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137-649: In June 1940, the Axis powers conquered France as part of the broader World War II , establishing a collaborationist Vichy regime in the country. The governor of French Indochina Admiral Jean Decoux declared his loyalty to the Vichy regime. In September 1940, the Empire of Japan invaded French Indochina occupying its northern part and completing its occupation in July 1941. Vichy officials continued their administration of

274-675: A 10-year Non-Aggression Pact in 1934, revealing his plans to only to his closest associates. Relations between Germany and Poland altered from the early to the late 1930s, as Germany sought rapprochement with Poland to avoid the risk of Poland entering the Soviet sphere of influence, and appealed to anti-Soviet sentiment in Poland. Hitler even tried to convince Poland to join the Anti-Comintern Pact. The Soviet Union in turn at this time competed with Germany for influence in Poland. At

411-645: A break in French control. Early Vietnamese resistance centered on the intellectual Phan Bội Châu . Châu looked to Japan, which had modernized and was one of the few Asian nations to successfully resist European colonization. With Prince Cường Để , Châu started the two organizations in Japan, the Duy Tân hội (Modernistic Association) and Vietnam Cong Hien Hoi . Due to French pressure, Japan deported Phan Bội Châu to China. Witnessing Sun Yat-sen 's Xinhai Revolution , Châu

548-611: A faction of ultra-nationalists within the government supporting the pact while the Imperial Japanese Navy and the Japanese Foreign Ministry were staunchly opposed to the pact. There was great concern in the Japanese government that such a pact with Germany could disrupt Japan's relations with Britain, endangering years of a beneficial Anglo-Japanese accord , that had allowed Japan to ascend in

685-709: A goodwill gesture to Germany, Italy secretly delivered weapons for the Reichswehr , which had faced major disarmament under the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles . Since the 1920s Italy had identified the year 1935 as a crucial date for preparing for a war against France, as 1935 was the year when Germany's obligations under the Treaty of Versailles were scheduled to expire. Meetings took place in Berlin in 1924 between Italian General Luigi Capello and prominent figures in

822-689: A large-scale purge. In addition to British support, the French also received assistance from various southern groups that modern historians consider unambiguously Vietnamese. After the August Revolution, the armed militias from the religious Hòa Hảo sect backed by the Japanese were in direct conflict with the Viet Minh who sought to take full control of the country. This ultimately led to the assassination of their leader in April 1947. The Bình Xuyên organized crime group also sought power in

959-663: A local Nazi government that sought incorporation into Germany) in 1939. Poland rejected Germany's demands and Germany in response prepared a general mobilization on the morning of 30 August 1939. Germany justified its invasion of the Low Countries of Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands in May 1940 by claiming that it suspected that Britain and France were preparing to use the Low Countries to launch an invasion of

1096-671: A major power and create a Greater Germany that would include Alsace-Lorraine , Austria, Sudetenland , and other German-populated territories in Europe. The Nazis also aimed to occupy and colonize non-German territories in Poland, the Baltic states , and the Soviet Union, as part of the Nazi policy of seeking Lebensraum ("living space") in Central and Eastern Europe . Germany renounced

1233-487: A more accommodating stance towards Italy in the Mediterranean. In the summer of 1936, Italian Foreign Minister Galeazzo Ciano informed Japanese Ambassador to Italy, Sugimura Yotaro, "I have heard that a Japanese–German agreement concerning the Soviet Union has been reached, and I think it would be natural for a similar agreement to be made between Italy and Japan." Initially Japan's attitude towards Italy's proposal

1370-548: A population of 47.5 million and France (excluding its colonies) 42 million. The wartime gross domestic product (GDP) of the Axis was $ 911 billion at its highest in 1941 in international dollars by 1990 prices. The GDP of the Allied powers was $ 1,798 billion. The United States stood at $ 1,094 billion, more than the Axis combined. The burden of the war upon participating countries has been measured through

1507-448: A result of Italy's economic difficulties its soldiers were poorly paid, often being poorly equipped and poorly supplied, and animosity arose between soldiers and class-conscious officers; these contributed to low morale amongst Italian soldiers. By early 1940, Italy was still a non-belligerent, and Mussolini communicated to Hitler that Italy was not prepared to intervene soon. By March 1940, Mussolini decided that Italy would intervene, but

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1644-476: A result of Italy's support for Japan against international condemnation, Japan took a more positive attitude towards Italy and offered proposals for a non-aggression or neutrality pact with Italy. The Tripartite Pact was signed by Germany, Italy, and Japan on 27 September 1940, in Berlin. The pact was subsequently joined by Hungary (20 November 1940), Romania (23 November 1940), Slovakia (24 November 1940), and Bulgaria (1 March 1941). The Axis powers' primary goal

1781-554: A sizable regular army facilitated by large popular support. They used guerrilla warfare doctrine and instruction from Mao's China, and used war materiel provided by the Soviet Union. This combination proved fatal for the French bases, culminating in a decisive French defeat at the Battle of Điện Biên Phủ . An estimated 400,000 to 842,707 soldiers died during the war as well as between 125,000 and 400,000 civilians. Both sides committed war crimes including killings of civilians (such as

1918-607: A strategic alliance of Italy with Germany against France since the early 1920s. Prior to becoming head of government in Italy as leader of the Italian Fascist movement, Mussolini had advocated alliance with defeated Germany after the Paris Peace Conference (1919–1920) settled World War I . He believed that Italy could expand its influence in Europe by allying with Germany against France. In early 1923, as

2055-539: A trilateral axis. Contentious negotiations between the Italian foreign minister, Galeazzo Ciano , and the German ambassador, Ulrich von Hassell , resulted in a Nine-Point Protocol , signed by Ciano and his German counterpart, Konstantin von Neurath , in 1936. When Mussolini publicly announced the signing on 1 November, he proclaimed the creation of a Rome–Berlin axis. Italy under Duce Benito Mussolini had pursued

2192-474: A war with Germany should Hitler dare to attack Austria. Relations between Germany and Italy recovered due to Hitler's support of Italy's invasion of Ethiopia in 1935, while other countries condemned the invasion and advocated sanctions against Italy. Interest in Germany and Japan in forming an alliance began when Japanese diplomat Hiroshi Ōshima visited Joachim von Ribbentrop in Berlin in 1935. Although at

2329-752: The Nhân Dân journal) calling for a general uprising, resistance and guerrilla warfare against the Japanese. It also called on the French in Vietnam to recognize Vietnamese independence and on the DeGaulle French government (Allied French) to recognize Vietnam's independence and fight alongside them against Japan. In an article from August 1945, (republished 17 August 1970), the North Vietnamese National Assembly Chairman Truong Chinh denounced

