The Axis Powers
The Axis powers, including Germany, Italy, and Japan, along with several affiliate states like Spain, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Thailand, and Yugoslavia, were the nations that fought against the Allied powers. The Axis powers were united in their endeavor to expand their military and national power, with the Allies being viewed as a threat to their imperialistic goals.
At its largest expanse, Germany had successfully invaded Poland, Norway, Czechoslovakia, Austria, Denmark, Belgium, the Netherlands, and France, and had attempted invasions of Great Britain and the Soviet Union. Prior to the breakout of war, Italy had invaded Greece, Ethiopia, Albania, and Egypt. During the war, Mussolini took over Greece, Yugoslavia, Somaliland, Kenya, and Sudan. Japan also exhibited expansionist ambitions, taking control of mainland China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Hong Kong, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, the Phillippines, Indonesia, and several other regions that secured its dominance in the Pacific sphere.
Nazi Germany
The Third Reich was a relatively brief but extremely destructive force in German history. The regime gained power in 1933, with Adolf Hitler being appointed German Chancellor on January 30. Although Hitler's political party (the National Socialist German Workers' Party, also referred to as the NSDAP, National Socialists, or Nazis) won a plurality of the vote in the Reichstag (Germany's legislative body) 1932 elections, they were unable to attain a majority, resulting in a short-term coalition government consisting of the NSDAP and the German National People's Party.
However, Hitler used the Reichstag fire in February 1933 as a means to gain power, proclaiming the fire was the start of a violent communist uprising. The Reichstag fire resulted in communist suppression by the German government and a law that rescinded the people's freedom of assembly and press. This was the end of Germany's democracy and the beginning of a political system called fascism.
Fascism
The political, social, and economic ideology of fascism dominated the politics of the early twentieth century. In Germany, National Socialism was a reactionary force against the harsh conditions set by the Treaty of Versailles, which exacerbated the Weimar Republic's economic and political decline after World War I and the Great Depression.
Fascism is characterized by extreme nationalism and domestic, centralized economic control, with military and political expansion serving as a means for a fascist nation to achieve self-sufficiency, or autarky. As noted earlier, all the Axis powers invaded other nations even before World War II started, and each power had a different term for their view of expansionism. The Nazis called it lebensraum, the view that German lands should all be united politically. Italy had mare nostrum, the goal of recreating a successor state to the Roman Empire that controlled the entire Mediterranean Sea. Imperial Japan had hakkō ichiu, the philosophy that imperial rule had been ordained by God. Truly, the Axis powers were united in their mission to expand their respective power and might.
Fascism is radically authoritarian, with a powerful dictator serving as the nation's sole leader and an extremely centralized econonomy restricting private enterprise and free trade. In some cases, like in Japan, the military practically runs the entire country.
In March 1933, the Enabling Act was passed, which effectively gave Hitler the power to create his own laws without interference from the Reichstag. In the same year, Hitler created the Gestapo, Nazi Germany's secret state police. Adolf Hitler continued to consolidate power by reorganizing local government, abolishing trade unions and imprisoning their leaders, banning all political parties besides the NSDAP, murdering dissident Nazi leaders in the Night of the Long Knives, and, upon the death of President Hindenburg, declaring himself the head of state and the army, or the Führer.
The Nazis sought to conquer most of Europe, invading Austria in 1938, Czechoslovakia and Poland in 1939, and Denmark, Norway, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Holland, and Romania in 1940.
The Nazi regime began persecuting minorities, such as Jews, gypsies, homosexuals, and members of other groups. This culminated in the shipment of minorities to concentration camps, the Holocaust, and the Final Solution.
Imperial Japan
The Empire of Japan began with the 1854 Convention of Kanagawa, which allowed American ships to dock in Japanese ports. This treaty ended the period of Japanese sakoku, the isolationist policy that barred foreigners entry to Japan, and allowed Japan to flourish internationally in trade and transition to an industrial economy. With this new power and money, Japan sought military expansion.
In 1895, Japan annexed Taiwan. In 1910, Japan annexed Korea. By the breakout of World War II, Japan had already expanded well into Southeast Asia and was, by far, the most dominant force on the Pacific. After Japan invaded Manchuria and French Indochina, the US implemented new trade embargoes and sanctions, and halted shipments of airplanes, parts, machine tools, and gasoline to Japan. These moves only escalated tensions, until they culminated in the attack on Pearl Harbor, when the US entered World War II.
Fascist Italy
Unlike Hitler's Nazi Party, Mussolini's Fascist Party did not attain power through the democratic process, but through an intimidation event called the March on Rome. The March on Rome can hardly be called a coup d'etat, as the Italian king, Victor Emmanuel III, voluntarily appointed Mussolini as Prime Minister afterward, in 1922, in order to quell the possibility of civil war between monarchists and fascists (a war the king would almost certainly lose, as Mussolini had the support of conservatives, the middle class, and the military). In the 1924 general elections, Mussolini's party secured 65% of the popular vote, demonstrating that the Fascists were a populist reactionary force against the failed liberal government.
The Fascists were successful in attaining political power because of the economic and social conflict affecting Italy immediately following World War I. Between 1919 and 1920, the country was plagued with high unemployment, rising inflation, and governmental instability, in part because of Italy's costly military involvement in World War I. These years were characterized by unforeseen political and social violence and terrorism, and are referred to as the Biennio Rosso.
Mussolini's power and status were undermined following brutal defeats in the war, including the loss of African colonies, Allied invasions of Sicily and Southern Italy, and the bombing of Rome. On July 25, 1943, King Victor Emmanuel III dismissed Mussolini from the office of Prime Minister and issued a warrant for his arrest. On September 8, 1943, Italian General Pietro Badoglio announced an armistice with the Allied powers wherein Italy unconditionally surrendered. Hitler immediately mobilized his forces and Nazi troops invaded and seized control of Northern and Central Italy. The Nazis established a puppet Italian fascist state, led once again by Benito Mussolini until the defeat of the Nazis in 1945.