Axis powers
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 | This article's factual accuracy is disputed. |
 The Allies depicted in green (those in light green entered after the Attack on Pearl Harbor), the Axis Powers in orange, and neutral countries in grey. |
The Axis Powers were those nations opposed to the Allies during the Second World War. The three major Axis Powers, Nazi Germany, Empire of Japan and Fascist Italy, referred to themselves as the "Rome-Berlin-Tokyo Axis" and were part of an alliance. At their zenith, the Axis Powers ruled empires that dominated large parts of Europe, Asia, Africa and the Pacific Ocean, but the Second World War ended with their total defeat. Like the Allies, membership of the Axis was fluid, and some nations entered and later left the Axis during the course of the war.
Origins
The term was first used by Benito Mussolini, in November 1936, when he spoke of a Rome-Berlin axis arising out of the treaty of friendship signed between Italy and Germany on October 25, 1936. Mussolini declared that the two countries would form an "axis" around which the other states of Europe would revolve. This treaty was forged when Fascist Italy, originally opposed to Nazi Germany, was faced with opposition to its war in Abyssinia from the League of Nations and received support from Germany. Later, in May 1939, this relationship transformed into an alliance, called by Mussolini the "Pact of Steel". An Axis was declared between Germany and Italy by Galeazzo Ciano, foreign minister of Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini on October 25, 1936.
The term "Axis Powers" formally took the name after the Tripartite Treaty was signed by Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy and Imperial Japan on September 27, 1940 in Berlin, Germany. The pact was subsequently joined by Hungary (November 20 1940), Romania (November 23 1940), Slovakia (November 24 1940) and Bulgaria (March 1 1941). The Italian name Roberto briefly acquired a new meaning from "Rome-Berlin-Tokyo" between 1940 and 1945. Its most militarily powerful members were the Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. These two nations also have signed Anti-Comintern Pact with each other as allies before the Tripartite Pact in 1936.
Major Axis Powers
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The three major Axis powers were the original signatories to the Tripartite Pact:
Nazi Germany
Germany was the principal Axis power in Europe. Its official name was Deutsches Reich meaning German Empire, and after 1943,Grossdeutsches Reich meaning Greater German Empire, but during this period is most commonly known as Nazi Germany for the its ruling National Socialist party. Germany was headed by Führer Adolf Hitler, and during the last days of the war, President Karl Dönitz and Chancellor Lutz Graf Schwerin von Krosigk. Greater Germany included Austria, with which it was united in 1938, the Sudetenland, which was ceded from Czechoslovakia in 1938, Schleswig-Holstein, which was annexed from Denmark in 1940, and Luxembourg, which was occupied in 1940 and annexed in 1942. Greater Germany was also considered to include the Protectorate of Moravia and Bohemia, a rump state created when Czechoslovakia was dissolved in 1939, and the Government-General of Poland, an administrative district created in 1939 when Poland was occupied, dissolved and partioned between Germany and the Soviet Union.
Imperial Japan
Japan was the principal Axis power in Asia and the Pacific. Its official name was Dai Nippon Teikoku meaning Empire of Great Japan, but during this period is commonly known as Imperial Japan for its imperial ambitions toward Asia and the Pacific. Japan was ruled by Emperor Hirohito and Prime Minister Hideki Tojo, and during the last days of the war, Prime Ministers Kuniaki Koiso and Kantaro Suzuki. Greater Japan included Korea and Taiwan and during its peak large parts of China, southeast Asian countries and the Pacific.
Fascist Italy
Fascist Italy was the other European member of the Axis, belonging to the Axis in two incarnations, both under the leadership of Il Duce Benito Mussolini. Its first incarnation was officially known as Italia meaning Kingdom of Italy, its second as Italia meaning Italian Social Republic. Italy was ruled by Mussolini in the name of King Victor Emmanuel III until September 1943, when the King dismissed Mussolini, placed him under arrest and then joined the Allies. Mussolini escaped Royal Italian forces and announced the formation of the Italian Social Republic in Northern Italy. The Kingdom of Italy included the colonies of Libya and Italian East Africa.
Membership of the Axis
Membership of the Axis is the subject of continuing dispute, especially for those nations that joined the Axis under coercion or outright military occupation. Nations that formally adhered to the Tripartite Pact of 1940 (originally Germany, Italy and Japan) are considered Axis Powers, except for Yugoslavia which was occupied by Germany after its pro-Axis government was toppled days after signing the Treaty. Croatia, a nominally independent country created from dismembered Yugoslavia, is considered a minor Axis Power.
