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Outbreak of War
During this period of threatening hostilities the League of Nations was endeavoring to prevent
the outbreak of war. The Italian Government, however, refused to be deterred from carrying out
its plan for conquest. On October 3, 1935 Italian armed forces invaded Ethiopia.
With the outbreak of war between Italy and Ethiopia President Roosevelt, in accordance with
provisions of the Neutrality Act, issued proclamations putting into effect an embargo on the
export of arms, ammunition, and implements of war to the two belligerent nations and
restrictions on travel by United States citizens on vessels of the belligerents. Upon issuing these
proclamations on October 5, 1935, the President stated that "any of our people who voluntarily
engage in transactions of any character with either of the belligerents do so at their own risk".
The League of Nations, after deciding that Italy had violated its obligations under the Covenant,
recommended to its members a number of commercial and financial sanctions against Italy.
While sanctions were under consideration, it was reported that the League might ask non-League
countries to participate. Thereupon the Secretary of State instructed the United States
representatives at Geneva, on October 9, 1935, that he considered it advisable for the League to
understand that definite measures had already been taken by the United States in accordance with
our own limitations and policies; that these measures included the restriction of commercial and
financial transactions with the belligerents; and that we desired to follow our course
independently, in the light of developing circumstances. A week later the Secretary again sent
instructions explaining the attitude of the United States toward cooperation with other
governments or with the League of Nations in relation to the Italian-Ethiopian conflict. He
declared that the United States was acting on its own initiative with respect to the war and that its
actions had preceded those of other governments. He said that the major policy of the United
States was to keep from becoming involved in war that, however, this Government was "keeping
thoroughly alive its definite conviction" that it had an obligation to contribute to the cause of
peace in every practical way consistent with this policy.
Secretary Hull, in a radio address on November 6, 1935, stated the position of the United States
on the general subject of peace. He conceived it to be our duty and in the interests of our country
and of humanity not only to remain aloof from disputes and conflicts with which we had no
direct concern, but also to use our influence in any appropriate way to bring about the peaceful
settlement of international differences. He said that our own interests and our duty as a great
power forbade that we sit idly by and watch the development of hostilities with a feeling of selfsufficiency and complacency when by the use of our influence, short of becoming involved in
the dispute, we might "prevent or lessen the scourge of war".
During this period there was an increase in the export from the United States to Italy of war
materials which did not come within the category of "arms, ammunition, and implements of
war". There was no statutory authority for stopping these exports. In a statement of November
15, 1935 Secretary Hull said that the people of the United States were entitled to know that
considerably increasing amounts of oil, copper, trucks, tractors, scrap iron, and scrap steel, which
were essential war materials, were being exported for war purposes. He said that this class of
trade was directly contrary to the policy of the Government of the United States.
Secretary Hull's Conversation With the Italian Ambassador
Under instructions from his Government, Italian Ambassador Rosso called on the Secretary of
State on November 22, 1935. The Ambassador referred to the various statements of the United
States Government on the war between Italy and Ethiopia, especially the Secretary's statement of
November 15, and said that although these statements applied formally and theoretically to both
contending parties, it was well known that their practical result would be actually to impair the
freedom of trade only with respect to Italy. The Ambassador said further that the statement of
November 15 was contrary to the letter and spirit of the treaty of 1871 between the United States
and Italy which accorded freedom of commerce and navigation to each contracting party; that the
limitation on freedom of commerce envisaged by the statement of November 15 would constitute
an "unfriendly act".
The Secretary replied emphatically that these trading incidents complained of by the Italian
Government were trivial compared with the real problems and deep concern which the war
caused the United States; that the Ambassador must realize the resulting awful repercussions that
made their immediate appearance in remote parts of the world, and which would give the United
States and other nations unimaginable troubles for a generation. The Secretary said that this
Government was immensely concerned with the possible spread of war to other countries at
almost any time with serious consequences. He said that it was deplorable to see Italy moving
forward with a war which it must realize threatened to create terrific problems and conditions so
far-reaching that the imagination could not grasp their possibilities. He inquired why these
considerations were not in the mind of the Italian Government before it went to war. He
reiterated his surprise that Italy was upbraiding this Government because we showed our deep
concern and were striving in every possible way to keep entirely out of the war.
