This timeline of events preceding World War II covers the events (mostly during the interwar period [1918–1939] after World War I) that affected or led to World War II.
The German Revolution begins. It is sparked after the Imperial German Navy orders to send the High Seas Fleet to confront the British navy in a last stand attempt. Despite being planned that the mission would only be revealed when at sea, a rumor spreads that a combat mission is approaching and the sailors end up starting a mutiny as they feel it is a suicidal move. This mutiny ends up spreading to ports throughout the country.[3]
November 11
The Armistice with Germany marks the end of World War I. German troops are given 72 hours to evacuate occupied territories[4] and Allied troops subsequently move in and occupy the German Rhineland.[citation needed]
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.
January 18
Opening of the Paris Peace Conference to negotiate peace treaties between the belligerents of World War I.
January 31
Battle of George Square takes place in Glasgow, the British Army is called in by the city authorities to quell a riot during a strike for a 40 hour work week.
February
The Polish–Soviet War begins with border clashes between the two states.
February 13
Japan issues the Racial Equality Proposal during the Paris Peace Conference. The proposal would abolish racial discrimination but it founders on opposition from the United States, Australia and New Zealand.
March 2
Foundation of the Third International, or Comintern in Moscow. Comintern's stated aim is to create a global Soviet republic.
A majority of the German fleet is scuttled at Scapa Flow in Scotland. The ships had been interned there under the terms of the 1918 Armistice while negotiations were occurring over the ships fate. The Germans feared that either the British would seize the ships or Germany would reject the Versailles Treaty and resume the war effort altogether with the ships likely being used against Germany in this case.
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.
German-Austria signs the Treaty of Saint-Germain. The peace treaty with the Allies regulates the borders of Austria, forbids union with Germany, and requires German-Austria to change its name to Austria. The United States did not ratify the treaty and later makes a separate peace treaty with Austria.
Bulgaria signs the Treaty of Neuilly-sur-Seine. The peace treaty gives Thrace back to Greece which was gained by them through the First Balkan War during 1913. While the Bulgarian army is reduced to 20,000 men and Bulgaria is ordered to pay war reparations.[6]
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.
The failed right-wing 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
The Ottoman Empire signs the Treaty of Sèvres with the Allied powers (except the US, which 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.
The Free City of Danzig is established in accordance with the Treaty of Versailles, as a contentious compromise between the generally nationalist German majority in the city, and Poland's right to free and secure access to the sea.
December 24
Bloody Christmas: Italy occupies Fiume after five days of resistance from Gabriele D'Annunzio's legionnaires.
1921
Spring
Start of the Russian famine of 1921–1922 due to the combined effects of economic disturbance from the Russian Revolution, the Russian Civil War, and the government policy of war communism.
March 7–17
Red Army mutineers and Russian civilians seize the strategic city of Kronstadt in the Kronstadt Rebellion, demanding expanded civilian rights and an end to the Bolshevik monopoly on Soviet politics. After several days and several thousand casualties, the rebellion is crushed by Bolshevik forces from neighboring Petrograd.
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.
October 5
Foundation of the Sturmabteilung (SA), the paramilitary wing of the German Nazi Party.
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.
Germany and the Soviet Union sign the Treaty of Rapallo, re-establishing diplomatic relations, renouncing financial claims on each other, and pledging future economic cooperation.
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.
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 dictatorship.
Foundation of the paramilitary Nazi party organization the Schutzstaffel (SS). Originally intended as a personal bodyguard unit for party leader Adolf Hitler, the SS would grow in size and importance.
The Locarno Treaties are signed in London (they are ratified September 14, 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. He would be elected president on April 4.
January 31
British and Belgian troops leave Cologne, Germany.
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.
The Shanghai massacre of 5,000[8]-10,000[9] communists, perpetrated by the Kuomintang, marks the end of the First United Front and the beginning of the Chinese Civil War, which evolved into a proxy war between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany until 1936.
May 20
Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom sign the Treaty of Jeddah.
Litvinov Protocol 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.