2466-739: The August Revolution , Japanese forces allowed the Việt Minh and other nationalist groups to take over public buildings and weapons. For the most part, the Japanese Army destroyed their equipment or surrendered it to Allied forces, but some of the weapons fell to the Việt Minh, including some French equipment. The Việt Minh also recruited more than 600 Japanese soldiers to train Vietnamese. On 25 August, Hồ Chí Minh persuaded Emperor Bảo Đại to abdicate and become "supreme advisor" to

2603-725: The Declaration of St James's Palace which established the United Nations War Crimes Commission (UNWCC). UNWCC was to investigate Axis war crimes committed during the course of the war. In May 1944, an UNWCC sub-commission was established in Chungking in order to pursue those responsible for Japanese war crimes in the Pacific War. Vichy collaboration with the Japanese in Indochina, restricted

2740-758: The Eastern Front , Vlasov's forces were recognized by Germany as an ally, particularly by Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler . After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the outbreak of war between Japan and the United States, Germany supported Japan by declaring war on the US. During the war Germany denounced the Atlantic Charter and the Lend-Lease Act that the US adopted to support

2877-636: The Empire of Japan . The Axis were united in their far-right positions and general opposition to the Allies, but otherwise lacked comparable coordination and ideological cohesion. The Axis grew out of successive diplomatic efforts by Germany, Italy, and Japan to secure their own specific expansionist interests in the mid-1930s. The first step was the protocol signed by Germany and Italy in October 1936, after which Italian leader Benito Mussolini declared that all other European countries would thereafter rotate on

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3014-641: The Franco-Thai War , the Vichy French in Indochina defended their colony in a border conflict in which the forces of Thailand invaded while the Japanese sat on the sidelines. Thai military successes were limited to the Cambodian border area, and in January 1941 Vichy France's modern naval forces soundly defeated the inferior Thai naval forces in the Battle of Ko Chang . The war ended in May, with

3151-676: The Ho–Sainteny agreement . In February 1946, he also forced the French to surrender all of their concessions and ports in China, including Shanghai, in exchange for Chinese troops withdrawing from northern Indochina and allowing French troops to reoccupy the region starting in March 1946. This left the VNQDĐ without support, and they were suppressed by Việt Minh and French troops. The Việt Minh massacred thousands of VNQDĐ members and other nationalists in

3288-872: The Indochina War in France, and as the Anti-French Resistance War in Vietnam , and alternatively internationally as the French-Indochina War ) was fought between France and Việt Minh ( Democratic Republic of Vietnam ), and their respective allies, from 19 December 1946 until 21 July 1954. Việt Minh was led by Võ Nguyên Giáp and Hồ Chí Minh . Most of the fighting took place in Tonkin in Northern Vietnam, although

3425-522: The Lang Son Massacre . The defendants included commanding officer colonel Shizume, and his three captains including Yoshio Fukuda and Kayakawa. Shizume was accused of taking prisoners into a small courtyard in groups of 20 where they were shot and bayoneted. Kayakawa was accused of ordering the murder of general Émile Lemonnier after the latter refused to surrender. All of the defendants were sentenced to death and executed. On 14 February 1947,

3562-603: The Mỹ Trạch massacre by French troops), rape and torture. At the International Geneva Conference on 21 July 1954, the new socialist French government and the Việt Minh agreed to give the Việt Minh control of North Vietnam above the 17th parallel , but this was rejected by the State of Vietnam and the United States. A year later, Bảo Đại would be deposed by his prime minister, Ngô Đình Diệm , creating

3699-655: The Potsdam Conference , 200,000 troops of the Chinese 1st Army occupied northern Indochina to the 16th parallel, while the British under the South-East Asia Command of Lord Mountbatten occupied the south. The Chinese troops had been sent by Chiang Kai-shek under General Lu Han to accept the surrender of Japanese forces occupying that area, then to supervise the disarming and repatriation of

3836-637: The Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia and the country of Slovakia . On 23 August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact , which contained a secret protocol dividing eastern Europe into spheres of influence. Germany's invasion of its part of Poland under the Pact eight days later triggered the beginning of World War II. By the end of 1941, Germany occupied a large part of Europe and its military forces were fighting

3973-773: The Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam). Soon an insurgency , backed by the communist north, developed against Diệm's anti-communist government. This conflict, known as the Vietnam War , included large U.S. military intervention in support of the South Vietnamese and ended in 1975 with the defeat of South Vietnam to the North Vietnamese and the reunification of Vietnam. Vietnam was absorbed into French Indochina in stages between 1858 and 1887. Vietnamese nationalism grew until World War II, which provided

4110-526: The Soviet Union in 1941, the Nazi regime's stance towards an independent, territorially-reduced Russia was affected by pressure beginning in 1942 from the German Army on Hitler to endorse a " Russian Liberation Army " led by Andrey Vlasov . Initially the proposal to support an anti-communist Russian army was met with outright rejection by Hitler, however by 1944 as Germany faced mounting losses on

4247-591: The US Occupational Authorities . After Japan achieved sovereignty on 28 April 1952, their sentences could only be modified with French authorization. After 1949, the trials lost their political importance as France sought to improve its relations with Japan and struggled to contain the Viet Minh rebellion after the communists emerged victorious in the Chinese Civil War . The judges opted to voluntarily discontinue criminal charges before

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4384-893: The West who have invariably hindered the progress and often threatened the very existence of the Italian people ". Italy condemned the Western powers for enacting sanctions on Italy in 1935 for its actions in the Second Italo-Ethiopian War that Italy claimed was a response to an act of Ethiopian aggression against tribesmen in Italian Eritrea in the Walwal incident of 1934. Italy, like Germany, also justified its actions by claiming that Italy needed to territorially expand to provide spazio vitale ("vital space") for

4521-859: The partisans , supported by the Allies, contended the Social Republic's forces and its German allies. Some areas in Northern Italy were liberated from the Germans as late as May, 1945. Mussolini was killed by Communist partisans on 28 April 1945 while trying to escape to Switzerland. The Dodecanese Islands were an Italian dependency known as the Italian Islands of the Aegean from 1912 to 1943. First Indochina War [REDACTED] DR Vietnam [REDACTED] Lao Issara (1945–1949) [REDACTED] Pathet Lao (1949–1954) [REDACTED] Khmer Issarak Supported by : [REDACTED] French Union Supported by : Total: est. 450,000 State of Vietnam : State of Vietnam: Total: est. 134,500 dead or missing Second Third The First Indochina War (generally known as

4658-404: The 1911 revolution and anti-Japanese war which had made it "not the same as feudal China". In September 1945, Ho Chi Minh called on the people to contribute gold to purchase weapons for the Viet Minh and also gifts for the Chinese, presenting a golden opium pipe to the Chinese general Lu Han. Lu Han pressured Ho Chi Minh for rice to feed the Chinese occupation force. Rice sent to Cochinchina by

