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Show J Forming of Axis Was First Phase trt Of Long Struggle Hitler made his first move In the long chain of events that was to lead to World War II in 1936, after . he had secretly built up a German L , army and had rearmed the country LA) in direct violation of the Versailles treaty. In March, 1938, Hitler ordered the , first of his goose-stepping legions into the Rhineland, cutting France oft from her eastern allies and setting set-ting up a barrier that could not be circumvented by anything short of , total war which he knew France was not ready to declare. Then in October. 1936, Hitler and Mussolini formed the Rome-Berlin pact, giving both fascist nations the agreements they needed to bully the world. Mussolini had already taken Ethiopia and had defied the British navy to try to enforce sanctions against him the only threat which i the democratic nations of the world were able to make. In March, 1938, Hitler grabbed Austria and he now found himself with a perfect gateway to Czechoslovakia, Czecho-slovakia, where the only real threat in arms was to be found in the well-equipped well-equipped Czech army. Munich Ajreement. But even that army found itself hemmed In on three sides and Hitler Hit-ler and Mussolini were ready to dictate dic-tate the terms to Czechoslovakia and Daladier at Munich where Great Britain and France agreed to the aurrender of the Sudetenland and with it all of Czechoslovakia's industrial indus-trial areas and armed power. While all this had been going on In central Europe, Spain had been fighting a bitter civil war that was the testing ground for many of the German and Italian armies' plans 0 for "blitzkrieg." the lightning war 5i that was to sweep Europe. Spain e . found itself in the Fascist camp, s and the Allies found that the Mediterranean Medi-terranean had suddenly become an Axis "lake" with the British fleet n still defied by Italy. In the United States, a wordy civil lt war was being fought on the threat ,e of being drawn into the maelstrom that was developing across the At- lantic. This country was not yet sure that it could stay out of war. :n but there was a decided sentiment ? that this time "the Yanks aren't coming" and a good percentage of the population believed that we . ' should stay out of the fight. |