1. 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.

2. 1931 - Japan invades Manchuria
1933 – Germany withdraws from the League of Nations
1935 – Germany reintroduce the draft
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

3. 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