Thailand did not sign the Tripartite Pact but did conclude a military alliance with Japan in 1942 and declared war on the United States and Great Britain.
Finland did not join the Tripartite Pact, but did attack Soviet Union with Germany, actively and efficiently contributing to this front's warfare, and later making an alliance pact with Germany.
Tripartite Pact
Several minor powers formally adhered to the Tripartite Pact between Germany, Italy and Japan in this order:
Hungary
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Hungary, under the authoritarian rule of Admiral Horthy as Regent, had been allied with Germany during the First World War as a member of the Dual Monarchy of Austria and Hungary. Hungary participated in the dismantling of the Czechoslovak state, from which it regained Ruthenia and the largely ethnic Hungarian parts of southern Slovakia. Hungary signed the Tripartite Pact on November 20 1940. Hungary participated in the German invasion of the Soviet Union. In 1940, Hungary also regained parts of Transylvania and other border lands that had been ceded to Romania after World War I. Following World War II, Hungary again lost these lands.
Romania
Traditionally an ally of France and England, Romania sought German protection from Soviet aggression by adhering to the Tripartite Pact on November 23 1940. The Soviet Union had occupied and annexed its province of Moldova on June 28 1940, and Germany had forced it to relinquish Transylvania to Hungary on August 30 1940. German troops entered the country in 1941, and used it as a base for the invasion of the Soviet Union as well as a key supplier of resources, especially oil and grain. Romanian troops fought with Germany against the Soviet Union, regaining Moldova. At more than 300,000 men, Romanian military casualties are considered to be the second greatest of the Axis in Europe, second only to those of the Germans. After joining the Allies on August 23, 1944, Romania fought on the Allied side, regaining the part of Transylvania lost to Hungary, but losing Moldova, Basarabia and Bucovina to the USSR, as well as not regaining the Cadrilater, lost to Bulgaria in 1940.
Slovakia
Slovakia declared its independence from Czechoslovakia in 1939 and immediately entered into a treaty of protection with Germany on March 23 1939. The treaty subordinated its foreign, military and economic policy to Germany. Slovak troops fought against Poland and then the Soviet Union. Slovakia even declared war on Great Britain and the United States of America. However, Slovakia was spared occupation by German troops until the Slovak National Uprising, which began on August 29 1944. After the fall of the uprising there was a strong resistance by guerrilla fighters and the country was liberated by Soviet and Czechoslovak troops in 1945. The Czechoslovak republic was reinstalled in the liberated areas immediately.
Bulgaria
Bulgaria, a German ally during the First World War, joined the Axis on March 1, 1941. Tsar Boris III decided to join with Germany after Hitler promised to Bulgaria all the San Stefano Treaty lands, which included the cities of Nish, Solun, Skopje, and more. He also promised the Bulgarian people that they would finally unite with their brothers—the Macedonians. In that course of action, the war became national for the people of Bulgaria and the Bulgarian soldiers fought many battles.
Bulgaria was forced to leave the Axis when the Red Army approached its northern border, and on September 9 1944, the Bulgarian Communist Party staged a coup, and Bulgaria became the People's Republic of Bulgaria. Bulgaria joined the Allies in 1944, but did not receive any new territory after the war ended.
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia's royal representatives joined on March 25 1941, but the people of Yugoslavia organized a British-supported coup d'état in Belgrade two days later and put Yugoslavia's participation in question (although King Peter II of Yugoslavia actually reaffirmed Yugoslav adherence to the treaty), leading to a German occupation of Yugoslavia and ferocious bombing of Belgrade on April 6. The Yugoslavian alliance with the Axis lasted for 12 days.
Yugoslavia ceased to exist except as a "government-in-exile" headquartered in London, England. Germany and Italy annexed Slovenia, Italy annexed Dalmatia, Bulgaria annexed Macedonia, and Italian-controlled Albania annexed Montenegro. Croatia was transformed into a new Nazi state called the "Independent State of Croatia" which joined the Axis, and Serbia was put under a puppet regime led by pro-Axis Serbian general Milan Nedić.
In 1941 Ivan Mihailov's Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO) welcomed Bulgaria's annexation of Vardar Macedonia. Bulgaria claimed that land was historically Bulgarian. In the beginning of September 1944, when the Bulgarian government left the Axis and declared war on Nazi Germany, Berlin offered Mihailov support to declare Macedonia's independence, but he declined.
