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Japan invades Manchuria. The Kwantung Army of the Empire of Japan invaded Manchuria immediately following the Mukden Incident.
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Armed conflict that resulted in Ethiopia’s subjection to Italian rule. Fascist Italy invades, conquers, and annexes Ethiopia. War demonstrated the ineffectiveness of the League of Nations when League decisions were not supported by the great powers.
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Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy sign a treaty of cooperation on October 25. November 1, the Rome-Berlin Axis is announced.
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Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan sign the Anti-Comintern Pact, directed against the Soviet Union and the international Communist movement.
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Japan invades China, initiating World War II in the Pacific.
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Germany, Italy, Great Britain, and France sign the Munich agreement which forces the Czechoslovak Republic to cede the Sudetenland, including the key Czechoslovak military defense positions, to Nazi Germany.
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Under German pressure, the Slovaks declare their independence and form a Slovak Republic. The Germans occupy the rump Czech lands in violation of the Munich agreement, forming a Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia.
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Germany and the Soviet Union sign a nonaggression agreement and a secret codicil dividing eastern Europe into spheres of influence.
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The Soviet Union invades Finland, initiating the so-called Winter War. The Finns sue for an armistice and have to cede the northern shores of Lake Lagoda and the small Finnish coastline on the Arctic Sea to the Soviet Union.
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Germany attacks western Europe, France and the neutral Low Countries. Netherlands surrenders on May 14 and Belgium surrenders on May 28. On June 22, France signs an armistice agreement by which the Germans occupy the northern half of the country and the entire Atlantic coastline.
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Japan bombs Pearl Harbor. The United States declares war on Japan, entering World War II. Japanese troops land in the Philippines.
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Germany and its Axis partners declare war on the United States.