4795-445: The Allied powers prior to entry into the alliance, as imperialism directed at dominating and exploiting countries outside of the continental Americas . Hitler denounced American President Franklin D. Roosevelt 's invoking of the term "freedom" to describe US actions in the war, and accused the American meaning of "freedom" to be the freedom for democracy to exploit the world and the freedom for plutocrats within such democracy to exploit

4932-424: The Allies by surrendering Indochina to Japan. Ho Chi Minh blamed Dong Minh Hoi and VNDQQ for signing the agreement with France which allowed its soldiers to return to Vietnam. Chinese communist guerrilla leader Chu Chia-pi visited northern Vietnam multiple times in 1945 and helped the Viet Minh fight against the French from Yunnan. Chiang Kai-shek forced the contentious French and Việt Minh to come to terms in

5069-483: The Chinese forces which started gradually returning to China. In further negotiations, the French would seek to ratify Vietnam's position within the Union and the Vietnamese main priorities were preserving their independence and the reunification with the Republic of Cochinchina , which had been created by High Commissioner Georges d'Argenlieu in June. In September, once main negotiations had broken down in Paris over these two key issues, Ho Chi Minh and Marius Moutet ,

5206-437: The Chinese soldiers occupied northern Indochina, Ho Chi Minh's Viet Minh tried to appease the Chinese soldiers with welcome parades in Hanoi and Haiphong, while reassuring the Vietnamese people that China supported Vietnam's independence. Viet Minh newspapers emphasized the common ancestry (huyết thống) and culture shared by Vietnamese and Chinese, and their common struggle against western imperialists, and expressed admiration for

5343-426: The Chinese were fully investigated, to the extent of executions for some Vietnamese who attacked Chinese soldiers. While Chiang Kai-shek, Xiao Wen (Hsiao Wen) and the Kuomintang Chinese government were uninterested in occupying Vietnam beyond the allotted time period and involving itself in the war between the Viet Minh and the French, the Yunnan warlord Lu Han wanted to establish a Chinese trusteeship of Vietnam under

5480-505: The Directorate and avoiding an immediate armed conflict. The Four Power Directorate proposal stipulated that Germany would no longer be required to have limited arms and would be granted the right to re-armament under foreign supervision in stages. Hitler completely rejected the idea of controlled rearmament under foreign supervision. Mussolini did not trust Hitler's intentions regarding Anschluss nor Hitler's promise of no territorial claims on South Tyrol. Mussolini informed Hitler that he

5617-693: The Fascist regime's support prior to intervention against Yugoslavia. The intention of the Fascist regime was to create a " New Roman Empire " in which Italy would dominate the Mediterranean . In 1935–1936 Italy invaded and annexed Ethiopia and the Fascist government proclaimed the creation of the " Italian Empire ". Protests by the League of Nations , especially the British, who had interests in that area, led to no serious action, although The League did try to enforce economic sanctions upon Italy, but to no avail. The incident highlighted French and British weakness, exemplified by their reluctance to alienate Italy and lose her as their ally. The limited actions taken by

French Permanent Military Tribunal in Saigon - Misplaced Pages Continue

5754-436: The French Minister of the Colonies , signed a temporary modus vivendi which reaffirmed the March Accord, although no specifications were made on the issue of a Nam Bộ (Cochinchina) reunification referendum and negotiations for a definitive treaty were set to begin no later than January 1947. In the north, an uneasy peace had been maintained during the negotiations, in November however, fighting broke out in Haiphong between

5891-414: The French Republic was faced with completely reforming its legal system in order to remove the footmarks of the Vichy regime. The French War Crimes Ordinance was created on 28 August 1944 by a team of jurists associated with the democratic branch of the French Resistance , with the ideas put forward by René Cassin and François de Menthon being featured prominently in the document. The ordinance delegated

6028-467: The French agreeing to minor territorial revisions which restored formerly Thai areas to Thailand. Hồ Chí Minh, upon his return to Vietnam in 1941, formed the Viet Nam Doc Lap Dong Minh Hoi (League for the Independence of Vietnam), better known as the Việt Minh. He founded the Việt Minh as an umbrella organization , seeking to appeal to a base beyond his own communist beliefs by emphasizing national liberation instead of class struggle. In March 1945, with

6165-530: The French and the Japanese" for the deaths of "more than two million" Vietnamese. American President Franklin D. Roosevelt and General Joseph Stilwell privately opposed continued French rule in Indochina after the war. Roosevelt suggested that Chiang Kai-shek place Indochina under Chinese rule; Chiang Kai-shek supposedly replied: "Under no circumstances!" Following Roosevelt's death in April 1945, U.S. resistance to French rule weakened. Japanese forces in Vietnam surrendered on 15 August 1945, and an armistice

6302-434: The French colonial administration, the Japanese ruled from behind the scenes, as did the Germans in Vichy France . For Vietnamese nationalists, this was a double-puppet government, with the Axis powers behind the French behind the Vietnamese local officials. Emperor Bảo Đại collaborated with the Japanese, just as he had with the French, ensuring his continued safety safety and comfort. From October 1940 to May 1941, during

6439-444: The French gradually retook control of much of Indochina. Hồ Chí Minh agreed to talk with France but negotiations failed. After one year of low-level conflict, all-out war broke out in December 1946 between French and Việt Minh forces as Hồ Chí Minh and his government went underground. The French tried to stabilize Indochina by reorganizing it as a Federation of Associated States . In 1949, they put former Emperor Bảo Đại back in power, as

6576-588: The French in October 1945 was divided by Ho Chi Minh, with only one third to the northern Vietnamese and two thirds to the Chinese. After 18 December 1945, elections were postponed for 15 days in response to a demand by Chinese general Chen Xiuhe to allow the Dong Minh Hoi and VNQDD to prepare. Beyond their food quota, the occupiers seized several rice stockpiles and other private and public goods, and were accused of rapes, beatings, occupying private dwellings, and burning down others, resulting only in apologies or partial compensation. By contrast, Vietnamese crimes against

6713-408: The French population, most of the victims were members of resistance networks. Unlike other war crime tribunals in South East Asia, no persecutions were made for war crimes against the indigenous population. FPMTS served as an instrument of French foreign policy, aiming to highlight France as a victim of Japanese aggression while simultaneously showcasing the ability of the colonial authorities to govern

6850-411: The French side. Vietnamese society also polarized along ethnic lines: the Nung minority assisted the French, while the Tay assisted the Việt Minh. In March 1946, a preliminary accord signed between the French and Ho Chi Minh which acknowledged the DRV as a free state within an Indochinese Federation in a " French Union " and allowed a limited number of French troops within its borders to replace

