German expansion dates

Washington Naval Conference

Japanese invasion of Manchuria

London Naval Conference

Geneva Disarmament Conference

Germany withdrew from the Geneva Disarmament Conference and League of Nations

Hitler announced that he reintroduced conscription and re-established the Luftwaffe

Formation of ‘the Stress Front’

France started to build the Maginot Line

Attempt at Anschluss

Saarland plebiscite

German troops entered the Rhineland

Hitler instructed Goring that the army must be operational and the economy fit for war within four years

Hitler met with military chiefs to outline his plan to acquire Lebensraum

Spanish Civil War

Spanish city of Guernica was heavily bombed by German planes

Rome-Berlin Axis

Anti-Comintern Pact between Germany and Japan

Mussolini joined the Anti-Comintern Pact

Rome-Tokyo-Berlin Axis

Hitler summoned Schuschnigg to force him to give Austrian Nazis a considerable share in government

Anschluss proclaimed

Beginning of the appeasement policy

Sudeten German Party began to riot and demand independence for the Sudetenland

Czech Premier Benes agreed to self-government for the Sudetenlanders

Munich Conference

German troops marched into the Sudetenland

Germany took Bohemia and Moravia in Czechoslovakia

British and French appeasement ended

‘Pact of Steel’ between Hitler and Mussolini

Nazi-Soviet Non-aggression Pact revealed to the world

Britain and France pledged to help Poland if it was attacked

Hitler ordered the Germany army to be ready to invade Poland by 1 September 1939

German troops invaded Poland

Britain and France declared war on Germany