Timeline of European Affairs, 1914 - 1957
The First World War: 1914-1918
June 28, 1914 Assassination of Archduke Ferdinand: murder of Hapsburg heir spark for war
August 1914 Schlieffen Plan: German attack through Belgium
September 1914 Battle of the Marne: Allied stand against German offensive
September 1914 Tannenberg: Large Russian force crushed by Germans
November 1914 September Program: German offer to end war with unreasonable demands
January 1915 Gallipoli Campaign: British failed attempt to open direct route to Russia
April 1915 Treaty of London: Italy joins Allies in war, with promise of Slovak land
May 1915 Sinking of the Lusitania: German sub warfare
February 1916 Attack at Verdun
July 1916 Battle of the Somme
October 1916 Assassination of Austrian PM
November 1916 Death of Emperor Francis Joseph of Austria, succession of Charles
January 1917 Resumption of German unrestricted submarine warfare
April 1917 Arrival of Lenin in Russia
April 1917 United States enters war on Germany after Zimmerman Telegram
July 1917 Offensive at Flanders, near Ypres
July 1917 Execution of Tsar Nicholas and family, provisional government established
October 1917: Battle of Caporetto: significant Italian defeat by Austria and Germany
March 1918 Treaty of Brest-Litovsk: peace treaty between Germany and Soviet Russia
March 1918 Germans give up offense, at Compiegne and Chateau-Thierry
July 1918 Assassination of German ambassador to Moscow
November 1918 William II abdicates and republic declared
November 1918 Armistice signed, war is over
Entente Powers: Great Britain, France, Russia
Allies: Great Britain, France, Russia, USA, Italy, Romania, Greece, Brazil, Portugal
Central Powers: Germany, Turkey, Bulgaria, Austria-Hungary
France: PM Poincare, Marshal Petain, PM Clemenceau
Great Britain: Foreign Secretary Grey, General Haig, PM Asquith, PM Lloyd George
Germany: King William II, General Hindenburg, General Ludendorff, General von Moltke
Austria: Emperor Francis Joseph, Emperor Charles
Russia: Tsar Nicholas, President Kerensky, General Kornilov, President Lenin, Trotsky
Before the Crash: 1919-1929
January 1919 Paris Peace Conference, establishes cordon sanitaire against Bolshevism
January 1919 Nazi party established by Adolf Hitler
February 1919 New German assembly meets in Weimar, moderate socialists popular
March 1919 Comintern founded in Russia to overthrow capitalist states
March 1919 Mussolini founds Fascist party
June 1919 Peace treaty with Germany at Versailles: land cessions, military and industrial limitations, acceptance of war responsibility, extremely high reparations, demilitarization of Rhineland, not permitted in League of Nations
1919 Keynes publishes �Economic Consequences of Peace� criticizing reparations
1919 � 1920 Treaty of Neuilly, Trianon and St. Germain: peace and land cessions by Bulgaria, Austria and Hungary, Anschluss prohibited
March 1920 Kapp Putsch leads to Communist revolts in Ruhr and around Germany
April 1920 Treaty of Sevres: end of war with Turkey, land cession to Greece
April 1920 American Senate rejects Versailles treaty
1920 Establishment of League of Nations based on Wilsonian principles of �open diplomacy,� national self-determination and his Fourteen Points
1920 Establishment of Little Entente: France, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Yugoslavia; preservation of post�WWI status quo
1920-1922 Turko-Greek War: Greece completely defeated
May 1921 Reparations conference in London concerning Germany, set at $31.5 billion
December 1921 Ireland breaks into Ulster and Irish Free State
April 1922 Treaty of Rapallo: German agreement for closer collaboration with Russia
June 1922 Rathenau assassinated for fulfillment policies
October 1922 March on Rome: Fascists seize power
January 1923 Britain negotiates an agreement with the US over loan repayment
February 1923 France moves into Ruhr following German non-payment of Ruhr profits
June 1923 Treaty of Lausanne: resettlement of Sevres terms with Turkey
August 1923 Dawes committee gathers to write up Dawes Plan, fixing reparation payments and allowing foreign control over German economy
November 1923 Hitler leads failed Beer Hall Putsch
January 1924 Lenin dies; Stalin takes over and transforms Russia into the federal USSR
March 1925 Stalin starts �socialism in one country�
December 1925 Locarno Treaties: negotiated by Stresemann; fixes German western borders and permanent demilitarization of Rhineland, in return for help with Eastern expansion, entrance to League of Nations
April 1926 Treaty of Berlin: confirmation of Treaty of Rapallo
1928 1st Five Year Plan started by Stalin
February 1929 Lateran Treaty: church and state relation solidified in Italy
League of Nations: Great Britain, France, Italy, Japan (US, Germany and Russia not involved)
Treaty of Locarno: Great Britain, Germany, France, Belgium, Italy
Big Four: President Wilson, PM Orlando, PM Lloyd George, PM Clemenceau
France: President/PM/ Foreign Minister Poincare, Foreign Minister Briand, PM Herriot
Great Britain: PM Lloyd George, PM Baldwin, Foreign Secretaries MacDonald and Chamberlain