6987-511: The French, despite the previous support of the Việt Minh by American OSS representatives. The DRV ruled as the only civil government in all of Vietnam for a period of about 20 days, after the abdication of Emperor Bảo Đại , who had governed under the Japanese rule. On 23 September 1945, with the knowledge of the British commander in Saigon, French forces overthrew the local DRV government, and declared French authority restored in Cochinchina. Guerrilla warfare began around Saigon immediately, but

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7124-492: The German military, such as von Seeckt and Erich Ludendorff , over military collaboration between Germany and Italy. The discussions concluded that Germans still wanted a war of revenge against France but were short on weapons and hoped that Italy could assist Germany. However at this time Mussolini stressed one important condition that Italy must pursue in an alliance with Germany: that Italy "must ... tow them, not be towed by them". Italian foreign minister Dino Grandi in

7261-478: The Italian nation. In October 1938 in the aftermath of the Munich Agreement, Italy demanded concessions from France to yield to Italy in Africa. Relations between Italy and France deteriorated with France's refusal to accept Italy's demands. France responded to Italy's demands with threatening naval manoeuvres as a warning to Italy. As tensions between Italy and France grew, Hitler made a major speech on 30 January 1939 in which he promised German military support in

7398-432: The Italian prime minister Benito Mussolini in September 1923, when he wrote in the preface to Roberto Suster's La Germania Repubblicana that "there is no doubt that in this moment the axis of European history passes through Berlin" ( non v'ha dubbio che in questo momento l'asse della storia europea passa per Berlino ). At the time, he was seeking an alliance with the Weimar Republic against Yugoslavia and France in

7535-427: The Japanese Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere as a regime to plunder Asia and to replace the United States and British colonial rule with Japanese colonial rule. Truong Chinh also denounced the retreating Japanese's Three Alls policy: kill all, burn all, loot all. According to Truong the Japanese also tried to pit different ethnic and political groups within Indochina against each other and attempted to infiltrate

7672-486: The Japanese under Field Marshal Hisaichi Terauchi , Commander-in-Chief of Japan's Southern Expeditionary Army Group based in Saigon. Allied troops in Saigon were an airborne detachment, two British companies of the Indian 20th Infantry Division and the French 5th Colonial Infantry Regiment, with British General Sir Douglas Gracey as supreme commander. The latter proclaimed martial law on September 21, and Franco-British troops took control of Saigon. As agreed at

7809-501: The Japanese Army. In the North, the Chinese permitted the DRV government to remain in charge of local administration and food supply. Initially, the Chinese kept the French Colonial soldiers interned, with the acquiescence of the Americans. The Chinese used the VNQDĐ , the Vietnamese branch of the Chinese Kuomintang , to increase their influence in Indochina and put pressure on their opponents. Chiang Kai-shek deliberately withheld his best soldiers from Vietnam, holding them in reserve for

7946-435: The Japanese-imposed Famine of 1945 , one to two million Vietnamese starved to death in the Red river delta of northern Vietnam. The North Vietnamese government accused both France and Japan of the famine. By the time the Chinese came to disarm the Japanese, Vietnamese corpses littered the streets of Hanoi. In the Declaration of Independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam , Hồ Chí Minh blamed "the double yoke of

8083-477: The Nazi Party came to power in Germany. Hitler had advocated an alliance between Germany and Italy since the 1920s. Shortly after being appointed Chancellor of Germany , Hitler sent a personal message to Mussolini, declaring "admiration and homage" and declaring his anticipation of the prospects of German–Italian friendship and even alliance. Hitler was aware that Italy held concerns over potential German land claims on South Tyrol, and assured Mussolini that Germany

8220-534: The Nazi Party publicly promoted the expansion of Germany into territories held by the Soviet Union. Germany justified its war against Poland on the issues of German minority within Poland and Polish opposition to the incorporation of the ethnically German-majority Free City of Danzig into Germany. While Hitler and the Nazi party before taking power openly talked about destroying Poland and were hostile to Poles, after gaining power until February 1939 Hitler tried to conceal his true intentions towards Poland, and signed

8357-603: The Red River region and Lai Cai were occupied by a column from Yunnan. Vietnamese VNQDD fighters accompanied the Chinese soldiers. Lu Han occupied the French governor general's palace after ejecting the French staff under Sainteny. On 9 October 1945, General Leclerc arrived in Saigon, accompanied by French Colonel Massu 's Groupement de marche unit. Leclerc's primary objectives were to restore public order in south Vietnam and to militarize Tonkin (northern Vietnam). Secondary objectives were to explore taking back Chinese-occupied Hanoi, and to negotiate with Việt Minh officials. While

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8494-489: The Reichskommissariats established in the east ( Reichskommissariat Ostland in the Baltics, Reichskommissariat Ukraine in Ukraine) were established as colonies for settlement by Germans. In Norway, under Reichskommissariat Norwegen , the Quisling regime , headed by Vidkun Quisling , was installed by the Germans as a client regime during the occupation , while king Haakon VII and the legal government were in exile . Quisling encouraged Norwegians to serve as volunteers in

8631-410: The Rome–Berlin axis, thus creating the term "Axis". The following November saw the ratification of the Anti-Comintern Pact , an anti-communist treaty between Germany and Japan; Italy joined the Pact in 1937, followed by Hungary and Spain in 1939. The "Rome–Berlin Axis" became a military alliance in 1939 under the so-called " Pact of Steel ", with the Tripartite Pact of 1940 formally integrating

8768-479: The Ruhr", and said that "If England and France push through Belgium and Holland into the Ruhr, we shall be in the greatest danger", and thus claimed that Belgium and the Netherlands had to be occupied by Germany to protect Germany from a British-French offensive against the Ruhr, irrespective of their claims to neutrality. Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941 involved issues of lebensraum , anti-communism , and Soviet foreign policy. After Germany invaded

8905-461: The Soviet Union, nearly capturing Moscow. However, crushing defeats at the Battle of Stalingrad and the Battle of Kursk devastated the German armed forces. This, combined with Western Allied landings in France and Italy , led to a three-front war that depleted Germany's armed forces and resulted in Germany's defeat in 1945. The Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia was created from the dismemberment of Czechoslovakia. Shortly after Germany annexed

9042-436: The Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia, the Slovak Republic declared its independence from the rump Second Czechoslovak Republic . The new Slovak State allied itself with Germany. The remainder of the country was occupied by German military forces and organized into the Protectorate. Czech civil institutions were preserved but the Protectorate was considered within the sovereign territory of Germany. The General Government

9179-620: The USA. Between January and May 1946, Chinese troops in northern Indochina had repatriated 400 suspected war criminals to Japan and transported 160 more to Guangzhou for a separate war crimes trial, without informing their French counterparts. American officers likewise conducted investigation in Indochina independently from the French until 1947 when the onset of the Cold War led to a warming of Franco-American relations. In early 1947, American military authorities in Japan helped French representative Captain Gabrillagues to extradite 52 Japanese suspected war criminals to Saigon. British authorities on

