 light bomber dropping its payload on the city of Shanghai, 1937.

 

Japanese soldiers involved in street fighting in Shanghai, China in 1937. The battle of Shanghai lasted from August through November of 1937, eventually involving nearly one million troops. In the end, Shanghai fell to the Japanese, after over 150,000 casualties combined.

 

Japanese soldiers execute captured Chinese soldiers with bayonets in a trench as other Japanese soldiers watch from rim.

 

Chinese General Chiang Kai-shek, right, head of the Nanking government at Canton, with General Lung Yun, chairman of the Yunan provincial government in Nanking, on June 27, 1936.

 

On February 5, 1938, A Chinese woman surveys the remains of her family, all of whom met death during Japanese occupation of Nanking, allegedly victims of atrocities at the hands of Japanese soldiers.

 

Buddhist priests of the Big Asakusa Temple prepare for the Second Sino-Japanese War as they wear gas masks during training against future aerial attacks in Tokyo, Japan, on May 30, 1936.

 

Japanese soldiers patrolling a railway line in China, September 1, 1937.

 

Timeline of Events Preceding World War II

1918

October 29: Start of the German Revolution.

November 11: The Armistice with Germany marks the end of World War I. German troops evacuate occupied territories and Allied troops subsequently move in and occupy the German Rhineland.

December 27: Start of the Greater Poland Uprising against German rule.

1919

January 4-15: The Spartacist uprising takes place and is crushed by the German government, marking the end of the German Revolution.

January 18: Opening of the Paris Peace Conference to negotiate peace treaties between the belligerents of World War I.

February: The Polish–Soviet War begins with border clashes between the two states.

March 2: Foundation of the Third International, or Comintern in Moscow. Comintern's stated aim is to create a global Soviet republic.

March 12: The Austrian Constituent National Assembly demands Austria's integration to Germany.

May 15: The Turkish War of Independence begins as Greek troops land in Smyrna.

June 28: Germany and the Allied powers sign the Treaty of Versailles after six months of negotiations. The German armed forces are limited in size to 100,000 personnel and Germany is ordered to pay large reparations for war damages. The United States signed the treaty but did not ratify it, later making a separate peace treaty with Germany.

September 10: German Austria signs the Treaty of Saint-Germain. The peace treaty with the Allies regulates the borders of Austria, forbids union with Germany and German Austria has to change its name to Austria. The United States did not ratify the treaty and later makes a separate peace treaty with Austria.

November 27: Bulgaria signs the Treaty of Neuilly-sur-Seine. The peace treaty with the Allies regulates the borders of Bulgaria, the Bulgarian army is reduced to 20,000 men and Bulgaria is ordered to pay war reparations.

1920

January 10: Creation of the Free City of Danzig which was neither approved by Germany nor Poland.

January 21: The Paris Peace Conference comes to an end with the inaugural General Assembly of the League of Nations. Although one of the victors of World War I, the United States never joins the League.

March: The failed Kapp Putsch takes place against the German government. The German military remains passive and the putsch is defeated by a general strike. The German Ruhr Uprising, spurred by the general strike against the Kapp Putsch, is crushed by the German military

June 4: Hungary signs the Treaty of Trianon with the Allied powers. The treaty regulated the status of an independent Hungarian state and defined its borders. The United States did not ratify the treaty and later makes a separate peace treaty with Hungary.

August 10: Turkey signs the Treaty of Sèvres with the Allied powers (except he U.S. that never declared war on Turkey). The treaty partitions the Ottoman Empire and the Turkish armed forces are reduced in size. Greece did not accept the borders as drawn up in the treaty and did not sign it. The Treaty of Sèvres was annulled in the course of the Turkish War of Independence and the parties signed and ratified the superseding Treaty of Lausanne in 1923.

October: Żeligowski's Mutiny, a Polish force led by General Lucjan Żeligowski capture Vilnius, officially without support from the Polish state.

1921

March: The Polish–Soviet War ends with the Peace of Riga.

August 25: The U.S.–German Peace Treaty and the U.S.–Austrian Peace Treaty are signed, marking the formal end of the state of war between the two states and the United States instead of the Treaty of Versailles and the Treaty of Saint-Germain that were not ratified by the United States.

August 29: The U.S.–Hungarian Peace Treaty is signed, marking the formal end of the state of war between the two states instead of the Treaty of Trianon that was not ratified by the United States.