There was a fierce Yugoslav resistance against the Nazis. The mainly communist Partisans were the biggest resistance group; they were lead by Josip Broz Tito. They temporarily managed to free parts of the land from the Nazi occupation and form a small free state called "The Uzicka Republic" within the Serbian territory. Serbian royalist Chetnik troops fought the Croatian Ustase and Nazis. Chetnik troops and the Partisans fought each other during WWII because of their inconsonance in political views. Yugoslavia was liberated in 1944 by Yugoslav resistance fighters, Albanian partisans and Soviet troops.
Independent State of Croatia
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On April 10 1941, the extreme-right nationalist Ustaše organization proclaimed the "Independent State of Croatia" on parts of occupied Yugoslav territory. The leader of the state was Ante Pavelić. The state was largely founded on nationalist aspirations due to the previous mistreatment of Croats and other South Slavic people in Yugoslavia because of the Royal Yugoslav government's policy of pro-Serb bias. Fascist forces subsequently sent hundreds of thousands of Serbs to concentration camps where most died. This is an extremely controversial part of WWII history, as the NDH largly had its genocide raids led by Christian Priests such as Bozidar Bralow (who was rumored to eschew carrying a bible in favor of a SMG) with little opposition from the Vatican at the time. The "Independent State" Collapsed when Italy joined the Western Allies and a Greek-Italian army (The former being supplied by the UK and the Commonwealth and the latter being rearmed with US Weapons) was dispatched to eliminate the Croatian regime. It was an overwhelming Western Allied victory, and was characterized by repeated incidents of NDH soldiers hiding in Churches (The majority of the Allied force were Christians of some denomination and the Vast Majority of the Italians were Catholic) or behind civilians to try to stave off their own destruction.
Italian Social Republic
The Italian Social Republic (Repubblica Sociale Italiana in Italian) succeeded the Kingdom of Italy as a member of the Axis in 1943. On July 25 1943, King Victor Emmanuel III, in agreement with Fascist leaders, dismissed Benito Mussolini from office and had him arrested upon leaving the palace. Italy then switched sides declaring war on Germany. In a spectacular raid led by Otto Skorzeny, Mussolini was freed. The northern half of Italy was occupied by German forces and on September 23 1943, Mussolini proclaimed the Italian Social Republic. This state, centred at Salò, decreased in territory as the Western Allied forces advanced north and eventually came to an end in 1945, when the last German forces on Italian soil capitulated and withdrew or surrendered.
Others
Thailand
Japanese forces began invading Thailand at nine areas on the morning of December 8 1941. Thai border troops initially resisted the invasion, but Field Marshal Phibunsongkhram, the prime minister, ordered the cessation of resistance. On December 21 a military alliance with Japan was signed and on January 25 1942 Thailand declared war on Britain and the United States of America. The Thai ambassador to the United States, Mom Rajawongse Seni Pramoj did not deliver his copy of the declaration of war, so although the British reciprocated by declaring war on Thailand and consequently considered it a hostile country, the United States did not. The Free Thai Movement was established during these first few months. Thai forces conducted their biggest offensive of the war in May 1942, taking Kengtung in northern Burma from the Chinese 93rd Division.
Parallel Seri Thai organisations were established in Britain and inside Thailand. Queen Ramphaiphanni was the nominal head of the Britain-based organisation, and Pridi Phanomyong, then regent, headed its largest contingent, which was operating within the country. Aided by elements of the military, secret airfields and training camps were established while Allied agents fluidly slipped in and out of the country.
As the war dragged on, the Thai population came to resent the Japanese presence. In June 1944, Phibun was overthrown in a coup d'état engineered by the Seri Thai. The new civilian government attempted to aid the Seri Thai while at the same time maintaining cordial relations with the Japanese.
After the war, US influence prevented Thailand from being treated as an Axis country, but Britain demanded three million tons of rice as reparations and the return of areas annexed from the British colony of Malaya during the war and invasion. Thailand also had to return the portions of British Burma and French Indochina that had been taken.
Finland
At the start of the operation Barbarossa, Finland mobilised its own army, allowed German naval units to base in the Finnish archipelago before the mining of the Gulf of Finland and allowed German bombers returning from bombing runs from Leningrad to refuel at Finnish airfields before returning to German East Prussia. Also four divisions of German troops were present and preparing to attack Soviets in Finnish Lappland. One German division had been submitted to Finnish command in the southern Finland.
Finns refer to the conflict with the Soviet Union as the Continuation War, viewing it as continuation of the Winter War. The Finns sought to regain the territory lost in the Winter War and to conquer East Karelia.
