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The Anti-Comintern Pact was concluded between Nazi-Germany and Japan on
November 25th, 1936. The pact was ostensibly directed against the Communist
International (Comintern) but was specifically directed against the Soviet
Union. In case of an unprovoked attack by the Soviet Union against Germany
or Japan, the two nations agreed to consult on what measures to take "to
safeguard their common interests". It also agreed that neither nation would
make any political treaties with the Soviet Union, and Germany also agreed
to recognize the Japanese puppet regime in Manchuria. In 1937 Italy joined
the Pact, thereby forming the group that would later lead be known as the
Axis Powers.
Italy's joining was more or less a reaction against the failed Stresa
Front, the Franco-British initiative of 1935 designed to keep Nazi-Germany
from extending beyond her borders, primarily the Anschluss of Austria, where
the Nazis recently had assassinated the Italy-oriented dictator Engelbert
Dollfuss. However, in June 1935 an Anglo-German Naval Agreement was signed,
followed by mistrust from the unknowing France and Italy.
Meanwhile, Italy invaded the African State of Abyssinia, an act of
unprovoked aggression. Nevertheless, Britain and France hashed out a secret
agreement with Italy to give her two-thirds of Abyssinia. When this
information was leaked to the public in Britain and France, their
governments collapsed in scandal. Mussolini realized that future governments
of France and the United Kingdom will be less accommodating. After Italy's
signing the Anti-Comintern Pact, the Franco-British initiative is failed,
and soon Anschluss of Austria is to be realized.
Adolf Hitler broke the terms of the pact when he signed the
Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact in August 1939. He did this because he was
attempting to avoid a war on two-fronts. By 1940 Hitler once again began to
consider invading the Soviet Union and the German foreign minister, Joachim
von Ribbentrop, was sent to negotiate a new treaty with Japan. On September
25th, 1940, Ribbentrop sent a telegram to Vyacheslav Molotov, the Soviet
foreign minister, informing him that Germany, Italy and Japan were about to
sign a military alliance. Ribbentrop pointed out that the alliance was to be
directed towards the United States and not the Soviet Union. "Its exclusive
purpose is to bring the elements pressing for America's entry into the war
to their senses by conclusively demonstrating to them if they enter the
present struggle they will automatically have to deal with the three great
powers as adversaries."
The Anti-Comintern Pact was revived in 1941, after Germany's assault on
the Soviet Union, (Operation Barbarossa), and on November 25th its renewal
for another five years was celebrated. This time the parties were: Germany,
Japan, Italy, Hungary, Spain, Manchukuo, Bulgaria, Croatia, Denmark,
Finland, Rumania, Slovakia, and the Nanking regime in China.
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