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Curated playlist

Axis powers

  • German–Soviet Axis talksIn November 1940, Berlin greeted Molotov with an orchestra playing The Internationale.
  • Pact of SteelThe Pact of Steel assumed no war would come for at least three years.
  • Case AntonFrench sailors sank their own fleet at Toulon rather than let German troops seize it. It was November 1942.
  • Continuation WarFinland fought beside Nazi Germany but insisted it was not an ally. Its leaders said "co-belligerent" instead.
  • Vichy FranceIn July 1940, French lawmakers voted 569 to 80 to give Marshal Pétain absolute power. Vichy France began that day.
  • A–A lineGermany's plan to end the war in the east was a line on a map. The A-A line ran from Arkhangelsk to Astrakhan.
  • Soviet–Japanese Neutrality PactStalin personally saw off Japan's foreign minister at a train station.
  • Generalplan OstGeneralplan Ost was Nazi Germany's plan to colonize Eastern Europe through mass murder and starvation.
  • Kingdom of RomaniaRomania's parliament crowned a German prince as its first king in 1881. The Kingdom of Romania lasted until 1947.
  • Slovak Republic (1939–1945)Slovakia's parliament voted unanimously to break from Czechoslovakia on the 14th of March 1939.
  • Axis occupation of GreeceIn 1940, an Italian ambassador woke Greece's premier with an ultimatum, and he refused.
  • Fascist ItalyMussolini once called antisemitism a "German vice." Fascist Italy passed racial laws in 1938 under German pressure.
  • Thailand in World War IIThailand declared war on Britain and the US in 1942, then had the declaration called legally void.
  • Empire of JapanThe Empire of Japan abolished its own samurai class. That later brought conflict with the samurai.
  • Anti-Comintern PactThe Anti-Comintern Pact had a secret clause naming the Soviet Union. The public text did not.
  • Axis powersThe Axis powers got their name from a single phrase Mussolini used in 1936.
  • Molotov–Ribbentrop PactHitler decided Stalin looked like a man he could do business with. Their 1939 pact split Eastern Europe in secret.
  • Kingdom of Hungary (1920–1946)An admiral with no fleet ruled landlocked Hungary for a monarchy with no king.
  • Kingdom of ItalyOn the 26th of October 1860, at the town of Teano, the revolutionary general Giuseppe Garibaldi shook the hand of Victor Emmanuel II and hailed him as King of Italy. Garibaldi was a republican. With that gesture he gave up his hopes for an…
  • Tripartite PactYugoslavia signed the Tripartite Pact, and a coup overthrew its government two days later.
  • Yugoslav coup d'étatYugoslavia's 17-year-old king heard on the radio that he had been declared an adult.
  • Nazi GermanyNazi Germany's leaders promised it would last a thousand years, but it lasted twelve. It ended in May 1945.
  • Japanese occupation of the PhilippinesJapan's occupation of the Philippines began just ten hours after bombs fell on Pearl Harbor.
  • ManchukuoChina's last emperor once ruled Manchukuo, a state where he held no real power. Japan ran it from 1932 to 1945.
  • Invasion of YugoslaviaHitler attacked Yugoslavia in April 1941 after a coup toppled a government that had just allied with him.
  • Italian Social RepublicHitler threatened to destroy Milan, Genoa and Turin unless Mussolini led a new Fascist state.
  • New Order (Nazism)Hitler's 1941 "European New Order" sounded like paperwork but was a plan of conquest and genocide.
  • UntermenschThe Nazi word Untermensch began with an American Ku Klux Klan member's 1922 book.
  • Italian EmpireThe Italian Empire began when a shipping company bought a coaling station. The company bought Assab Bay in 1869.
  • Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity SphereIn December 1941, Japan's War Ministry drew up a plan to rule Hawaii, Australia and Alaska.
  • Kingdom of HungaryThe Kingdom of Hungary began with a crown placed on Stephen I at Esztergom on Christmas Day 1000. It lasted until 1946.
  • German military administration in occupied France during World War IIWithin weeks of June 1940, a swastika flag flew above the Eiffel Tower. Germans then governed occupied France.
  • Hakkō ichiuA monument in Miyazaki had the slogan hakkō ichiu removed, then put back.
  • LebensraumThe German word Lebensraum first appeared in an 1860 review of Darwin. It meant the region where a species lives.
  • German-occupied EuropeAt its peak in 1941-1942, German-occupied Europe held more than half the continent's people.
  • Spain during World War IISpain called itself neutral in World War II, yet it resupplied German submarines in its ports.

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