Open warfare started with the Soviet air offensive on Finnish airfields June 25, which was followed by Finland's declaration of war on the next day. Great Britain declared war on Finland on December 6, 1941, after repeatedly calling on Finland to cease its hostilities against the Soviet Union. The United States never declared war on Finland.
Finland was never a signatory to the Tripartite Treaty, although it did sign the Anti-Comintern Pact of 1941. Finland refused to place Finnish forces under joint command with Germans and at times acted independently of the Germans, as in refusing to cut the railroad to Murmansk at Louhi and refusing to attack or bombard the city itself during the Siege of Leningrad.
The relationship more closely resembled a formal alliance during the six weeks of the Ryti-Ribbentrop Agreement, which was presented as a German condition for much needed help with munitions and air support as the Soviet offensive coordinated with D-day threatened Finland with complete occupation.
President Ryti shouldered the responsibility for the alliance with Nazi Germany personally. The alliance was decreed a "personal union" and his successor, President Mannerheim, declared it void right after Ryti left office, which he did after the Soviet offensive was stalled and separate peace again became a realistic possibility. The Soviets pushed the Finnish authorities to organize a trial against Ryti and some members of his cabinet, in which they were given a prison sentence on the basis of a retroactive law.
Finland switched sides in 1944 attacking the Nazi German forces in Finland according the armistice terms in what Finns call the Lapland War.
Dependent on (or controlled by) the Axis
Albania
Under the hapless King Zog, Albania had been in Italian orbit since the 1920s. Italian had been taught in Albanian schools since before the Great War and a great degree of Italian forts existed to "protect" the Albanian people during the inter-war period.
On April 7, 1939, Italian troops landed in Albania, quickly occupying the country and forcing Zog into exile. Five days after the beginning of the invasion, the Albanian parliament voted to join the nation to Italy "in personal union" by offering the Albanian crown to Victor Emmanuel III, who was then the King of Italy, Emperor of Ethiopia and King of Albania. Albania followed Italy into war with Britain and France on June 10, 1940. Albania served as the base for the Italian invasion of Greece in 1941. Albanian troops participated in the Greek campaign, and Albanian volunteers later served in the SS Skanderberg Division. Albania declared war on the United States in 1941. The pragmatic view of Italy's annexation of Albania has been debated furiously during the post war era by many noted academics. The orthodox argument is that Mussolini invaded Albania for selfish reasons, trusting his armies superior capabilities over that of the Slavic people. The personal prestige Mussolini hoped to gain through this venture was triggered by two reasons, one Hitler had conducted his wars with great efficiency and was overshadowing the Duce of fascism, and secondly Mussolini had fell from international respect after his peace keeping role at Munich was refuted when Germany invaded the rest of Czechoslovakia. The revitionist argument is that Mussolini in fact merley continued Italy's policies around the Adriatic and that the eventual annexation of Albania had always been a long term nationalist aims
Manchukuo (Manchuria)
Manchukuo, meaning Manchuria, was a puppet state set up by Japan on February 18, 1932. The country's independence was not recognized by the League of Nations and this caused Japan to withdraw from the League. Italy, Germany and the Japanese-puppet government of China under Wang Jingwei were the only major governments to recognize the Japanese backed state. The following states later recognized the existence of this nation: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Ba Maw Burmese Nation, Thailand, the Indian government of Subhas Chandra Bose, and the Vatican. Manchuria met its dissolution in 1945 following Japan's defeat ending World War II.
Mengjiang
Mengjiang (Mengchiang) was a client state organized by Japan in Northern China on February 18 1936. The country's independence was merely theoretical, since principal political power remained firmly with "local" Japanese establishment. The local leader under the Japanese administration was the Mongol Prince Demchugdongrub.
The Japanese Army's ostensible purpose there was an eventual invasion of Soviet Siberia, during which it would advance the frontiers of Menchiang to Soviet Outer Mongolia. This was an attempt to exploit the Pan-Mongol nationalist spirit and the promise of a unified great Mongol nation.
Mengjiang vanished in 1945 following Japan's defeat ending World War II and the invasion of Soviet and Red Mongol Armies.
Nanjing puppet state
During the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945), a short-lived state was founded on March 29 1940 by Wang Chingwei, who became Head of State of this Japanese supported collaborationist government based in Nanjing. Its flag was similar to that of the Republic of China, whose flag is still flown in Taiwan. On September 9 1945, following the defeat of Japan in World War II, the area was surrendered to General Ho Ying-ching, a Nationalist General loyal to Chiang Kai-shek. Additionally, Japanese forces organized other minor "independent" nations or political entities in occupied lands on the Chinese mainland, from the Inner Mongolia to Guangdong.
