German and Italian expansion: Events

Rise of Dictatorships

Adolf Hitler rose to power in Germany in 1933, and Benito Mussolini had been in power in Italy since 1922.
Hitler’s Nazi Party and Mussolini’s Fascist Party shared strong nationalist and expansionist policies.
Both dictators were adept at using propaganda to gain support and fuel nationalist feelings.

German Expansion

Germany began to break the terms of the Treaty of Versailles in 1935 with the reintroduction of compulsory military service and began rearming.
The Rhineland was remilitarised by Germany in 1936, breaking the Treaty of Versailles. The League of Nations did not take any effective action.
The Anschluss of Austria took place in 1938, again directly violating the Treaty of Versailles, but there wasn’t any serious international response.
Hitler demanded the Sudetenland, a region of Czechoslovakia with a high German-speaking population, which was ceded to Germany in the Munich Agreement of 1938.
In March 1939, Hitler broke the Munich Agreement by annexing the rest of Czechoslovakia, demonstrating his territorial ambitions were not limited to including German-speaking peoples.

Italian Expansion

Mussolini aimed to build a new Roman Empire and believed this could be achieved through territorial expansion.
Italy invaded Ethiopia in 1935. The League of Nations condemned the attack but failed to take any effective action, exposing its weakness.
In 1939, Italy invaded Albania which marked another step in Mussolini’s expansionist foreign policy.
Mussolini signed the Pact of Steel with Hitler in 1939, concretifying the Rome-Berlin Axis, and showing Italy’s intention to align with other expansionist powers.

Failure of Appeasement

The policy of appeasement adopted mainly by Britain and France allowed German and Italian expansion to go unchecked for a considerable period.
The policy was based on the belief that if reasonable demands of these countries were met, it would prevent further aggression and war.
The Munich Agreement of 1938, where the Sudetenland was given to Germany, is a prime example of appeasement.
The annexation of the rest of Czechoslovakia by Germany in 1939 demonstrated that appeasement was failing as a policy.
The eventual signing of the Nazi–Soviet Pact by Germany and the invasion of Poland marked the end of appeasement and the onset of World War II.