The Secretary took up the Italian complaint that the United States had violated the treaty of 1871
and said that, with both Italy and the United States signatory to the Kellogg-Briand Pact, it was
not possible to understand how Italy could go to war and announce to the United States that
regardless of this pact we must supply Italy with materials of war or be guilty of an unfriendly
act. The Secretary said that the people of the United States were convinced that Italy was under
most solemn obligation to keep the peace, and it was incomprehensible to them to find Italy
contending that to be neutral the United States must furnish war supplies.
In this long conversation the Secretary endeavored to impress upon the Ambassador that the
United States and other peace-loving nations were greatly pained to see their traditional friends,
the Italian people, involved in this war in spite of numerous peace treaties and despite the awful
menace to the peace of the world.
Italy continued the conquest of Ethiopia. By the spring of 1936 Italian military forces had
overrun most of Ethiopia and on May 5 Addis Ababa, the capital, fell to the invader. Shortly
thereafter, on June 20, the United States terminated the application of the Neutrality Act to the
conflicting parties.
The United States never recognized Italian sovereignty over Ethiopia.
German Prewar Expansion
During the remilitarization of the Rhineland, German civilians salute German forces crossing the
Rhine River in open violation of the Treaty of Versailles. Mainz, Germany, March 7, 1936.
At the Lausanne Conference of 1932, Germany, Britain, and France agreed to the formal
suspension of reparations payments imposed on the defeated countries after World War I. Thus,
when Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany in January 1933, the financial provisions of
the Treaty of Versailles (the post-World War I peace agreement) had already been revised. Hitler
was determined to overturn the remaining military and territorial provisions of the treaty and
include ethnic Germans in the Reich as a step toward the creation of a German empire in Europe.
The German armed forces engaged in secret rearmament even before the Nazi takeover of
power. Thereafter, the Nazis supported rearmament and rapidly expanded arms production.
Military conscription was reintroduced on March 16, 1935, in open violation of the Treaty of
Versailles. At the same time, Hitler announced the expansion of the German army to more than
500,000 men.
In the 1925 Treaty of Locarno, Germany had recognized both the inviolability of its borders with
France and Belgium and the demilitarization of the Rhineland. On March 7, 1936, however,
Hitler repudiated this agreement and ordered the German armed forces (Wehrmacht) into the
demilitarized Rhineland. Hitler's action brought condemnation from Britain and France, but
neither nation intervened.
After a prolonged period of intense propaganda inside Austria, German troops entered the
country on March 12, 1938, receiving the enthusiastic support of most of the population. Austria
was incorporated into Germany on the following day. In April, this German annexation was
retroactively approved in a plebiscite that was manipulated to indicate that about 99 percent of
the Austrian people wanted the union (known as the "Anschluss") with Germany. Neither Jews
nor Roma (Gypsies) were permitted to vote in the plebiscite.
THE MUNICH AGREEMENT AND THE PARTITION OF CZECHOSLOVAKIA
In 1938, Hitler threatened to unleash a European war unless the Sudetenland, a border area of
Czechoslovakia containing an ethnic German majority, was surrendered to Germany. The leaders
of Britain, France, Italy, and Germany held a conference in Munich, Germany, on September 2930, 1938, in which they agreed to the German annexation of the Sudetenland in exchange for a
pledge of peace from Hitler. Czechoslovakia, which was not a party to the Munich negotiations,
agreed under significant pressure from Britain and France.
On March 15, 1939, Hitler violated the Munich agreement and moved against the Czechoslovak
state. The Czech provinces of Bohemia and Moravia were proclaimed a German protectorate and
were occupied by German forces. Slovakia became an independent state, closely allied with
Germany. Hungary, which had annexed territory in southern Slovakia after the Munich
conference, seized the Transcarpathian Ukraine. Czechoslovakia ceased to exist.
Little more than a week later, on March 23, 1939, German troops suddenly occupied Memel.
Lithuania was unable to prevent this occupation. Hitler also raised territorial demands on Poland
in the spring of 1939. He demanded the annexation of the Free City of Danzig to Germany and
extraterritorial access for Germany through the so-called Polish Corridor to East Prussia.
Convinced that Hitler would not negotiate in good faith, Britain and France guaranteed the
integrity of Polish territory against German aggression. With Hitler determined to attack Poland,
Europe was on the brink of war in late summer 1939.
