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When Manchuria was invaded by the Kwantung Army of the Empire of Japan immediately following the Mukden Incident. The Japanese established a puppet state, called Manchukoku, and their occupation lasted until the end of World War II.
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Italy conquers Ethiopia through overwhelming military force, revealing the ineffectiveness of the League of Nations and encouraging Mussolini’s exaggerated estimate of his nation’s military power.
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The British Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, flew to meet Hitler at his private mountain retreat in Berchtesgaden in an attempt to resolve the crisis.
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Franco finally seized control of Madrid on March 27, 1939, after three years of fighting. ON April 1, 1939, the Republican forces officially surrendered to the Nationalist forces and Franco established his government as the official government of Spain. After all of this fighting, Franco sought to prevent further conflict and he ceremoniously laid his sword upon an altar in a church, vowing to never take it again unless Spain was invaded.
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The Germans practiced a new form of attack that they unveiled in the invasion of Poland. Called blitzkrieg (“lightning war”), this new military tactic included a fast, concentrated air and land attack that took the enemy's army by surprise.
