1) Italian expansion in the 1930s: The fascists organized their totalitarian vision around the concept of nation. The national unity around the state, the single party and the leader will be the maximum aspiration of the fascist ideology. Italy had already conquered parts of Libya, Eritrea and Somalia, but what made it particularly attractive to Abyssinia (Ethiopia), was not being covered by desert areas and being susceptible to intense economic exploitation.
Since 1932 the fascist regime sought pretexts to attack the African kingdom of Abyssinia, bordering the Italian colonies of Italian Eritrea and Italian Somalia, which Italian troops had already tried to conquer in 1895, until being defeated by the Ethiopians in the Battle of Adua. Mussolini longed to expand the prestige of the fascist regime through imperialism and avenge the humiliation suffered by the Italian troops four decades ago, for which the Abyssinian kingdom offered to be an adequate prey with which to satisfy both objectives. After an almost uninterrupted series of Ethiopian defeats for months, the troops of Marshal Pietro Badoglio entered the Abyssinian capital, Addis Ababa, on May 5, while the Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie had to escape to exile in Kenya, thus ending the war in Ethiopia. On Saturday May 9, 1936 the two columns of Italian advance (northern and southern) joined in the Ethiopian town of Dire Dawa, finishing conquering the kingdom of Abyssinia
2) The rapid industrialization and militarization of imperial Japan led to its emergence as a world power and the establishment of a colonial empire. At the height of its power, in 1942, the Empire of Japan ruled over an area covering 7.4 million square kilometers, making it one of the largest maritime empires in history.
With few problems, Japan invades and conquers all Manchuria (called Manchukuo) in 1931. Apparently, Japan justifies it to free the Manchus from the Chinese, just as in the case of the annexation of Korea, which was supposedly an act of protection. As in Korea, a puppet government (Manchukuo) is founded. Jehol, the Chinese territory bordering Manchuria, was controlled in 1933. Later a puppet emperor will be named for the state and mostly controlled by the Japanese imperial state is the last emperor arrived at the power of the Chinese Empire, the emperor Pu yi. Japan invades China in 1937, creating what was essentially a three-branch war between Japan, the communists of Mao Zedong, and the nationalists of Chiang Kai-shek. Japan takes control of many of the coasts of China and the port cities, but prudently avoided the European colonies and their spheres of influence. In 1936, before the invasion of China, Japan signed an anti-communist treaty with Germany and another with Italy in 1937.