The Young Plan, which sets the total World War I reparations owed by Germany at US$26,350,000,000 to be paid over a period of 58½ years, is finalized. It replaces the earlier Dawes Plan.
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.
September 14
German election results in the Nazis becoming the second-largest party in the Reichstag.
1931
May 19
Launching of the first Deutschland-class cruiser, Deutschland. The construction of the ship causes consternation abroad as it was expected that the restriction of 10,000 tons displacement for these ships would limit the German Navy to coastal defense vessels, not ships capable of warfare on the open sea.
September 18
Mukden Incident: the Japanese military stage a false flag bombing against a Japanese-controlled railroad in the Chinese region of Manchuria, blaming Chinese dissidents for the attack, an incident that is considered important in the lead up to World War II.[12][13]
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.
Using the Reichstag fire as a pretext, the Reichstag Fire Decree is issued by President Paul von Hindenburg, nullifying many German civil liberties and paving the way for the Nazi seizure of power.[15]
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.
President Hindenburg and Chancellor Hitler appear before a crowd of 500,000 in Berlin as International Workers' Day is declared as "Day of National Labor" by the Nazi regime.[16][17]
May 2
Hitler outlaws trade unions.
May 15
Official formation of the Luftwaffe, the German air force built in secret in violation of the Treaty of Versailles.
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.
Germany and Poland sign the 10 year German-Polish Non-Aggression Pact.[19] From the German point of the view, the pact was intended to prevent Poland from intervening in an attempt to prevent the rearmament of Germany.[20]
February 9
Balkan Pact, a military alliance is signed between Greece, Turkey, Romania and Yugoslavia.[21] The intention of signing this treaty was to counteract plans being made by Italy to acquire new territories along with Bulgaria's intention to try and reclaim lost territories.[22]
All German police forces come under the command of Heinrich Himmler.
May 5
Soviet–Polish Non-Aggression Pact is extented to December 31, 1945.
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 such as, former Chancellor Kurt von Schleicher, are killed by the SS and the Gestapo. Following this event, the SA continues to exist but loses almost all its influence and is effectively superseded by the SS.
July 20
The SS becomes an organization independent of the Nazi Party, reporting directly to Adolf Hitler.[23]
King Alexander I of Yugoslavia and French foreign minister Louis Barthou are assassinated in Marseilles[24] Alexander's political murder further destabilized the Balkans. Barthou and Alexander were working for peace in Europe, particularly between Germany and the USSR, as they prepared both France and Yugoslavia for war.[25] Prince Peter II takes Alexander's place but because he is a minor a regency council would take control.
October 16
Beginning of the Long March where the Chinese Red Army retreats to evade the pursuit of Kuomintang forces.
December 1
Sergei Kirov, head of the Leningrad Communist Party, is murdered by an unknown assailant, precipitating a wave of repression in the Soviet Union.
December 5
The Abyssinia Crisis begins with the Walwal incident, an armed clash between Italian and Ethiopian troops on the border of Ethiopia.
The League of Nations approves the results of the Saar plebiscite, which allows Saar to be incorporated into German borders.[26]
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 rearmament.
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 traveling on ships of warring nations traveled at their own risk.
September 15
The Reichstag passes the Nuremberg Laws, institutionalizing discrimination against Jews and providing the legal framework for the systematic persecution of Jews in Germany.
October 3
Italy invades Ethiopia, beginning the Second Italo–Abyssinian War. The League of Nations denounces Italy and calls for an oil embargo that fails.[27]
The February 26 incident occurs in Japan where a group of 1,400 officers and soldiers of the Imperial Way faction stage a military coup which lasts until February 29 when the government suppresses the rebellion.[29][30]
After the Rhineland move Hitler met separately with French journalist Bertrand de Jouvenal and British analyst Arnold J. Toynbee emphasizing his limited expansionist aim of building a greater German nation, and his desire for British understanding and cooperation.[31]
King Edward VIII, over the head of the Baldwin Government, orders the military to stand down in relation to the move.
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.
Luftwaffe Chief of Staff General Walther Wever loses his life in an air crash, ending any hope for the Luftwaffe to ever have a strategic bombing force similar to the Allies.