Japan After World War I
A valuable ally during World War I, the European powers and the United States recognized
Japan as a colonial power after the war. In Japan, this led to the rise of ultra-right wing and
nationalist leaders, such as Fumimaro Konoe and Sadao Araki, who advocated uniting Asia
under the rule of the emperor. Known as hakkô ichiu, this philosophy gained ground during the
1920s and 1930s as Japan needed increasingly more natural resources to support its industrial
growth. With the onset of the Great Depression, Japan moved towards a fascist system with the
army exerting growing influence over the emperor and government.
To keep the economy growing, an emphasis was placed on arms and weapons production with
much of the raw materials coming from the United States. Rather than continue this dependence
on foreign materials, the Japanese decided to seek out resource-rich colonies to supplement their
existing possessions in Korea and Formosa. To accomplish this goal, the leaders in Tokyo looked
west to China, which was in the midst of a civil war between Chiang Kai-shek's Kuomintang
(Nationalist) government, Mao Zedong's Communists, and local warlords.
Invasion of Manchuria
For several years Japan had been meddling in Chinese affairs, and the province of Manchuria, in
northeast China, was seen as ideal for Japanese expansion. On September 18, 1931, the Japanese
staged an incident along the Japanese-owned South Manchuria Railway near Mukden
(Shenyang). After blowing up a section of track, the Japanese blamed the "attack" on the local
Chinese garrison. Using the "Mukden Bridge Incident" as a pretext, Japanese troops flooded into
Manchuria. The Nationalist Chinese forces in the region, following the government's policy of
nonresistance, refused to fight, allowing the Japanese to occupy much of the province.
Unable to divert forces from battling the Communists and warlords, Chiang Kai-shek sought aid
from the international community and the League of Nations. On October 24, the League of
Nations passed a resolution demanding the withdrawal of Japanese troops by November 16. This
resolution was rejected by Tokyo and Japanese troops continued operations to secure Manchuria.
In January, the United States stated that it would not recognize any government formed as a
result of Japanese aggression. Two months later, the Japanese created the puppet state of
Manchukuo with the last Chinese emperor, Puyi, as its leader. Like the United States, the League
of Nations refused to recognize the new state, prompting Japan to leave the organization in 1933.
Later that year, the Japanese seized the neighboring province of Jehol.
Political Turmoil
While Japanese forces were successfully occupying Manchuria, there was political unrest in
Tokyo. After a failed attempt to capture Shanghai in January, Prime Minister Inukai Tsuyoshi
was assassinated on May 15, 1932, by radical elements of the Imperial Japanese Navy who were
angered by his support of the London Naval Treaty and his attempts to curb the military's power.
Tsuyoshi's death marked the end of civilian political control of the government until after World
War II. Control of the government was given to Admiral Saitō Makoto. Over the next four years,
several assassinations and coups were attempted as the military sought to gain complete control
of the government. On November 25, 1936, Japan joined with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy in
signing the Anti-Comintern Pact which was directed against global communism. In June 1937,
Fumimaro Konoe became prime minister and, despite his political leanings, sought to curb the
military's power.
The Second Sino-Japanese War Begins
Fighting between the Chinese and Japanese resumed on a large scale on July 7, 1937, following
the Marco Polo Bridge Incident, just south of Beijing. Pressured by the military, Konoe
permitted troop strength in China to grow and by the end of the year Japanese forces had
occupied Shanghai, Nanking, and southern Shanxi province. After seizing the capital of
Nanking, the Japanese brutally sacked the city in late 1937 and early 1938. Pillaging the city and
killing nearly 300,000, the event became known as the "Rape of Nanking."
To combat the Japanese invasion, the Kuomintang and Chinese Communist Party united in an
uneasy alliance against the common foe. Unable to effectively confront the Japanese directly in
battle, the Chinese traded land for time as they built up their forces and shifted industry from
threatened coastal areas to the interior. Enacting a scorched earth policy, the Chinese were able
to slow the Japanese advance by mid-1938. By 1940, the war had become a stalemate with the
Japanese controlling the coastal cities and railroads and the Chinese occupying the interior and
countryside. On September 22, 1940, taking advantage of France's defeat that summer, Japanese
troops occupied French Indochina. Five days later, the Japanese signed the Tripartiate Pact
effectively forming an alliance with Germany and Italy
Conflict with the Soviet Union
While operations were ongoing in China, Japan became embroiled in border war with the Soviet
Union in 1938. Beginning with the Battle of Lake Khasan (July 29-August 11, 1938), the conflict
was a result of a dispute over the border of Manchu China and the Russia. Also known as the
Changkufeng Incident, the battle resulted in a Soviet victory and expulsion of the Japanese from
their territory. The two clashed again in the larger Battle of Khalkhin Gol (May 11-September
16, 1939) the following year. Led by General Georgy Zhukov, Soviet forces decisively defeated
the Japanese, killing over 8,000. As a result of these defeats, the Japanese agreed to the SovietJapanese Neutrality Pact in April 1941.