1922

February 6: The Washington Naval Conference ends with the signing of the Washington Naval Treaty by the United Kingdom, the United States, Japan, France, and Italy. The signing parties agree to limit the size of their naval forces.

April 16: Germany and the Soviet Union sign the Treaty of Rapallo, re-establishing diplomatic relations, renouncing financial claims on each other and pledge future cooperation.

October: The Russian Civil War (ongoing since 7 November 1917) ends in Bolshevik victory with the defeat of the last White forces in Siberia.

October 29: Fascist leader Benito Mussolini is appointed prime minister of Italy by king Victor Emmanuel III after the March on Rome.

November 1: The Grand National Assembly of Turkey abolishes the Ottoman Sultanate.

1923

January 11: France and Belgium occupy the Ruhr in an effort to compel Germany to step up its payments of war reparations.

July 24: The Treaty of Lausanne, settling the boundaries of modern Turkey, is signed in Switzerland by Turkey and the Entente powers. It marks the end of the Turkish War of Independence and replaces the earlier Treaty of Sèvres.

August 31: The Corfu incident: Italy bombards and occupies the Greek island of Corfu seeking to pressure Greece to pay reparations for the murder of an Italian general in Greece.

September 27: The Corfu incident ends; Italian troops withdraw after the Conference of Ambassadors rules in favor of Italian demands of reparations from Greece.

October 29: Turkey officially becomes a Republic following the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire.

November 8: The Beer Hall Putsch takes place, in which Adolf Hitler unsuccessfully leads the Nazis in an attempt to overthrow the German government. It is crushed by police the next day.

1924

January 21: Leader of the Soviet Union Vladimir Lenin dies, and Joseph Stalin begins purging rivals to clear the way for his leadership.

February 1: The United Kingdom extends diplomatic recognition to the Soviet Union.

April 1: Adolf Hitler is sentenced to 5 years in jail for his participation in the Beer Hall Putsch (he serves only 8 months).

April 6: Fascists win elections in Italy with a two-thirds majority.

June 10: Italian Fascists kidnap and kill socialist leader Giacomo Matteotti in Rome.

August 16: The Dawes Plan is accepted. It ends the Allied occupation of the Ruhr and sets a staggered payment plan for Germany's payment of war reparations.

August 18: France begins withdrawing its troops from the Ruhr in Germany.

1925

July 18: Adolf Hitler's autobiographical manifesto Mein Kampf is published.

December 1: The Locarno Treaties are signed in London (they are ratified 14 September 1926). The treaties settle the borders of western Europe and normalize relations between Germany and the Allied powers of western Europe.

1926

January 3: Theodoros Pangalos declares himself dictator of Greece.

January 31: British and Belgian troops leave Cologne, Germany.

April 4: Greek dictator Theodoros Pangalos is elected president.

April 24: The Treaty of Berlin is signed by Germany and the Soviet Union, which declares neutrality if either country is attacked within the next five years.

May 25: Ukrainian nationalist leader Symon Petliura is assassinated by Russian Jew Sholom Schwartzbard in Paris.

September 8: Germany joins the League of Nations.

December 25: Emperor Taishō dies and his son Hirohito becomes the Emperor of Japan.

1927

April 12: The Chinese Civil War begins between nationalists and communists.

May 20: Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom sign the Treaty of Jeddah.

June 7: Peter Voikov, Soviet ambassador to Warsaw, is assassinated by a White movement activist.

November 12: Leon Trotsky is expelled from the Soviet Communist Party, leaving Joseph Stalin with undisputed control of the Soviet Union.

December 14: Iraq gains independence from the United Kingdom.

1928

May 3: The Jinan Incident begins, a limited armed conflict between the Republic of China and Japan.

June 4: Huanggutun Incident: Japanese agents assassinate the Chinese warlord Zhang Zuolin.

August 2: Italy and Ethiopia sign the Italo-Ethiopian Treaty, pledging cooperation and friendship.

August 27: The Kellogg-Briand Pact is signed in Paris by the major powers of the world. The treaty outlaws aggressive warfare.

October 1: The Soviet Union launches the First Five-Year Plan, an economic effort to increase industrialization.

1929

February 9: Litvinov's Pact is signed in Moscow by the Soviet Union, Poland, Estonia, Romania and Latvia. The Pact outlaws aggressive warfare along the lines of the Kellogg-Briand Pact.

February 11: Italy and the Holy See sign the Lateran Treaty, normalizing relations between the Vatican and Italy.

March 28: Japan withdraws troops from China, ending the Jinan Incident.