Germany: Foreign Minister Rathenau, Chancellor Stresemann, President Hindenburg
Years of Building Crisis: 1929-1939
October 1929 Collapse of the New York Stock Exchange, beginning of Depression
June 1930 Last French troops leave Ruhr
1930 France supports building of Maginot Line
May 1931 Kreditanstalt collapses, Austria�s most important bank
September 1931 Britain abandons gold standard
1932 Disarmament Conference meets
January 1933 Hitler becomes chancellor
February 1933 Reichstag fire; emergency powers declared to �combat the communists�
April 1933 Kristallnacht: one-day boycott of Jewish businesses, mass rioting
July 1933 Germany becomes a one-party state
October 1933 Hitler declares that the Disarmament Conference is discriminatory
January 1934 German non-aggression pact with Poland
June 1934 Purge of the SA in Germany, to remove competition with the SS
July 1934 Assassination of Chancellor Dollfuss of Austria during failed coup
September 1934 Russia enters League of Nations
October 1934 King Alexander of Yugoslavia assassinated in Marseilles
1934 Stavisky affair hints at French police corruption; PM Daladier forced to resign
January 1935 France declares no objection to Italian interest in Ethiopia
March 1935 Hitler declares disarmament clauses of Versailles abolished
March 1935 Stresa Conference: Great Britain, France and Italy condemns Germany and threatens counteraction in regard to Austria
May 1935 Franco-Russian military alliance
June 1935 British-German naval agreement to improve German navy
September 1935 Nuremberg Laws: removal of citizenship from Jews, etc.
March 1936 Hitler remilitarizes Rhineland, violating Versailles and Locarno
May 1936 Italo-Ethiopian war: British provide half-hearted sanctions
July 1936 - 1939 Spanish civil war begins under Franco, Germany and Italy send brigades to support Franco, Comintern sends International Brigades to defeat Franco
August 1936 Show trials and purges begin throughout Soviet Russia
October 1936 Rome-Berlin Axis established: Mussolini and Hitler meetings
November 1936 Spanish-Italian treaty, promising Spanish neutrality
1936 Nazi socialism utilizes pump priming and governmental control of industry
1936 Berlin Olympics: celebration of Nazi power
1936 Socialists come to power in France under Leon Blum
November 1937 Hossbach Protocol: conference at which Hitler outlined long-term goals
1937 Neville Chamberlain becomes PM, follows appeasement policy
March 1938 Anschluss begins, Hitler enters Austria victoriously (part of lebensraum)
September 1938 Chamberlain confers with Hitler
September 1938 Munich Conference: Italy, France, G.B. give up Sudetenland to Germany
March 1939 Chamberlain: Europe settling down to tranquility
March 1939 Hitler occupies Czechoslovakia, British public opinion is aroused
August 1939 Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact signed
Stresa Conference: Great Britain, France and Italy
League of Nations: Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, the British Empire, Canada, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, India, China, Cuba, Ecuador, France, Greece, Guatemala, Haiti, Hejaz, Honduras, Italy, Japan, Liberia, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serb-Croat-Sloven State, Siam, Czechoslovakia, and Uruguay
Hitler: intentionalism versus structuralism
Germany: Dictator Hitler, Himmler, Goering, Goebbels, Vice-Chancellor Papen
Great Britain: Foreign Secretaries Hoare and Eden, Exchequer Churchill, PM Chamberlain
France: PM Daladier, PM Doumergue, PM Blum, Foreign Minister Barthou
The Second World War: 1939-1945
September 1939 Hitler marches into Poland, Great Britain and France declare war on Germany
September 1939 Poland loses, German-Soviet Boundary and Friendship Treaty
November 1939 Russian invasion of Finland
March 1940 Allies don�t provide assistance, Finland loses
April 1940 Germans use blitzkrieg tactics to occupy Denmark, attack Norway
May 1940 Churchill enters office, Germans defeat Dutch and Belgians
June 1940 Allied evacuation at Dunkirk, Germans enter Paris, Italy enters war
June 1940 Vichy regime under Petain, De Gaulle sets up Free French movement
October 1940 Battle of Britain; Britain eventually wins
September 1940 British-US agreement; exchange of bases for ships
December 1940 Roosevelt: �arsenal of democracy�
1940 Axis powers sign treaty promising military aid to Japan in war
March 1941 Lend-Lease Act: permission to supply materiel to states for security needs
May 1941 Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Greece, Crete, won by Germans
June 1941 Hitler marches on Russia
August 1941 Atlantic Charter: US-British emphasis on freedom and independence
October 1941 Hitler announces final drive to Moscow
December 1941 Japan announces intention to join war at Pearl Harbor
December 1941 Germany and Italy declare war on US
January 1942 Hitler and Heydrich outline Final Solution at Wannsee Conference
March 1942 Japanese victories in Asia are almost total
October 1942 Battle of El Alamein marks first Allied victory
