Axis Powers of World War II European Axis Powers Fascist Italy: Nazi Germany: Militaristic Japan

Fascist Italy Benito Mussolini [ ] governed Italy as its Fascist dictator from He was executed by Italians in 1945.

Great Depression radicalized the politics of Germany and Japan in the 1930s

Germans hated Versailles Treaty

A Weak League of Nations

The Ineffectiveness of the League of Nations y No control of major conflicts. y No progress in disarmament. y No effective military force.

The “Stab-In-The-Back” Theory German soldiers are dissatisfied.

France – False Sense of Security?

International Agreements Locarno Pact – 1925 y France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy  Guarantee existing frontiers  Establish DMZ 30 miles deep on East bank of Rhine River  Refrain from aggression against each other Kellogg-Briand Pact – 1928 y Makes war illegal as a tool of diplomacy  No enforcement provisions

Italy Attacks Ethiopia, 1935 Emperor Haile Selassie

Nazi Germany Adolph Hitler [ ] ruled Germany from 1933, when he came to power through the political process of Weimar Germany, until he committed suicide in April 1945 in his Berlin bunker.

Germany Invades the Rhineland March 7, 1936

U. S. Neutrality Acts: What did they say?

America-First Committee Charles Lindbergh

Rome-Berlin Axis, 1936 The “Pact of Steel”

The Spanish Civil War: The American “Lincoln Brigade”

The Spanish Civil War: Francisco Franco

“ Guernica” by Pablo Picasso

The Austrian Anschluss, 1938

The “Problem” of the Sudetenland

Appeasement: The Munich Agreement, 1938 Now we have “peace in our time!” Herr Hitler is a man we can do business with. British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain

Czechoslovakia Becomes Part of the Third Reich: 1939

The Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact, 1939 Foreign Ministers von Ribbentrop & Molotov

Japan Hirohito ( 裕仁 ), also known as Emperor Shōwa ( 昭和天皇 ), (29 April 1901 – 7 January 1989) was the 124th Emperor of Japan according to the traditional order, reigning from 25 December 1926 until his death in 1989.

The Manchurian Crisis, 1931

The Japanese Invasion of China, 1937

The Empire of Japan

Pearl Harbor: December 7, 1941