Provisional Government of Free India
The Provisional Government of Free India was a shadow government led by Subhas Chandra Bose. It operated only in those parts of India which came under Japanese control. Bose was an Indian nationalist who did not believe in Gandhi's peaceful methods for achieving independence. Several key factors were vital in Bose's rise to power. The first was that even though India was a colony its army was largely autonomous. The second factor was that with Britain at war with Germany, an uprising could not be put down as easily as in years prior. The third and most important factor was the advance of the Japanese Empire through Asia. The Japanese Empire had earlier established Manchukuo (Manchuria) as independent in 1932 and later Indonesia and Vietnam independent without the approval of the latter two's European colonial masters.
Bose led several units in mutiny against the British government and had come into alliance with the invading Japanese Empire to India's east. Bose and A.M.Sahay, another local leader, received ideological support from Mitsuru Toyama, chief of the Black Dragon Society along with Japanese Army advisers. Other Indian thinkers in favour of the Axis cause were Asit Krishna Mukherji, a friend of Bose and husband of Savitri Devi Mukherji, one of the women thinkers in support of the German cause, and the Pandit Rajwade of Poona. Bose was helped by Rash Behari Bose, founder of the Indian Independence League in Japan. Bose declared India's independence on October 21 1943.Japanese Army assigned to Indian National Army at Hideo Iwakuro and Major-General Isoda how your military advisers also.
With its provisional capital at Port Blair on the Andaman and Nicobar Islands after they fell to the Japanese, the state would last two more years until August 18 1945 when it officially became defunct. In its existence it would receive recognition from nine governments: Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan, Italy, Independent State of Croatia, the Wang Jingwei Government in Japan-occupied parts of China, Thailand, Burma (under Ba Maw), Manchukuo, and the Philippines under de facto (and later de jure) president José Laurel.
Vichy France
Marshal Henri Philippe Pétain was named Chief of State of France after its surrender on June 22 1940. Under the terms of the armistice, Germany occupied approximately two thirds of France, including Paris. Petain established his seat of government at the resort town of Vichy in the unoccupied zone.
The Allies feared that the French fleet would fall into German hands and launched several attacks, including one attack leading to the destruction of the French Fleet at Mers-el-Kebir on July 3 1940. The Vichy regime broke relations with Britain after the attack and considered declaring war.
The Vichy government maintained control of much of the French colonial empire and continued to be recognized as a lawful government of France by the United States until 1942. It was opposed by the Free French headquartered in London under the command of Charles de Gaulle.
Allied forces (including Free French forces) also attacked Vichy forces in West Africa in 1940, Syria and Lebanon in 1941 and the Madagascar in 1942. The Vichy state signed the Anti-Comintern Pact and sent French volunteers to fight the Soviet Union. Vichy controlled colonies were often used as bases for Axis attacks. French Jews under Vichy government were transferred to the Nazis.
Japan occupied French Indochina, which became the starting point for the Japanese invasions of Thailand, Malaya and Borneo.
German troops occupied southern France and the Vichy colony of Tunisia in 1943, after Allied forces attacked Vichy troops there. Though Churchill would defend his controversial decisions on sinking the French Fleet and invading French Syria to his death, the French people themselves are less confident in the validity of these decisions. Though the Allies treated the Vichy French forces with great respect following their defeat in Syria, German propaganda was able to trumpet these actions as an absolute betrayal of the French people by their former allies. When one takes this into account the somewhat passive compliance the French people displayed under Nazi occupation seems clearer.
Summary
Of the lesser Axis Powers, six would become defunct by the end of the war: Vichy France, the Independent State of Croatia, Slovakia, Manchukuo, the Italian Social Republic, and Provisional Government of Free India. Of the six, only two, Croatia in 1991 and Slovakia in 1993, would reemerge under separate democratic governments.
See also these articles: Native pro-Axis leaders, governments and Axis direct control of occupied countries; Axis plans for expansion and attacks and; Expansion operations and planning of the Axis Powers.
Secondary sources
- Gerhard L. Weinberg. A World at Arms: A Global History of World War II.(NY: Cambridge University Press, 2nd edition, 2005) provides a scholarly overview.
- I. C. B. Dear and M. R. D. Foot, eds. The Oxford Companion to World War II. (2001) is a reference book with encyclopedic coverage of all military, political and economic topics.
See also
- World War II
- Allies of World War II
- All Participants in World War II
- Military equipment of Axis Power forces in Balkans and Russian Front
External links