October 1942 Japanese and Germans mostly routed
January 1943 US-British meeting at Casablanca to demand German unconditional surrender
September 1943 Italy announces armistice after Mussolini overthrown
November 1943 Russians reconquer Kiev
December 1943 US-British-Russian conference at Teheran
June 1944 D-day succeeds in crossing English Channel
July 1944 Failed attempt on Hitler�s life
September 1944 Liberation of France and Belgium almost complete
December 1944 Battle of the Bulge: last German offensive at Ardennes
April 1945 Allies enter Berlin, Hitler commits suicide
May 1945 Unconditional surrender of German forces
August 1945 Atomic bombs fall on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan surrenders
Allies: Great Britain, United States, France, Benelux, Greece, Denmark, Norway
Axis: Germany, Italy, Russia, Japan, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary
US: President Roosevelt, General Eisenhower, Bradley, Marshall, Patton
Great Britain: PM Churchill, General Montgomery
Into the Cold War: 1945-1957
February 1945 Allied meeting at Yalta to consider postwar settlement: liberated and defeated countries to become democracies, Germany and Austria to be divided into zones of occupation, reparations to be taken from production
February 1945 German Democratic Republic and Federal Republic of Germany established
July 1945 Potsdam Conference: Truman as chairman; Stalin, Attlee and Truman agreed on reparation amounts, peace treaties with governments of defeated states, establishment of a Council of Foreign Ministers and Four-Power Allied Control Council, drawing of new boundaries
March 1946 Churchill: �Iron Curtain�
October 1946 Completion of Nuremberg war crimes tribunal trials
January 1947 Chinese civil war: US supports Chiang Kai-Shek and Russians support Mao
February 1947 Treaties concluded with Italy, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, Finland by Council of Foreign Ministers, who argued about �democratic elements�; awareness of failure to open up Eastern Europe to Western influence
February 1947 Russia rejects American plan for control of atomic energy
March 1947 Truman Doctrine: �support free people�resisting attempted subjugation�
June 1947 Announcement of Marshall Plan
September 1947 Cominform formed, in place of dissolved Comintern, with same function
March 1948 Brussels Pact: immediate military assistance in case of attack
April 1948 Marshall Plan (European Recovery Plan) begins, requires establishment of Organization of European Economic Cooperation to discuss economics; Spain excluded b/c of Franco
June 1948 Berlin Blockade starts, West responds with Berlin airlift
1948 Russia signs agreements with Axis satellites for better cooperation
1948 Russian purges of bourgeois in satellite countries
April 1949 NATO set up, for military and political alliance
May 1949 Soviets sense futility and lift blockage
October 1949 Ulbricht becomes East German leader
1949 Adenauer and Christian Democrats win majority in West Germany
1949 Adenauer supports �Westbindung,� or greater cooperation with West
1949 Council of Europe set up
June 1950 NATO involved in Korean war
1951 Soviet satellites release plans for economic recovery, anti-church actions
1951 European Coal and Steel Community set up, under common administration
May 1952 Treaty concluded for European Defense Community: common defense
1952 Marshall Plan ends
March 1953 Stalin dies, Khrushchev comes to power and rats on Stalin
1953 Russian purges of Communists to ensure total loyalty after Tito�s defection\
1953 US agrees with Spain to assist Spanish armed forces for use of Spanish bases
August 1954 French reject EDC treaty
1954 French defeat at Dien Bien Phu leaves three new states
May 1955 West Germany joins NATO, allowed to rearm and promises to not make Atomic Biological Chemical weapons
1955 Spaak Report released at Messina
1955 Warsaw Pact: immediate military assistance in case of attack
November 1956 Russians crush short-lived Hungarian revolt
1956 German and Italian production doubled over 1937
1957 Treaty of Rome: sets up European Economic Community (Common Market)
1958 Charles de Gaulle, as president, sets up Fifth Republic
1959 Britain says no thanks, sets up European Free Trade Association
1960 OEEC becomes OECD with Canada and Japan as new members
1961 Construction of Berlin Wall
Potsdam Conference: Russia, Great Britain, United States
Four-Power Allied Control Council: Russia, Great Britain, United States, France
Marshall Plan: Benelux, Austria, France, Denmark, West Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, Turkey, Great Britain
Brussels Pact: Great Britain, France, Benelux
NATO: United States, Canada, Italy, Denmark, Iceland, Norway, Great Britain, France, Benelux, West Germany
ECSC: France, West Germany, Benelux
EDC: France, West Germany, Italy, Benelux
EEC: France, West Germany, Italy, Benelux
EFTA: Great Britain, Switzerland, Austria, Norway, Sweden, Denmark
Warsaw Pact: Soviet Russia, Albania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Czechoslovakia, East Germany