9316-441: The United Kingdom. Romania 's oil gave the country a disproportionate importance in the global conflict. In 1940 and 1941, Romania supplied 94% and 75% of Germany's oil imports respectively. Italy – which lacked both natural and synthetic output – was even more reliant on Romanian oil than Germany. The loss of Romania's oil – following the country's defection from the Axis in August 1944 – resulted in Hitler's first admission that

9453-488: The Venice meeting, on 25 July 1934, Austrian Nazis assassinated Dollfuss. Mussolini was outraged as he held Hitler directly responsible for the assassination that violated Hitler's promise made only weeks ago to respect Austrian independence. Mussolini rapidly deployed several army divisions and air squadrons to the Brenner Pass , and warned that a German move against Austria would result in war between Germany and Italy. Hitler responded by both denying Nazi responsibility for

9590-416: The Versailles treaty and remilitarized the Rhineland in March 1936. Germany had already resumed conscription and announced the existence of a German air force, the Luftwaffe , and naval force, the Kriegsmarine in 1935. Germany annexed Austria in 1938 , the Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia, and the Memel territory from Lithuania in 1939. Germany then invaded the rest of Czechoslovakia in 1939, creating

9727-415: The Viet Minh. The Japanese forced Vietnamese women to join Burmese, Indonesian, Thai and Filipino comfort women as slaves to the Japanese army. The Japanese inflicted two billion US dollars worth (1945 values) of damage, including destruction of industrial plants, 90% of heavy vehicles, motorcycles, and cars, and 16 tons of junks , railways, port installations, and one third of the bridges. In

9864-616: The Viet Minh. In an effort to curb the Viet Minh insurgency, French authorities offered to pardon Japanese war criminals willing to surrender. Only a few Japanese war criminals avoided persecution through this method. Delays in the disarmament of the Japanese army and the ongoing Viet Minh insurgency meant that certain areas remained inaccessible to the investigators further complicating the process. By June 1946, France had identified over 933 suspected Japanese war criminals. The General Directorate for Studies and Research had collated evidence from interrogations and intelligence reports, later sending

10001-539: The Việt Minh before the beginning of the seasonal rains in May, and military operations were postponed until their conclusion. Come October, the French launched Operation Léa with the objective of swiftly putting an end to the resistance movement by taking out the Vietnamese main battle units and the Việt Minh leadership at their base in Bắc Kạn . Léa was followed by Operation Ceinture in November, with similar aims. As

10138-528: The Việt Minh government and the French over a conflict of interest in import duty at the port. On November 23, 1946, the French fleet bombarded the Vietnamese sections of the city killing 6,000 Vietnamese civilians in one afternoon. The Việt Minh quickly agreed to a cease-fire and left the cities. This is known as the Haiphong incident . There was never any intention among the Vietnamese to give up, as General Võ Nguyên Giáp soon brought up 30,000 men to attack

10275-473: The Việt Minh to attack well-defended bases in remote areas at the end of their logistical trails succeeded at the Battle of Nà Sản . French efforts were hampered by the limited usefulness of tanks in forest terrain, the lack of a strong air force, and reliance on soldiers from French colonies. The Việt Minh used novel and efficient tactics, including direct artillery fire, convoy ambushes, and anti-aircraft weaponry to impede land and air resupplies, while recruiting

10412-516: The Waffen-SS , collaborated in the deportation of Jews, and was responsible for the executions of members of the Norwegian resistance movement . About 45,000 Norwegian collaborators joined the pro-Nazi party Nasjonal Samling (National Union), and some police units helped arrest many Jews. However, Norway was one of the first countries where resistance during World War II was widespread before

10549-573: The Western powers pushed Mussolini's Italy towards alliance with Hitler's Germany anyway. In 1937 Italy left the League of Nations and joined the Anti-Comintern Pact , which had been signed by Germany and Japan the preceding year. In March/April 1939 Italian troops invaded and annexed Albania . Germany and Italy signed the Pact of Steel on May 22. Italy was ill-prepared for war, in spite of

10686-683: The World War all but lost, Japan launched the Second French Indochina Campaign to oust the Vichy French, and formally installed Emperor Bảo Đại as head of a nominally independent Vietnam . The Japanese arrested and imprisoned most of the French officials and military remaining in the country. In Hanoi on 15–20 April 1945, the Tonkin Revolutionary Military Conference of the Việt Minh issued a resolution (reprinted 25 August 1970 in

10823-523: The ability of the French government-in-exile to affect the course of the investigations. In February 1945, the Chungking sub-commission requested its member countries to compile a list of suspected war criminals following Australia's example. The presence of Japanese prisoners of war camps in Indochina made it an area of concern for all member countries. After France reestablished control over Indochina in early 1946, it handed its list of war crime suspects to

10960-533: The assassination and issuing orders to dissolve all ties between the German Nazi Party and its Austrian branch, which Germany claimed was responsible for the political crisis. Italy effectively abandoned diplomatic relations with Germany while turning to France in order to challenge Germany's intransigence by signing a Franco–Italian accord to protect Austrian independence. French and Italian military staff discussed possible military cooperation involving

11097-544: The beginning of the trial or commuted past sentences. This led to the lowest number of convicted Japanese war criminals out of all the major Allied nations. Axis powers The Axis powers , originally called the Rome–Berlin Axis and also Rome–Berlin–Tokyo Axis , was a military coalition that initiated World War II and fought against the Allies . Its principal members were Nazi Germany , Fascist Italy and

11234-747: The case files to the UNWCC. On 9 March 1946, the French Permanent Military Tribunal in Saigon (FPMTS) also known as the Saigon Trials was set up to investigate conventional war crimes ("Class B") and crimes against humanity ("Class C") committed by the Japanese forces after the 9 March 1945 coup d'état. The FPMTS was also tasked with prosecuting Vietnamese independence activists, as well as Chinese and French wartime collaborators. Japanese crimes against peace committed during

11371-551: The case of an unprovoked war against Italy. Italy entered World War II on 10 June 1940. Italy justified its intervention against Greece in October 1940 on the allegation that the Kingdom of Greece was being used by Britain against Italy, Mussolini informed this to Hitler, saying: "Greece is one of the main points of English maritime strategy in the Mediterranean". Italy justified its intervention against Yugoslavia in April 1941 by appealing to both Italian irredentist claims and

11508-460: The city. Although the French were outnumbered, their superior weaponry and naval support made any Việt Minh attack unsuccessful. In 19 December, hostilities between the Việt Minh and the French broke out in Hanoi , and Hồ Chí Minh, along with his government, was forced to evacuate the capital in favor of remote forested and mountainous areas. Guerrilla warfare ensued, with the French controlling most of