July 18
The Spanish coup of July 1936 by Nationalist forces marks the beginning of the Spanish Civil War. The coup initially begins in Spanish Morocco when a garrison of Spanish Foreign Legion soldiers rebel. This rebellion later spreads across the whole country.[32]
Commencement of the first Moscow show trials against Old Bolshevik Party leaders and top officials of the Soviet secret police.
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.
October 18
Göring is made head of the German Four Year Plan, an effort to make Germany self-sufficient through autarky and increase armaments.
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
Kuomintang marshal Zhang Xueliang kidnaps Chinese leader Chiang Kai-Shek in order to compel the Kuomintang to make a truce with the Chinese Communist party for the purpose of fighting the invading Japanese.
Edward VIII is forced to abdicate due to his marriage to Wallis Simpson and is succeeded by Albert, Duke of York, who assumes the name King George VI
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.
December 24
The Second United Front is formed between the Chinese Communist party and the Kuomintang, temporarily suspending the Chinese Civil War for the sake of fighting the Japanese.
Bombing of Guernica by the German Condor Legion and the Italian Aviazione Legionaria at the behest of Franco's Nationalists in the Spanish Civil War. The bombing claims many civilian lives and draws widespread condemnation internationally.
May 7
The Condor Legion Fighter Group is deployed in Spain and begins to aid the Falangists.
The Marco Polo Bridge Incident occurs, beginning the Second Sino-Japanese War. Some scholars consider this to be the start of World War II.[34][35] Japanese forces were doing military exercises near the Marco Polo Bridge;[36] which begun on July 6[37] which the Chinese objected to but let occur. The Chinese requested that locals be informed of exercises occurring at night which the Japanese promised but did not end up doing this.[36] During that night Captain Shimizu reported one of his soldiers, Private Shimura as being missing as he was not present during a rollcall but later reappeared 20 minutes later. However Shimizu postponed reporting Shimizu's return by 4 hours for unknown reasons.[38] The Japanese demanded they be granted access to search for the missing soldier in Chinese territory but the Chinese refused this request. Whether it was the Japanese or Chinese forces that fired first is unclear.[39]
The USS Panay incident occurs, where Japanese aircraft attacked the American gunboat Panay which was carrying American evacuees and escorting four Standard Oil Barges. 3 people end up being killed in the attack while 11 are wounded; which leads to a diplomatic crisis between the US and Japan.[42]
Second Sino-Japanese War: Battle of Taierzhuang commences. The battle ends with Chinese victory on 7 April after intense house-to-house fighting inside the city of Taierzhuang.
Second Sino-Japanese War: Battle of Xuzhou begins, and ends in Japanese victory on May 1 as Chinese troops break out from the encircled city.
July 6–16
Évian Conference: The United States and the United Kingdom refuse to accept any more Jewish refugees.
Germany invalidates the passports of all its Jewish citizens who are reissued passports with the letter "J" stamped in red. This change was made after requests by Sweden and Switzerland who wanted a way of easily denying Jews entry into their countries.[1][2]
vom Rath's death triggers Kristallnacht. Pogrom begins in Germany; thousands of Jewish shops and synagogues are smashed, looted, burned, and destroyed throughout the country.[43]
1939
January 25
A uranium atom is split for the first time at Columbia University in the United States.[48]
January 27
Hitler orders Plan Z, a 5-year naval expansion programme intended to provide for a huge German fleet capable of defeating the British 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.
March 15
Germany occupies and annexes Bohemia and Moravia-Silesia 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.
German–Romanian Treaty for the Development of Economic Relations between the Two Countries is signed.
Germany annexes the Klaipėda Region.
Germany and Slovakia sign the Schutzzonenvertrag zwischen Deutschland und Slowakei [Treaty on the protective relationship between Germany and the Slovak State], creating the German Zone of Protection in Slovakia.
King Zog, the leader of Albania refuses Italy's ultimatum demanding the King hand over control of the country.[51]
March 31
The United Kingdom and France offer a guarantee of Polish independence.[52]
The Slovak–Hungarian War ends.