April 3: Persia signs Litvinov's Pact.

June 7: The Lateran Treaty is ratified, making the Vatican City a sovereign state.

July 24: The Kellogg-Briand Pact goes into effect.

August 31: The Young Plan, which sets the total World War I reparations owed by Germany at U.S.$26,350,000,000 to be paid over a period of 58½ years, is finalized. It replaces the earlier Dawes Plan.

October 29: The Great Depression begins with the Wall Street Crash.

1930

April 22: The United Kingdom, United States, France, Italy and Japan sign the London Naval Treaty regulating submarine warfare and limiting naval shipbuilding.

June 30: France withdraws its remaining troops from the Rhineland ending the occupation of the Rhineland.

1931

September 18: Mukden Incident: the Japanese stage a false flag bombing against a Japanese-owned railroad in the Chinese region of Manchuria, blaming Chinese dissidents for the attack.

September 19: Using the Mukden Incident as a pretext, the Japanese invade Manchuria.

1932

The Soviet famine of 1932–33 begins, caused in part by the collectivization of agriculture of the First Five-Year Plan.

January 7: The Stimson Doctrine is proclaimed by United States Secretary of State Henry L. Stimson in response to Japan invading Manchuria. The Doctrine holds that the United States government will not recognize border changes that are made by force.

January 28: January 28 Incident: using a flare-up of anti-Japanese violence as a pretext, the Japanese attack Shanghai, China. Fighting ends on March 6, and on May 5 a ceasefire agreement is signed wherein Shanghai is made a demilitarized zone.

February 27: Fighting between China and Japan in Manchuria ends with Japan in control of Manchuria.

March 1: Japan creates the puppet state Manchukuo out of occupied Manchuria.

April 10: Paul von Hindenburg is reelected President of Germany, defeating Adolf Hitler in a run-off.

May 30: Chancellor of Germany Heinrich Brüning resigns. President von Hindenburg asks Franz von Papen to form a new government.

August 30: Hermann Göring is elected chairman of the German Senate.

November 21: Paul von Hindenburg begins talking to Adolf Hitler about forming a new government.

December 3: von Hindenburg names Kurt von Schleicher Chancellor of Germany.

1933

January 1: Defense of the Great Wall: Japan attacks the fortified eastern end of the Great Wall of China in Rehe Province in Inner Mongolia.

January 30: Nazi leader Adolf Hitler is appointed Chancellor of Germany by President Paul von Hindenburg.

February 27: Germany's parliament building the Reichstag is set on fire.

February 28: The Reichstag Fire Decree is passed, nullifying many German civil liberties.

March 4: Franklin Delano Roosevelt is inaugurated as President of the United States.

March 20: Germany's first concentration camp, Dachau, is completed.

March 23: The Reichstag passes the Enabling Act, making Adolf Hitler dictator of Germany.

March 27: Japan leaves the League of Nations over the League of Nations' Lytton Report that found that Manchuria belongs to China and that Manchukuo was not a truly independent state.

April 1: Germans are told to boycott Jewish shops and businesses in response to the Jewish boycott of German goods organized the previous month.

April 26: The Gestapo secret police is established in Germany.

May 2: Hitler outlaws trade unions.

May 31: The Tanggu Truce is signed between China and Japan, setting the ceasefire conditions between the two states after the Japanese occupation of Manchuria. China accedes to all Japanese demands, creating a large demilitarized zone inside Chinese territory.

June 21: All non-Nazi parties are banned in Germany.

July 14: The Nazi party becomes the official party of Germany.

August 25: Haavara Agreement: The agreement was designed to help facilitate the emigration of German Jews to Palestine.

September 12: Leó Szilárd conceives the idea of the nuclear chain reaction.

October 17: Scientist Albert Einstein arrives in the United States and settles as a refugee from Germany.

October 19: Germany leaves the League of Nations.

November 24: Homeless, alcoholic, and unemployed sent to Nazi concentration camps.

1934

January 26: Germany and Poland sign the 10 year German-Polish Non-Aggression Pact.

February 12-16: The Austrian Civil War is fought, ending with Austro fascist victory.

March 20: All German police forces come under the command of Heinrich Himmler.

June 30: Night of the Long Knives in Germany. Potential rivals to Hitler within the Nazi Party, including SA leader Ernst Röhm, and prominent anti-Nazi conservatives are killed by the SS and the Gestapo.