11645-451: The colony in the form of a Japanese puppet regime . On 9 March 1945, Japan overthrew the French colonial administration and violently disarmed its military and amid fears of a potential revolt. On 15 August 1945, Japan declared its officially surrendered to the Allies . On 2 September 1945, Vietnamese nationalist resistance group Viet Minh declared North Vietnam to be independent, while British and Chinese troops moved in to occupy

11782-488: The colony. French attempts to reimpose its colonial administration in Indochina, faced opposition not only from Vietnamese nationalists but also from the United States of America and China. France therefore saw its participation in the persecution of Japanese war criminals as a way to legitimize its colonial ambitions in Southeast Asia and uphold its role as world power among the Allies. The Provisional Government of

11919-568: The conflict engulfed the entire country and also extended into the neighboring French Indochina protectorates of Laos and Cambodia . At the Potsdam Conference in July 1945, the allied Combined Chiefs of Staff decided that Indochina south of latitude 16° north was to be included in the Southeast Asia Command under British Admiral Mountbatten . On V-J Day , September 2, Hồ Chí Minh proclaimed in Hanoi ( Tonkin 's capital)

12056-508: The country and although initially fought alongside the Việt Minh, they would later support Bảo Đại. Militias from the Cao Đài sect, which had initially joined the Viet Minh in their struggle against the return of the French, made a truce with France when their leader was captured on 6 June 1946. The Viet Minh later attacked the Cao Đài after open conflict had erupted with France, which led them to join

12193-531: The country except far-flung areas. By January the following year, most provincial capitals had fallen to the French, while Hue fell in February after a six-week siege. In 1947, Hồ Chí Minh and General Võ Nguyên Giáp retreated with his command into the Việt Bắc , the mountainous forests of northern Vietnam. By March, France had taken control of the main population centers in the country. The French chose not to pursue

12330-436: The date was not yet chosen. His senior military leadership unanimously opposed the action because Italy was unprepared. No raw materials had been stockpiled and the reserves it did have would soon be exhausted, Italy's industrial base was only one-tenth of Germany's, and even with supplies the Italian military was not organized to provide the equipment needed to fight a modern war of a long duration. An ambitious rearmament program

12467-664: The defendants received prison sentences, 63 were executed, 23 received life imprisonment and 31 were acquitted. Further 228 people were condemned in absentia. Those condemned were incarcerated in the Poulo Condore Island prison and the Chí Hòa Prison , with the last executions taking place in May 1951. In May 1950, they were transferred to the Sugamo Prison in Tokyo where they came under the jurisdiction of

12604-701: The demand. In response, Hitler promised that he would accept Austria's independence for the time being, saying that due to the internal tensions in Germany (referring to sections of the Nazi Sturmabteilung that Hitler would soon kill in the Night of the Long Knives ) that Germany could not afford to provoke Italy. Galeazzo Ciano told the press that the two leaders had made a "gentleman's agreement" to avoid interfering in Austria. Several weeks after

12741-616: The dispute over the Free State of Fiume . The term was used by Hungary 's prime minister Gyula Gömbös when advocating an alliance of Hungary with Germany and Italy in the early 1930s. Gömbös' efforts did affect the Italo-Hungarian Rome Protocols , but his sudden death in 1936 while negotiating with Germany in Munich and the arrival of Kálmán Darányi , his successor, ended Hungary's involvement in pursuing

12878-614: The early 1920s . In 1923 the French occupied the Ruhr region when Germany defaulted on its reparations payments. Although Germany began to improve economically in the mid-1920s, the Great Depression created more economic hardship and a rise in political forces that advocated radical solutions to Germany's woes. The Nazis, under Hitler, promoted the nationalist stab-in-the-back legend stating that Germany had been betrayed by Jews and Communists. The party promised to rebuild Germany as

13015-425: The early 1930s stressed the importance of "decisive weight", involving Italy's relations between France and Germany, in which he recognized that Italy was not yet a major power, but perceived that Italy did have strong enough influence to alter the political situation in Europe by placing the weight of its support onto one side or another, and sought to balance relations between the three. In 1933, Adolf Hitler and

13152-495: The empire – North Africans; Laotian, Cambodian and Vietnamese ethnic minorities ; Sub-Saharan Africans – and professional French troops, European volunteers, and units of the Foreign Legion . The use of French metropolitan recruits was forbidden by the government to prevent the war from becoming more unpopular at home. It was called the "dirty war" ( la sale guerre ) by French leftists. The French strategy of inducing

13289-662: The establishment of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV). In late September 1945, Chinese forces entered Tonkin, and Japanese forces to the north of that line surrendered to Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek . At the same time, British forces landed in Saigon ( Cochinchina 's capital), and Japanese forces in the south surrendered to the British. The Chinese acknowledged the DRV under Hồ Chí Minh, then in power in Hanoi. The British refused to do likewise in Saigon, and deferred to

13426-471: The fact of Albanian , Croatian , and Macedonian separatists not wishing to be part of Yugoslavia . Croatian separatism soared after the assassination of Croatian political leaders in the National Assembly of Yugoslavia in 1928 including the death of Stjepan Radić , and Italy endorsed Croatian separatist Ante Pavelić and his fascist Ustaše movement that was based and trained in Italy with

13563-611: The fact that it had continuously been involved in conflict since 1935, first with Ethiopia in 1935–1936 and then in the Spanish Civil War on the side of Francisco Franco 's Nationalists . Mussolini refused to heed warnings from his minister of exchange and currency, Felice Guarneri , who said that Italy's actions in Ethiopia and Spain meant that Italy was on the verge of bankruptcy. By 1939 military expenditures by Britain and France far exceeded what Italy could afford. As

13700-498: The fight against the Communists inside China, and instead sent undisciplined warlord troops from Yunnan under Lu Han to occupy Vietnam north of the 16th parallel and accept the Japanese surrender. In total, 200,000 of General Lu Han's Chinese soldiers occupied north Vietnam starting August 1945. 90,000 arrived by October, the 62nd army came on 26 September to Nam Dinh and Haiphong , later arriving at Lang Son and Cao Bang and

13837-474: The impasse with Italy over Austria by sending Hermann Göring to negotiate with Mussolini in 1933 to convince Mussolini to press Austria to appoint Austrian Nazis to the government. Göring claimed that Nazi domination of Austria was inevitable and that Italy should accept this, as well as repeating to Mussolini of Hitler's promise to "regard the question of the South Tyrol frontier as finally liquidated by

13974-449: The industrial Ruhr region of Germany. When war between Germany versus Britain and France appeared likely in May 1939, Hitler declared that the Netherlands and Belgium would need to be occupied, saying: "Dutch and Belgian air bases must be occupied ... Declarations of neutrality must be ignored". In a conference with Germany's military leaders on 23 November 1939, Hitler declared to the military leaders that "We have an Achilles heel ,