April 1
The Spanish Civil War ends in Nationalist victory. Spain becomes a dictatorship with Francisco Franco as the head of the new government serving until his death in 1975.[53]
April 3
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 4
Hungary and Slovakia sign the Budapest Treaty, handing over a strip of eastern Slovak territory to Hungary.
April 7–12
Italy invades Albania with little in the way of military resistance in response to refusing the Italian ultimatum. Albania is later made part of Italy through a personal union of the Italian and Albanian crown.[51]
April 14
U.S. President Roosevelt sends letter to German Chancellor Hitler and Italian Prime Minister Mussolini seeking peace.[54]
April 18
The Soviet Union proposes a tripartite alliance with the United Kingdom and France. It is rejected.[55]
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 not to 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.
May 31
Denmark and Germany sign a non-aggression pact which is later broken when Germany invades Denmark the following year.[58]
June 7
The German–Estonian and the German–Latvian non-aggression pacts are concluded. They will remain in force for ten years.
June 14
The Tientsin incident occurs, in which the Japanese blockade the British concession in the North China Treaty Port of Tientsin, now called Tianjin.[59]
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.
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.[60]
August 28
Tarnów train station bombing: A German agent named Antoni Guzy leaves a bomb inside two suitcases at the Tarnów train station in Poland that later explodes killing 24 people. It was one of several incidents done by Germany in Poland during the summer of 1939 to justify invading Poland.[61]
^ abSeagrave, Sterling (February 5, 2007). "post Feb 5 2007, 03:15 PM". The Education Forum. Archived from the original on June 13, 2008. Retrieved June 13, 2008. Americans think of WW2 in Asia as having begun with Pearl Harbor, the British with the fall of Singapore, and so forth. The Chinese would correct this by identifying the Marco Polo Bridge incident as the start, or the Japanese seizure of Manchuria earlier. It really began in 1895 with Japan's assassination of Korea's Queen Min, and invasion of Korea, resulting in its absorption into Japan, followed quickly by Japan's seizure of southern Manchuria, etc. - establishing that Japan was at war from 1895-1945. Prior to 1895, Japan had only briefly invaded Korea during the Shogunate, long before the Meiji Restoration, and the invasion failed.
^Young, Louise (1999). Japan's total empire: Manchuria and the culture of wartime imperialism. Twentieth century Japan (1. paperback print ed.). Berkeley, Calif.: Univ. of Calif. Press. ISBN 978-0-520-21934-2.
^Gerwarth, Robert (2020). "4: The sailors' mutiny". November 1918: The German Revolution. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199546473 – via Google Books.
^"Armistice". The National WWI Museum and Memorial. Retrieved July 23, 2023.
^Mason, Kevin (2007). Building an Unwanted Nation: The Anglo-American Partnership and Austrian proponents of a Separate Nationhood, 1918–1934(PDF) (Dissertation). University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
^Minkov, Stefan Marinov. "Neuilly-sur-Seine, Treaty of". International Encyclopedia of the First World War. Retrieved July 28, 2023.
^Shirer, William Lawrence (1998). The rise and fall of the Third Reich: a history of Nazi Germany. London: Arrow Books. ISBN 978-0-09-942176-4.
^Carter, Peter (1976). Mao (1. publ ed.). London: Oxford Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0-19-273140-1.
^"China rising : the revolutionary experience / Tom Ryan - Catalogue | National Library of Australia". catalogue.nla.gov.au. Retrieved 2023-10-02.
^Wei, Shuge (January 2014). "Beyond the Front Line: China's rivalry with Japan in the English-language press over the Jinan Incident, 1928". Modern Asian Studies. 48 (1): 188–224. doi:10.1017/S0026749X11000886. JSTOR 24494186. S2CID 145325236. Retrieved August 4, 2023 – via JSTOR.
^"Huanggutun Incident". TotallyHISTORY. 26 April 2013. Retrieved August 4, 2023.
^"Mukden Incident". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved August 4, 2023.