Hitler's Rise to Power
The Great Depression in Germany provided a political opportunity for Hitler. Germans were
ambivalent to the parliamentary republic and increasingly open to extremist options. In 1932,
Hitler ran against Paul von Hindenburg for the presidency. Hitler came in second in both rounds
of the election, garnering more than 35 percent of the vote in the final election. The election
established Hitler as a strong force in German politics. Hindenburg reluctantly agreed to appoint
Hitler as chancellor in order to promote political balance.
Hitler used his position as chancellor to form a de facto legal dictatorship. The Reichstag Fire
Decree, announced after a suspicious fire at the Reichstag, suspended basic rights and allowed
detention without trial. Hitler also engineered the passage of the Enabling Act, which gave his
cabinet full legislative powers for a period of four years and allowed deviations from the
constitution.
Having achieved full control over the legislative and executive branches of government, Hitler
and his political allies embarked on a systematic suppression of the remaining political
opposition. By the end of June, the other parties had been intimidated into disbanding. On July
14, 1933, Hitler's Nazi Party was declared the only legal political party in Germany.
Military opposition was also punished. The demands of the SA for more political and military
power led to the Night of the Long Knives, which took place from June 30 to July 2, 1934. Ernst
Röhm and other SA leaders, along with a number of Hitler's political enemies, were rounded up
and shot.
The day before Hindenburg's death in August 1934, the cabinet had enacted a law abolishing the
office of president and combining its powers with those of the chancellor. Hitler thus became
head of state as well as head of government, and was formally named as leader and chancellor.
As head of state, Hitler became supreme commander of the armed forces. He began to mobilize
for war. Germany withdrew from the League of Nations, and Hitler announced a massive
expansion of Germany’s armed forces.
The Nazi regime also included social reform measures. Hitler promoted anti-smoking campaigns
across the country. These campaigns stemmed from Hitler's self-imposed dietary restrictions,
which included abstinence from alcohol and meat. At dinners, Hitler sometimes told graphic
stories about the slaughter of animals in an effort to shame his fellow diners. He encouraged all
Germans to keep their bodies pure of any intoxicating or unclean substance.
A main Nazi concept was the notion of racial hygiene. New laws banned marriage between nonJewish and Jewish Germans, and deprived "non-Aryans" of the benefits of German citizenship.
Hitler's early eugenic policies targeted children with physical and developmental disabilities, and
later authorized a euthanasia program for disabled adults.
The Holocaust was also conducted under the auspices of racial hygiene. Between 1939 and 1945,
Nazis and their collaborators were responsible for the deaths of 11 million to 14 million people,
including about 6 million Jews, representing two-thirds of the Jewish population in Europe.
Deaths took place in concentration and extermination camps and through mass executions. Other
persecuted groups included Poles, communists, homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses and trade
unionists, among others. Hitler probably never visited the concentration camps and did not speak
publicly about the killings.
World War II
In 1938, Hitler, along with several other European leaders, signed the Munich Agreement. The
treaty ceded the Sudetenland districts to Germany, reversing part of the Versailles Treaty. As a
result of the summit, Hitler was named Time magazine's Man of the Year for 1938. This
diplomatic win only whetted his appetite for a renewed German dominance. On September 1,
Germany invaded Poland. In response, Britain and France declared war on Germany.
Hitler escalated his activities in 1940, invading Scandinavia as well as France, Luxembourg, the
Netherlands and Belgium. Hitler ordered bombing raids on the United Kingdom, with the goal of
invasion. Germany’s formal alliance with Japan and Italy, known collectively as the Axis
powers, was signed to deter the United States from supporting and protecting the British.
On June 22, 1941, Hitler violated a non-aggression pact with Joseph Stalin, sending 3 million
German troops into the Soviet Union. The invading force seized a huge area before the German
advance was stopped outside Moscow in December 1941.