14111-469: The interests of the major Axis powers were even at variance with each other. The Axis ultimately came to an end with its defeat in 1945. Particularly within Europe, the use of the term "the Axis" sometimes refers solely to the alliance between Italy and Germany, though outside Europe it is normally understood as including Japan. The term "axis" was first applied to the Italo-German relationship by

14248-808: The international community in the first place. The response to the pact was met with similar division in Germany; while the proposed pact was popular amongst the upper echelons of the Nazi Party, it was opposed by many in the Foreign Ministry, the Army, and the business community who held financial interests in the Republic of China to which Japan was hostile. On learning of German–Japanese negotiations, Italy also began to take an interest in forming an alliance with Japan. Italy had hoped that due to Japan's long-term close relations with Britain, that an Italo-Japanese alliance could pressure Britain into adopting

14385-798: The judges examined case number 19, which involved 49 members of the Saigon Kenpeitai who were tried jointly. They were charged with sequestration with torture. They were accused of torturing 60 arrestees by depriving them of food and water, holding them in overcrowded and unsanitary conditions, beating them with batons and forcing them to drink boiling tea. Nine of the defendants were sentenced to death, four were sentenced to death in absentia, 27 received various sentences from 7 years in prison to life imprisonment and nine were acquitted. The Phnom Penh Kempeitai (27 defendants) and Hanoi Kempeitai (37 defendants) were tried on 19 November 1946 and 5 April 1948 respectively. According to Chizuru Namba, 112 of

14522-470: The masses. At the end of World War I, German citizens felt that their country had been humiliated as a result of the Treaty of Versailles , which included a war guilt clause and forced Germany to pay enormous reparations payments and forfeit territories formerly controlled by the German Empire and all its colonies. The pressure of the reparations on the German economy led to hyperinflation during

14659-429: The military aims of Germany, Italy, Japan, and later followed by other nations. The three pacts formed the foundation of the Axis alliance. At its zenith in 1942, the Axis presided over large parts of Europe, North Africa, and East Asia, either through occupation, annexation, or puppet states . In contrast to the Allies, there were no three-way summit meetings, and cooperation and coordination were minimal; on occasion,

14796-641: The new Việt Minh-led government in Hanoi . On September 2, aboard USS  Missouri in Tokyo Bay, CEFEO Expeditionary Corps leader General Leclerc signed the armistice with Japan on behalf of France. The same day, Hồ Chí Minh declared Vietnam's independence from France. Deliberately echoing the American Declaration of Independence, he proclaimed: We hold the truth that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, among them life, liberty and

14933-485: The occupation of Indochina from 1940 to 1945 and (categorized as "Class A" crimes) were to be investigated at the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal . The FPMTS examined war crimes committed between 9 March 1945 and 15 August 1945. The FPMTS tried a total of 230 Japanese defendants in 39 separate trials, taking place between October 1946 and March 1950. The war crimes examined were committed exclusively against

15070-520: The only law enforcement, the Imperial Japanese Army remained in power, keeping French colonial troops and Sainteny detained, to the benefit of the developing Vietnamese nationalist forces. The Viet Minh claimed that they, alongside Meo ( Hmong ) and Muong tribesmen, subdued the Japanese in a nationwide rebellion from 9 March to 19 August 1945, taking control of 6 provinces, although some of these claims are contested. Beginning with

15207-594: The other hand actively assisted in war crimes investigations in south Indochina. By January 1946, they had arrested 650 suspects and sent their case files to the Allied Land Forces South East Asia ’s War Crimes Registry in Singapore. British and French investigators continued to collaborate closely to ensure that suspected war criminals were brought to trial. French investigators believed that thousands of Japanese soldiers had defected to

15344-709: The peace treaties". In response to Göring's visit with Mussolini, Dollfuss immediately went to Italy to counter any German diplomatic headway. Dollfuss claimed that his government was actively challenging Marxists in Austria and claimed that once the Marxists were defeated in Austria, that support for Austria's Nazis would decline. In June 1934, Hitler and Mussolini met for the first time, in Venice . The meeting did not proceed amicably. Hitler demanded that Mussolini compromise on Austria by pressuring Dollfuss to appoint Austrian Nazis to his cabinet, to which Mussolini flatly refused

15481-424: The percentage of gross national product (GNP) devoted to military expenditures. Nearly one-quarter of Germany's GNP was committed to the war effort in 1939, and this rose to three-quarters of GNP in 1944, prior to the collapse of the economy. In 1939, Japan committed 22 percent of its GNP to its war effort in China; this rose to three-quarters of GNP in 1944. Italy did not mobilize its economy; its GNP committed to

15618-610: The persecution of war crimes to permanent military tribunals consisting of five military judges, most of whom were to be selected among former members of the French Forces of the Interior or the Resistance. All proceeding were public and the accused had the right to choose their own legal counsel. The ordinance's sixth article extended its application to French colonies. On 13 January 1942, French National Committee signed

15755-514: The principles of the Atlantic Charter with the aim of eventually preparing Vietnam for independence. Ho Chi Minh sent a cable on 17 October 1945 to American President Harry S. Truman calling on him, Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, Premier Joseph Stalin and Prime Minister Clement Attlee to go to the United Nations against France and demand that they not be allowed to return to occupy Vietnam, accusing France of having sold out and cheated

15892-555: The pursuit of happiness. Ho Chi Minh denounced the reimposition of French rule, accusing the French of selling out the Vietnamese to the Japanese twice in four years. On 13 September 1945, a Franco -British task force landed in Java , main island of the Dutch East Indies (for which independence was being sought by Sukarno ), and Saigon, capital of Cochinchina (southern part of French Indochina), both being occupied by

16029-637: The region. All trials took place at the Saigon Military Court. The accused had the right to choose their own attorneys, those who refused to do so received the assistance of a French defense counsel. The Allies collaborated with a select group of trusted Japanese lawyers, some of whom participated in the Saigon trials. The lawyers typically highlighted various mitigating circumstances such as the defendants pre-war background, family status and treatment of French citizens. The court reached all decisions by majority vote in an open court. The accused had

16166-410: The right to appeal within a day from their conviction. On 9 March 1945, the Japanese invited French military officials to a banquet at Lạng Sơn only to immediately arrest them. In the meantime, the Japanese army attacked French positions across the colony. Following three days of fighting, 600 French soldiers were taken prisoner. A total of 300 French prisoners were executed in what came to be known as

16303-501: The ruler of a newly established State of Vietnam . The first few years of the war involved a low-level rural insurgency against the French. During 1950 the conflict to a considerable extent turned into a conventional war between two armies equipped with modern weapons, with the French supplied by the United States, and the Việt Minh supplied by the Soviet Union and a newly communist China. Guerrilla warfare continued to occur in large areas. French Union forces included colonial troops from