July 20: The SS becomes an organization independent of the Nazi Party, reporting directly to Adolf Hitler.

July 25: Austrian Nazis assassinate Engelbert Dollfuss during the failed July Putsch against the Austrian government.

August 2: Upon the death of President Paul von Hindenburg, Adolf Hitler makes himself Führer of Germany, becoming Head of State as well as Chancellor.

August 8: Members of the Wehrmacht begin swearing a personal oath of loyalty to Hitler instead of to the German constitution.

September: The Soviet Union joins the League of Nations.

December 5: The Abyssinia Crisis begins with the Walwal incident, an armed clash between Italian and Ethiopian troops on the border of Ethiopia.

December 29: Japan renounces the Washington Naval Treaty and the London Naval Treaty.

1935

January 7: The League of Nations approves the results of the Saar plebiscite, which allows Saar to be incorporated into German borders.

June 18: The Anglo-German Naval Agreement is signed by Germany and the United Kingdom. The agreement allows Germany to build a fleet that's 35% the tonnage of the British fleet. In this way, the British hope to limit German naval re-armament.

August 31: The Neutrality Act of 1935 is passed in the United States imposing a general embargo on trading in arms and war materials with all parties in a war and it also declared that American citizens travelling on ships of warring nations travelled at their own risk.

September 15: The Reichstag passes the Nuremberg Laws, introducing anti-Semitism in German legislation

October 2: Italy invades Ethiopia, beginning the Second Italo–Abyssinian War.

1936

In 1936, Adolf Hitler demanded to have a private meeting with Arnold J. Toynbee who was visiting Berlin the same year to address the Nazi Law Society, and Toynbee accepted. In the meeting, Hitler emphasized his limited expansionist aim of building a greater German nation, and his desire for British understanding and cooperation. Toynbee was convinced of Hitler's sincerity, and endorsed Hitler's message in a confidential memorandum for the British prime minister and foreign secretary.

February 6: Germany hosts the 1936 Winter Olympics in Garmisch-Partenkirchen.

March 7: In violation of the Treaty of Versailles, Germany remilitarizes the Rhineland.

March 25: The Second London Naval Treaty is signed by the United Kingdom, United States, and France. Italy and Japan each declined to sign this treaty.

May 5: Italian troops march into the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, marking the end of the Second Italo–Abyssinian War.

July 17: The failed Spanish coup of July 1936 by Nationalist forces marks the beginning of the Spanish Civil War.

August 1: Germany hosts the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin.

October 18: Hermann Göring is made head of the German Four Year Plan, an effort to make Germany self-sufficient and increase armaments.

October: The Great Purge commences in the Soviet Union with widespread repression of suspected opponents of the regime. The purge leads to the imprisonment and death of many military officers, weakening the Soviet Armed Forces ahead of World War II.

November 14: Suiyuan Campaign begins as Japanese-backed Mongolian troops attack the Chinese garrison at Hongort.

November 15: The aerial German Condor Legion goes into action for the first time in the Spanish Civil War in support of the Nationalist side.

November 25: The Anti-Comintern Pact is signed by Japan and Germany. The signing parties agree to go to war with the Soviet Union if one of the signatories is attacked by the Soviet Union.

December 1: Hitler makes it mandatory for all males between the ages 10-18 to join the Hitler Youth.

December 12: The two sides in the Chinese Civil War temporarily suspend hostilities to fight the Japanese.

December 23: The first 3,000 men of the Italian expeditionary force (later named Corpo Truppe Volontarie) lands in Cadiz in support of the Nationalist side in the Spanish Civil War.

1937

July 7: The Marco Polo Bridge Incident occurs, beginning the Second Sino-Japanese War.

October 5: U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt gives the Quarantine Speech outlining a move away from neutrality and towards "quarantining" all aggressors.

November 6: Italy joins the Anti-Comintern Pact.

December 8: Japan established the puppet state of Mengjiang in the Inner Mongolia region of the Republic of China.

December 11: Italy leaves the League of Nations.

December 12: The USS Panay incident occurs, where Japan attacked the American gunboat Panay while she was anchored in the Yangtze River.

1938

January 26: The Allison incident occurs further straining relations between Japan and the United States.

March 6: Japanese troops reach the Yellow River in China.

March 13: Austria is incorporated by Germany.

July 6-16: Évian Conference: The United States and the United Kingdom refuse to accept any more Jewish refugees.

July 29: The Soviet–Japanese border conflicts begin with the Battle of Lake Khasan.

