Beginning of the Axis
Despite a shared fascist ideology, Italy was not friendly to German ambitions. Italy particularly opposed German union with Austria, which would greatly increase German influence in European affairs and expand German territory to the Italian border. When Nazi sympathizers in Austria assassinated Austrian chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss in 1934, Mussolini mobilized troops at the Austro-Italian border.
A change in Italy's attitude came after Mussolini, anxious for new colonies and military prestige, ordered the invasion of Ethiopia in October, 1935. The League of Nations called for economic reprisals against Italy. Although the world's leading nations did little, Italy's international reputation was damaged. Germany, however, fully supported Italy's invasion of Ethiopia. In 1936 the two countries signed a political and commercial agreement that Mussolini called "an axis around which all European states animated by the desire for peace may collaborate." This statement provided the name "Axis" for Germany, Italy, and their allies in World War II.
In July, 1936, rebels led by General Francisco Franco began an attempt to overthrow the republican government of Spain. Franco's rebels were sympathetic to fascism, and both Italy and Germany sent equipment and troops to assist them. The Soviet Union gave some aid to Spain, and many people from around the world volunteered to fight for the Spanish government. Most countries, however, held to a policy of nonintervention. With the help of the fascist countries, Franco was able to overthrow the government and establish a dictatorship. The Spanish civil war was later called a dress rehearsal for World War II because the fascist countries used the occasion to experiment with many new weapons and tactics.
The following March, however, Hitler annexed most of Czechoslovakia, leaving untouched only Slovakia, which was made a puppet state, and small border areas ceded to Poland and Hungary in return for their noninterference. On March 22, 1939, Germany seized from Lithuania a German-inhabited area called Memel.