On December 7, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. Hitler was now at war against a
coalition that included the world's largest empire (Britain), the world's greatest financial power
(the U.S.) and the world's largest army (the Soviet Union).
Facing these odds, Hitler's military judgment became increasingly erratic. Germany's military
and economic position deteriorated along with Hitler's health. Germany and the Axis could not
sustain Hitler's aggressive and expansive war. In late 1942, German forces failed to seize the
Suez Canal. The German army also suffered defeats at the Battle of Stalingrad and the Battle of
Kursk. On June 6, 1944, the Western Allied armies landed in northern France. As a result of
these significant setbacks, many German officers concluded that defeat was inevitable and that
Hitler's denial would result in the destruction of the country.
Mussolini:
Benito Mussolini’s self-confessed “thirst for military glory” battled his acute intelligence,
psychological acumen, and political shrewdness for control over his military policies. Originally
a revolutionary Socialist, he abandoned his party to advocate Italian intervention in World War I.
Following the war, in which he served as a rifleman, Mussolini decided his destiny was to rule
Italy as a modern Caesar and re-create the Roman Empire. He forged the paramilitary Fascist
movement in 1919-1921, using it to march on Rome, become prime minister, and then to seize
dictatorial power (1925-1926). By subduing Libya (1922-1932), pacifying Somalia (1923-1927),
conquering Ethiopia (1935-1936), helping the Nationalists win the Spanish civil war (19361939), and seizing Albania (April 1939), Mussolini made Italy predominant in the
Mediterranean-Red Sea region. But his military adventures in 1935-1939 left his armed forces
exhausted.
National poverty, resource deficiencies, and scientific-industrial weakness, combined with
inflexible commanders, plagued the Italian forces. The king, Victor Emmanuel III, provided
monarchist officers with an authority figure to impede Mussolini’s dominance of the armed
services. An air power enthusiast, Mussolini did create an innovative, Fascist-minded air force. It
performed well over Ethiopia and Spain but lagged technologically after 1935. Mussolini
promoted Fascists to leadership positions and sponsored some new army thinking in the 1930s.
But bitter interservice rivalry crippled joint planning. Mussolini lacked the understanding and
power to solve these problems. Thus, he pursued his imperial dreams with politically,
strategically, and doctrinally incoherent forces.
Wishful thinking, megalomania, and Fascist ideology gradually overwhelmed Mussolini’s
common sense. He interpreted diplomatic victories over Britain and France during the Ethiopian
and Spanish wars (1935-1939) as proof of his military genius. Because of his parents’ and older
brother’s short lives, Mussolini expected to die young but considered himself uniquely capable
of leading Italy to greatness. Therefore he perceived a fleeting historical opportunity (19351945) for spectacular Italian aggrandizement by pitting Fascist-Nazi power against FrenchBritish decadence. Mussolini decided to gamble for a Mediterranean-African empire through war
with the west. Winning Caesarian glory would gain him the prestige necessary to abolish the
monarchy and create a truly totalitarian state.
Mussolini slowly overcame his lieutenants’ anti-German attitudes, and then allied himself with
Adolf Hitler in May 1939. Mussolini expected coordinated policies to inhibit German initiatives
until Italy’s forces recovered from their recent exertions. Mussolini planned for war in 19431945. But Hitler started World War II in September 1939, giving only one week’s warning to the
Italians and forcing an enraged, humiliated Mussolini to declare “nonbelligerence.”
Hitler’s May 1940 successes persuaded Mussolini to intervene in a presumably short, parallel
war. But Italy’s cautious generals and admirals wasted brief opportunities in the Mediterranean
and North Africa during June-October 1940. After Mussolini forced offensives in the fall, he
suffered disasters in Greece and North Africa: only German military intervention in early 1941
preserved him from a military coup. Thereafter, Hitler dragged Mussolini in his wake,
particularly once the German-Soviet war overwhelmed Axis strategy.
After the Allied victories of November 1942, Mussolini implored Hitler to make peace with
Joseph Stalin and concentrate on defeating the British-American forces. Hitler’s refusal and the
Sicilian invasion convinced the king and high command to overthrow Mussolini in July 1943.
Hitler rescued him, installing Mussolini as puppet dictator of northern Italy in September.
Mussolini facilitated significant war production for the Germans and the creation of large,
ruthless Fascist counterinsurgency forces. The April 1945 German surrender in Italy forced
Mussolini to flee. Insurgents captured and shot him.