^Perez, Louis G. (2013). Japan at War: An Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO. p. 254. ISBN 9781598847420 – via Google Books.
^"This Day in History | 1933 | Adolf Hitler is named chancellor of Germany". History Channel. October 28, 2009. Retrieved July 23, 2023.
^ abcKellerhoff, Sven Felix (2023). The Reichstag Fire: The Case Against the Nazi Conspiracy. Pen and Sword. ISBN 9781784389062 – via Google Books.
^Paul von Hindenburg and Adolf Hitler at the May Day rally in the Berlin Lustgarten www.jmberlin.de
^The Nazis Stole May Day, But Socialists Took It Back jacobin.com
^Néré, J. (15 October 2013). "Chapter 11 The Franco-Soviet Treaty of Mutual Assistance". The Foreign Policy of France from 1914 to 1945. Vol. 7. Routledge. ISBN 9781134555260 – via Google Books.
^Higgins, David R. (2020). German Soldier Vs Polish Soldier: Poland 1939. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 6. ISBN 9781472841728. ...on 26 January 1934 Poland and Germany signed their own ten-year non-aggression agreement.
^The Routledge Companion to Nazi Germany. Taylor & Francis. 2007. p. 1964. ISBN 9781134393855 – via Google Books.
^Tomasevich, Jozo; Auty, Phyllis; Zaninovich, M. George; McClellan, Woodford; Macesich, George; Halpern, Joel M. (1969). Contemporary Yugoslavia: Twenty Years of Socialist Experiment (Republished 2023 ed.). Berkley and Los Angeles, California: University of California Press. p. 46. ISBN 9780520331112 – via Google Books.
^Rawson, Andrew (2021). Balkan Struggles: A Century of Civil War, Invasion, Communism and Genocide. Pen & Sword Military. p. 43. ISBN 9781526761477 – via Google Books.
^Graves, Matthew (2010-05-14). "Memory and Forgetting on the National Periphery: Marseilles and the Regicide of 1934". PORTAL: Journal of Multidisciplinary International Studies. 7 (1). doi:10.5130/portal.v7i1.1291. ISSN 1449-2490.
^Alexander, Martin S. (2015), Mawdsley, Evan; Ferris, John (eds.), "French grand strategy and defence preparations", The Cambridge History of the Second World War: Volume 1: Fighting the War, The Cambridge History of the Second World War, vol. 1, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 78–106, ISBN 978-1-139-85596-9, retrieved 2021-06-15
^RAC Parker, "Great Britain, France and the Ethiopian Crisis 1935–1936." English Historical Review 89.351 (1974): 293-332. in JSTOR
^Watson, Francis (December 1986). "The death of George V". History Today. 36: 21–30. ISSN 0018-2753. PMID 11645856.
^Kawamura, Noriko (2015). Emperor Hirohito and the Pacific War. University of Washington Press. pp. 62–65. ISBN 9780295806310.
^"The Road to Pearl Harbor: The Long Fuse". The National WWII Museum. September 22, 2021. Retrieved October 9, 2023.
^William H. McNeill, Arnold J. Toynbee: A Life (1989) p 172
^Wilson, Sande John (1967). German intervention in the Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939. University of Montana. pp. 6 & 7. Retrieved July 27, 2023 – via ScholarWorks @ University of Montana.
^"Neville Chamberlain". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved September 3, 2023.
^"Liberation in China and the Pacific". The National WWII Museum. Retrieved 2023-09-08.
^"Marco Polo Bridge Incident". TotallyHistory. 3 June 2013. Retrieved September 9, 2023.
^ ab"Marco Polo Bridge Incident". TotallyHistory. 3 June 2013. Retrieved January 1, 2024.
^Crowley, James B. (May 1963). "A Reconsideration of the Marco Polo Bridge Incident". The Journal of Asian Studies. 22 (3): 277–291. doi:10.2307/2050187. JSTOR 2050187 – via JSTOR. Because these exercises had been in progress since June 6...
