The combination of new-found national pride and its spin-off, prejudice, was highly influential in the formation of the war machines in Germany, Italy, and Japan. These countries sought to glorify their military prowess and were laboring under economic recession when they independently began their march to world power.
This combination of nationalism and economic recession set Japan on its course of conquest early in the century. The rising population in Japan, coupled with insufficient natural resources, created a need that could be satisfied by goods obtained through import or taken by military force. Japan chose aggressive expansion, annexing Korea in 1910, and taking over the German holdings in northeast China in 1915. Japan's expansion continued in the early 1930s until it eventually included the northern China province of Manchuria, portions of Mongolia, and territory on the outskirts of Peking.
In 1937, a conflict between the Chinese and Japanese, the Marco Polo Bridge incident, quickly escalated into the Sino-Japanese War. In December of that year Nanking, the Chinese capital, fell to the Japanese army. Known as the Rape of Nanking, Japanese occupation became an orgy of destruction, rape, and looting that claimed the lives of nearly 200,000 people.
Japan's expansionist activities were sanctioned by that country's philosophy of a Greater Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere. Japan sought to reclaim all Asian lands currently colonized by European countries. "Asians for Asia" was the motto.
In September 1940, Japanese troops moved into the northern section of Indochina to establish another route into China. At the same time, Japan hoped to close another supply route into China. The United States joined France in objecting to this intrusion into the French-held colony, and enacted a trade embargo against Japan. In 1941, Great Britain and the Netherlands stopped exporting oil to Japan. These economic sanctions created a stand-off with the U.S., France, and England on one side, and Japan on the other. The stage was now set for war in the Pacific.
A similar pattern of nationalism and recession leading to aggression was evident in Germany's policies after World War I. The Treaty of Versailles, a post-World War I agreement that imposed humiliating restrictions on the German people, created economic chaos and bitter resentment. The treaty further created an environment for Hitler's rise to power on a platform designed to unite and restore Germany's former empire. Hitler was determined to annex neighboring countries with citizens of German extraction and began with the reunification of Saarland with Germany. When no one challenged this aggression, he violated the terms of the Versailles treaty and re-militarized the Rhineland in 1936. His next move was to form allies in Europe through an agreement with Italy to provide military support for the Spanish Nationalists lead by General Franco in the Spanish Civil War.
Hitler's conquest continued with the invasion of Austria and Czechoslovakia, actions proclaimed necessary to protect German heritage. Europe watched, still offering no challenge to the German leader, unaware of his secret plans for Poland and an alliance with Russia.
Though western allies had been discussing non-aggression pacts with Russia for several months, Hitler stunned the world by securing a ten-year non-aggression pact with Moscow in August 1938.
On 1 September 1939, assured of an ally on the eastern front, Hitler invaded Poland. In response, Great Britain, France, Australia, and New Zealand finally declared war on Germany, but did not act on their declaration, further encouraging Hitler's plans for Europe.
Like Japan and Germany, who eventually were part of the Axis powers, Italy, under the leadership of Mussolini, also sought to reestablish past glory. Italians hoped for the return of a Roman Empire, spreading from Italy throughout North Africa into the Middle East. In 1935, emboldened by the lack of significant resistance to Japan's aggression against China, Italy invaded Ethiopia. Italy formally annexed Ethiopia in 1936.
Bolstered further by the successes of Hitler in expanding German territory without war, Italy occupied Albania in 1938. In 1940, honoring its mutual defense treaty with Germany, Italy entered the war as an Axis ally. As part of the Axis alliance, Mussolini hoped to expand the Italian empire even further by invading Egypt, Yugoslavia, and Greece.
As the war in Europe progressed, the war in the Pacific finally united all the partners in both the Axis powers and the Allied powers. Hitler had agreed to support Japan in the event the United States and Japan went to war. Japan's response to the Allied oil embargo in 1941 was to attack the Philippines, Singapore, and Pearl Harbor without a declaration of war. The United States immediately declared war on Japan and, as promised, Hitler also declared war on the United States. The United States then joined the Allies and declared war on Germany. By late 1941, what had been two separate wars of virtually unchecked expansion was now a single world war between Allied and Axis forces.