16440-541: The same time Germany was preparing for a war with Poland and was secretly preparing the German minority in Poland for a war. A diplomatic crisis erupted following Hitler demanding that the Free City of Danzig be annexed to Germany, as it was led by a Nazi government seeking annexation to Germany. Germany used legal precedents to justify its intervention against Poland and annexation of the Free City of Danzig (led by

16577-531: The time Japan was unwilling to make an alliance against the United Kingdom and France, Oshima informed von Ribbentrop of Japan's interest in forming a German–Japanese alliance against the Soviet Union. Von Ribbentrop expanded on Oshima's proposal by advocating that the alliance be based in a political context of a pact to oppose the Comintern . The proposed pact was met with mixed reviews in Japan, with

16714-514: The turning point of the war in 1943. After the war, Quisling and other collaborators were executed . Quisling's name has become an international eponym for traitor . Duce Benito Mussolini described Italy's declaration of war against the Western Allies of Britain and France in June 1940 as the following: "We are going to war against the plutocratic and reactionary democracies of

16851-421: The war effort remained at prewar levels. Italy and Japan lacked industrial capacity; their economies were small, dependent on international trade , external sources of fuel and other industrial resources. As a result, Italian and Japanese mobilization remained low, even by 1943. Among the three major Axis powers, Japan had the lowest per capita income, while Germany and Italy had an income level comparable to

16988-698: The war was lost. Hitler in 1941 described the outbreak of World War II as the fault of the intervention of Western powers against Germany during its war with Poland, describing it as the result of "the European and American warmongers". Hitler had designs for Germany to become the dominant and leading state in the world, such as his intention for Germany's capital of Berlin to become the Welthauptstadt ("World Capital"), renamed Germania . The German government also justified its actions by claiming that Germany inevitably needed to territorially expand because it

17125-578: Was 258.9 million, while the Allied population (excluding the Soviet Union and the United States, which later joined the Allies) was 689.7 million. Thus the Allied powers outnumbered the Axis powers by 2.7 to 1. The leading Axis states had the following domestic populations: Germany 75.5 million (including 6.8 million from recently annexed Austria), Japan 71.9 million (excluding its colonies), and Italy 43.4 million (excluding its colonies). The United Kingdom (excluding its colonies) had

17262-480: Was disappointed with the Italian military's performance, he maintained overall favorable relations with Italy because of his personal friendship with Mussolini. On 25 July 1943, following the Allied invasion of Sicily , King Victor Emmanuel III dismissed Mussolini, placed him under arrest, and began secret negotiations with the Western Allies. An armistice was signed on 8 September 1943, and four days later Mussolini

17399-406: Was facing an overpopulation crisis that Hitler described: "We are overpopulated and cannot feed ourselves from our own resources". Thus expansion was justified as an inevitable necessity to provide lebensraum ("living space") for the German nation and end the country's overpopulation within existing confined territory, and provide resources necessary to its people's well-being. Since the 1920s,

17536-659: Was forced to accept German dominance in the two occupied countries. Furthermore, by 1941, German forces in North Africa under Erwin Rommel effectively took charge of the military effort ousting Allied forces from the Italian colony of Libya , and German forces were stationed in Sicily in that year. Germany's insolence towards Italy as an ally was demonstrated that year when Italy was pressured to send 350,000 "guest workers" to Germany who were used as forced labour. While Hitler

17673-486: Was generally dismissive, viewing a German–Japanese alliance against the Soviet Union as imperative while regarding an Italo-Japanese alliance as secondary, as Japan anticipated that an Italo-Japanese alliance would antagonize Britain that had condemned Italy's invasion of Ethiopia. This attitude by Japan towards Italy altered in 1937 after the League of Nations condemned Japan for aggression in China and faced international isolation, while Italy remained favourable to Japan. As

17810-626: Was impossible because of Italy's limited reserves in gold and foreign currencies and lack of raw materials. Mussolini ignored the negative advice. By 1941, Italy's attempts to run an autonomous campaign from Germany's, collapsed as a result of military setbacks in Greece, North Africa , and Eastern Africa ; and the country became dependent and effectively subordinate to Germany. After the German-led invasion and occupation of Yugoslavia and Greece, that had both been targets of Italy's war aims, Italy

17947-698: Was inspired to commence the Viet Nam Quang Phục Hội movement in Guangzhou . From 1914 to 1917, he was imprisoned by Yuan Shikai 's counterrevolutionary government. In 1925, he was captured by French agents in Shanghai and spirited to Vietnam. Due to his popularity, Châu was spared from execution and placed under house arrest until his death in 1940. In September 1940, the Empire of Japan launched its invasion of French Indochina , parallel with its ally Germany's conquest of metropolitan France . Keeping

18084-665: Was not interested in South Tyrol. Hitler in Mein Kampf had declared that South Tyrol was a non-issue considering the advantages that would be gained from a German–Italian alliance. After Hitler's rise to power, the Four Power Directorate proposal by Italy had been looked at with interest by Britain, but Hitler was not committed to it, resulting in Mussolini urging Hitler to consider the diplomatic advantages Germany would gain by breaking out of isolation by entering

18221-734: Was rescued by the Germans in Operation Oak and placed in charge of a puppet state called the Italian Social Republic ( Repubblica Sociale Italiana /RSI, or Repubblica di Salò ) in northern Italy . In order to liberate the country from the Germans and Fascists, Italy became a co-belligerent of the Allies; as result, the country descended in Civil War , with the Italian Co-Belligerent Army and

18358-487: Was satisfied with the presence of the anti-Marxist government of Engelbert Dollfuss in the First Austrian Republic , and warned Hitler that he was adamantly opposed to Anschluss. Hitler responded in contempt to Mussolini that he intended "to throw Dollfuss into the sea". With this disagreement over Austria, relations between Hitler and Mussolini steadily became more distant. Hitler attempted to break

18495-592: Was signed between Japan and the United States on 20 August. The Provisional Government of the French Republic wanted to restore its colonial rule in French Indochina as the final step of the Liberation of France . On 22 August, OSS agents Archimedes Patti and Carleton B. Swift Jr. arrived in Hanoi on a mercy mission to liberate Allied POWs, accompanied by French official Jean Sainteny . As

18632-456: Was territorial expansion at the expense of their neighbors. In ideological terms, the Axis described their goals as breaking the hegemony of the plutocratic Western powers and defending civilization from communism . The Axis championed a number of variants on fascism , militarism , conservatism and autarky . Creation of territorially contiguous autarkic empires was a common goal of all three major Axis powers. The Axis population in 1938

18769-441: Was the name given to the territories of occupied Poland that were not directly annexed into German provinces , but like Bohemia and Moravia was considered within the sovereign territory of Germany by the Nazi authorities. Reichskommissariats were established in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Norway, designated as places the "Germanic" populations of which were to be incorporated into the planned Greater Germanic Reich. By contrast

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