Events leading to World War II -

19Jan

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Events leading to World War II, Future Technology

Treaty of Versailles

The Treaty of Versaille was a peace treaty signed on 28 June 1919. One of the most important treaties of World War I, it ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed in the Palace of Versailles, exactly five years after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, which led to the war. The other Central Powers on the German side signed separate treaties. Although the armistice of 11 November 1918 ended the actual fighting, it took six months of Allied negotiations at the Paris Peace Conference to conclude the peace treaty. The treaty was registered by the Secretariat of the League of Nations on 21 October 1919. Of the many provisions in the treaty, one of the most important and controversial was: "The Allied and Associated Governments affirm and Germ...

19Jan

By WW2No Comments

Events leading to World War II

USS Panay incident

The USS Panay incident on December 12, 1937, was a Japanese bombing attack on the U.S. Navy river gunboat Panay and three Standard Oil Company tankers on the Yangtze River. They strafed survivors in the water. The boats were rescuing U.S. and Chinese civilians fleeing from Japanese invaders attacking Nanking (now spelled Nanjing), China. Japan and the United States were not at war at the time. Public outrage was loud in the U.S., but both sides were conciliatory and quickly settled the dispute. The Japanese claimed that they did not see the U.S. flags painted on the deck of the gunboat. Tokyo officially apologized, and paid a cash indemnity. The settlement mollified some of the U.S. anger, and newspapers called the matter closed. Background A flat-bottomed craft built in Shangh...

Italian invasion of Albania (April 7–12, 1939)

19Jan

By WW2No Comments

Events leading to World War II, Future Technology

Italian invasion of Albania (April 7–12, 1939)

The Italian invasion of Albania (April 7–12, 1939) was a brief military campaign which was launched by the Kingdom of Italy against the Albanian Kingdom in 1939. The conflict was a result of the imperialistic policies of the Italian prime minister and dictator Benito Mussolini. Albania was rapidly overrun, its ruler King Zog I went into exile in neighboring Greece, and the country was made a part of the Italian Empire as a protectorate in personal union with the Italian Crown. Background Albania had long been of considerable strategic importance to the Kingdom of Italy. Italian naval strategists coveted the port of Vlorë and the island of Sazan which is located at the entrance to the Bay of Vlorë, because they wanted to use it as an entrance to the Adriatic Sea, and they also wan...