Axis Expansion and the Road to World War II, 1920s–1939

Italian and German expansion, 1920s–1939

2) Since the 1920s, Italy, under the command of Mussolini, had tried to obtain the territories he wanted. Key events include:

• 1924 — the city of Fiume was annexed.
• 1935 — by a plebiscite the Saarland was reincorporated into Germany.
• 1938 — Germany achieved the annexation of Austria.
• 1938 — Germany succeeded in annexing the Sudetenland, a strip of territory in Czechoslovakia inhabited by ethnic Germans. At the Munich Conference (1938), Hitler obtained that the western powers granted this territory to him, and soon afterwards the rest of the country was annexed.

In 1936 Italy conquered Abyssinia (Ethiopia): international condemnation followed. The Axis Rome–Berlin (1936) formed, and the Pact of Steel was signed in 1939. Japan seized Manchuria from China in 1931 and began a wider conquest of the country in 1937.

The tension increased with the intervention of European countries in the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939), where the final triumph corresponded to General Franco, allied with Italy and Germany.

Hitler's next goal was Poland. This country demanded the return of the "Polish Corridor," to which France and Great Britain objected, threatening Hitler with war if he attacked Poland. To avoid a war on two fronts, Hitler signed the German–Soviet Pact (Ribbentrop–Molotov) with the USSR in 1939, by which both countries divided Eastern Europe into two areas of influence. After the signature of the pact, on 1 September 1939, Germany invaded Poland. World War II had begun.

Chronology mapping and keys

1) 1921-J / 1922-E / 1923-A / 1926-H / 1929-I / 1933-B / 1934-C / 1935-F / 1938-G / 1936-38-D

Spanish Civil War — Republicans, militias and phases

3) The Republican side included:

• Moderate Republicans
• Reformers
• Socialists
• Left-wing nationalists
• Communists
• Anarchists

The most radical sector on the left tried to promote a social revolution.

• The Militias: voluntary civilian forces. They later merged into the People’s Army.
• Collectivisation of the economy: abolition of private property in many areas.
• Women: enlisted in militias and worked in factories.

Phases of the war:

1. July 1936–March 1937: Quick advance of the rebels. Failure in the conquest of Madrid.
2. April 1937–November 1938: Rebels occupied the Cantabrian front and Castellón on the Mediterranean. The Republican side remained divided in two parts: Catalonia and Madrid y Levante.
3. December 1938–March 1939: Conquest of Catalonia and Madrid.

Political movements and key terms

4)

• Fascism: Fasci (Blackshirts) / Giacomo Matteotti / kolkhoz / cooperative unions / kulaks.
• Nazism: Goebbels / concentration camps / Reichstag / Mein Kampf / Rudolf Hess.
• Stalinism: Stalin / Gosplan / Gulags / Moscow trials / CPSU (Communist Party of the Soviet Union).

Phase-to-letter mapping

5)

• 1ST (JULY 1936–MARCH 1937) — A - D - I.
• 2ND (APRIL 1937–NOV 1938) — B - C - F - G.
• 3RD (DEC 1938–MARCH 1939) — E - H - J - K.