^Whitehurst, G. William (December 21, 2020). The China Incident: Igniting the Second Sino-Japanese War (eBook). McFarland, Incorporated, Publishers. pp. 1–3. ISBN 9781476641355 – via Google Books.
^Fuchs, Eckhardt; Saaler, Sven; Kasahara, Tokushi (December 4, 2017). A New Modern History of East Asia. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, V&R unipress. p. 232. ISBN 9783737007085 – via Google Books.
^Glass, Andrew (October 5, 2018). "FDR calls for 'quarantine' of aggressor nations, Oct. 5, 1937". Politico. Retrieved July 23, 2023.
^Lemkin, Raphael (1944). "Chapter IV: NATIONALITY". Axis Rule in Occupied Europe: Laws of Occupation, Analysis of Government, Proposals for Redress (2005 ed.). Lawbook Exchange. p. 64. ISBN 9781584775768.
^"Letter to Adolf Hitler Seeking Peace, September 27, 1938". The American Presidency Project. Retrieved 2014-03-21.
^Lemkin, Raphael; Power, Samantha (2005). Axis Rule in Occupied Europe Laws of Occupation, Analysis of Government, Proposals for Redress. Lawbook Exchange. p. 131. ISBN 9781584775768 – via Google Books.
^Pauley, Bruce E. (July 1991). "The Day the Holocaust Began: The Odyssey of Herschel Grynszpan". History: Reviews of New Books. 20 (1): 37–38. doi:10.1080/03612759.1991.9949500. ISSN 0361-2759.
^Rawson, Andrew (2019). Poland's Struggle: Before, During and After the Second World War. Pen & Sword Books. ISBN 9781526743930 – via Google Books.
^Liber, George (2016). Total Wars and the Making of Modern Ukraine, 1914-1954. University of Toronto Press. p. 202. ISBN 9781442627086 – via Google Books.
^ abRawson, Andrew (2021). Balkan Struggles: A Century of Civil War, Invasion, Communism and Genocide. Pen & Sword Military. p. 46. ISBN 9781526761477 – via Google Books.
^Higgins, David R. (2020). German Soldier Vs Polish Soldier: Poland 1939. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 6. ISBN 9781472841728 – via Google Books. British and French efforts to avoid another European war quickly disintegrated, and on 31 March Poland secured agreements with both countries for their military intervention should Germany invade.
^Palombo, Megan (2015). ART AND MASS COMMUNICATION AS POLITICAL ACTIVISM DURING THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR(PDF) (Thesis). University of Texas at Austin. p. 13.
^"Message to Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini. April 14, 1939". The American Presidency Project. Retrieved 2014-03-21.
^Carley, Michael Jabara (1993). "End of the 'Low, Dishonest Decade': Failure of the Anglo–Franco–Soviet Alliance in 1939". Europe-Asia Studies. 45 (2): 303–341. doi:10.1080/09668139308412091.
^"The Anglo-German Naval Agreement". TotallyHistory. Retrieved July 23, 2023.
^Higgins, David R. (2020). German Soldier Vs Polish Soldier: Poland 1939. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 6. ISBN 9781472841728. On 29 April Hitler ominously renounces Germany's non-aggression pact with Poland.
^"Judgement : The Invasion of Denmark and Norway". Yale Law School Lillian Goldman Law Library: THE AVALON PROJECT Documents in Law, History and Diplomacy. Retrieved September 3, 2023.
^Scully, Jon Christopher (2011). FROM ALLIANCE TO ENMITY: ANGLO-JAPANESE RELATIONS, 1930 TO 1939(PDF) (Thesis). University of Birmingham.
^ abcdeRawson, Andrew (2019). Poland's Struggle: Before, During and After the Second World War. Pen & Sword Books. ISBN 9781526743930 – via Google Books.
^Moorhouse, Roger (2020). "-PROLOGUE- AN UNREMARKABLE MAN". Poland 1939: The Outbreak of World War II (E-book). Basic Books. ISBN 9780465095414 – via Google Books.
Further reading
Thorne, Christopher G. The Approach of War, 1938-1939 (1969) chronological table 1938-1939 pp 205-210