The political and ideological alliance between Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy
Italy's war with Ethiopia touched off an international political crisis that led to Italian-German rapprochement in 1936, manifested in shared propaganda against the "degenerate democratic West." The Spanish Civil War, which began in July 1936, and the military support provided by Italy and Germany to the anti-republican camp, gave the bilateral rapprochement momentum. The term "Berlin-Rome axis" was first invoked by Mussolini in Milan in November 1936, and afterwards became common coin. In September 1940, Germany, Italy, and Japan concluded an alliance that resulted in the creation of a "tripartite axis" composed of Berlin, Rome, and Tokyo. In the course of World War II, the term "axis countries" was also used to denote Germany's other Allies, such as Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, and Bulgaria.
