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Manchuria
During 1931 Japan had invaded Manchuria without declaring war, breaking the rules of the League of Nations. Japan had a highly developed industry, but the land didn't have enough natural resources. Japan went to Manchuria resources because Japan didn't have them. China's immediate response was to tell the League of Nations to help take Japan out of China. Since Japan was in a depression and the only way that the League of Nations could punish them was by taking their money, it didn't help. -
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Ethiopia
The League of Nations faced another invasion. Benito Mussolini, the leader of Italy at the time, had adopted Hitler's plans to expand German territories by taking over all territories he considered German. Mussolini followed this policy when he invaded Abyssinia, which is now Ethiopia. Mussolini claimed that his policies of expansion were not different from that of other colonial powers in Africa. So he took over as he said. -
Germany's Rearmament
On March 16, 1935, Hitler announced that he would rearm Germany in violation of the Treaty of Versailles. Hitler said that Germany had begun to construct an air force, and made plans to bring conscription and create a German army of more than half a million men. Britain, France, Italy, and the League of Nations all made statements to criticize Hitler’s plans, but didn't do much to punish Germany. -
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Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil War began in 1936 when Francisco Franco led a group of very conservative and Catholic generals.The Spanish Army was against the liberal elected Spanish government. What should have been an internal military revolt like the recent attempted coup in Turkey turned into an international struggle between democracy and authoritarianism. Liberalism and conservatism, and communism were there too. All against fascism.Towards the end, fascism won. -
Anschluss
In 1938, Germany invaded, and what followed gave Hitler the cover to take over Austria outright on March 13. That was what Anschluss basically was, the annexation of Austria. A controlled plebiscite of April 10 gave a 99.7 percent approval. Discussed in 1919 by Austria, Anschluss with Germany remained hopeful during 1919–33, after which Hitler’s rise to power made it less appealing. -
Czechoslovakia
On 15 March 1939, German troops marched into and invaded Czechoslovakia. They took over Bohemia, and established safety over Slovakia. Hitler's invasion of Czechoslovakia was the end of appeasement. It proved that Hitler had been lying at Munich. It even showed that Hitler was not just interested in a 'Greater Germany'. On the 17th of March, Chamberlain gave a speech saying that he could not trust Hitler. On March 31st, Chamberlain guaranteed to defend Poland if Hitler invaded it. -
Invasion of Poland
Once Hitler had figured out how he wanted everything to go within the target country, he immediately began setting up “security” forces to annihilate all enemies of his Nazi ideology, whether it was racial, religious, or political.On this day in 1939, German forces completely took over Poland and bombed it from the air. Hitler regained all the lost territory and ultimately ruled Poland. World War II had begun. All of this led to the start of World War II.