August: Soviet Union wins the Battle of Khasan against Japan.

September 27: U.S. President Roosevelt sends letter to German Führer Adolf Hitler seeking peace.

September 30: The Munich Agreement is signed by Germany, France, the United Kingdom, and Italy. The agreement allows Germany to annex the Czechoslovak Sudetenland area in exchange for peace in an attempt to appease Hitler.

November 7: Exiled German Jew Herschel Grynszpan assassinates German consular aide Ernst vom Rath in Paris.

November 9: The Kristallnacht pogrom begins in Germany; many Jewish shops and synagogues are smashed, looted, burned, and destroyed throughout the country.

1939

January 25: A uranium atom is split for the first time at Columbia University in the United States.

January 27: Adolf Hitler orders Plan Z, a 5-year naval expansion program intended to provide for a huge German fleet capable of defeating the Royal Navy by 1944. The Kriegsmarine is given the first priority on the allotment of German economic resources. This is the first and only time the Kriegsmarine is given the first priority in the history of the Third Reich.

March 14: The pro-German Slovak Republic is created with Jozef Tiso as its first prime minister, provoking the dissolution of Czechoslovakia.

March 15: Germany occupies the Czech part in violation of the Munich Agreement. The Czechs do not attempt to put up any organized resistance having lost their main defensive line with the annexation of the Sudetenland. Germany establishes the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. The protectorate includes those portions of Czechoslovakia not incorporated into Germany, Poland, Hungary, or the new Slovak Republic.

March 20: German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop delivers an oral ultimatum to Lithuania, demanding that it cede the Klaipėda Region (German name Memel) to Germany.

March 21: Adolf Hitler demands the return of the Free City of Danzig to Germany.

March 23: German–Romanian Treaty for the Development of Economic Relations between the Two Countries is signed.

March 31: The United Kingdom and France offer a guarantee of Polish independence.

April 1: The Spanish Civil War ends in Nationalist victory. Spain becomes a dictatorship with Francisco Franco as the head of the new government.

April 3: Adolf Hitler orders the German military to start planning for Fall Weiss, the codename for the attack on Poland, planned to be launched on August 25, 1939.

April 7-12: Italy invades Albania with little in the way of military resistance. Albania is later made part of Italy through a personal union of the Italian and Albanian crown.

April 14: U.S. President Roosevelt sends letter to German Chancellor Hitler seeking peace.

April 18: The Soviet Union proposes a tripartite alliance with the United Kingdom and France. It is rejected.

April 28: In a speech before the Reichstag, Adolf Hitler renounces the Anglo-German Naval Agreement and the German–Polish Non-Aggression Pact

May 11: Soviet–Japanese border conflicts: The Battle of Khalkhin Gol begins with Japan and Manchukuo against the Soviet Union and Mongolia. The battle ends in Soviet victory on September 16, influencing the Japanese to not seek further conflict with the Soviets, but to turn towards the Pacific holdings of the Euro-American powers instead.

May 17: Sweden, Norway, and Finland reject Germany's offer of non-aggression pacts.

May 22: The Pact of Steel, known formally as the "Pact of Friendship and Alliance between Germany and Italy," is signed by Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany. The Pact declares further cooperation between the two powers, but in a secret supplement the Pact is detailed as a military alliance.

June 14: The Tientsin Incident occurs, in which the Japanese blockade the British concession in the North China Treaty Port of Tientsin.

July 10: Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain reaffirms support for Poland and makes it clear that Britain did not view Free City of Danzig as being an internal German-Polish affair and would intervene on behalf of Poland if hostilities broke out between the two countries.

August 2: The Einstein-Szilárd letter is sent to Franklin D. Roosevelt. Written by Leó Szilárd and signed by Albert Einstein, it warned of the danger that Germany might develop atomic bombs. This letter prompted action by Roosevelt and eventually resulted in the Manhattan Project.

August 23: The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact is signed between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, with secret provisions for the division of Eastern Europe - joint occupation of Poland and Soviet occupation of the Baltic States, Finland and Bessarabia. This protocol removes the threat of Soviet intervention during the German invasion of Poland.

August 25: In response to a message from Mussolini that Italy will not honor the Pact of Steel if Germany attacks Poland, Hitler delays the launch of the invasion by five days to provide more time to secure British and French neutrality.

August 30: German ultimatum to Poland concerning the Polish Corridor and the Free City of Danzig

September 1: Without response to its ultimatum, Germany invades Poland, start of World War II.