Axis Aggression In the decade prior to the outbreak of WW2, Japan, Italy, and Germany engaged in one act of aggression after another without any effective opposition.

1931 - Japan invades Manchuria 1933 – Germany withdraws from the League of Nations 1935 – Germany reintroduce the draft 1935 - Italy invades Ethiopia 1936 – Italy, Germany & Japan sign the Axis Pact 1936 – Germany remilitarizes the Rhineland 1936 – Germany & Italy support Franco in the Spanish Civil War while only the Soviets support the democratically elected Spanish Government 1937 – Japan invades China proper

1938 – Anschluss, annexation of Austria by Germany 1938 – Germany seizes the Sudetenland by way of the Munich Conference – a few months later all of Czechoslovakia is seized 1939 – Italy invades Albania 1939 – German/Soviet Nonaggression Pact 1939 – Germany invades Poland September 3, 1939 Britain and France declare war