Political Aspect: The Anti-Comintern Pact

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The Anti-Comintern Pact was a treaty signed on November 25, 1936 by Nazi Germany and Japan on which they declared the opposition of both countries to communism and the Communist International (Comintern). A year later, on November 6, 1937, Mussolini’s Italy joined the pact and in 1939, Spain did too.

In October 1935, the idea, which many German Officials had for wanting to balance the various demands upon the Reich’s foreign policy, was debated that these types of alliances, an anti-Communist once, might be able to join the Kuomintang regime, Japan and Germany.

In order to avoid damaging relations with the Soviet Union, the Anti - Comintern Pact was only against the Comintern, but in fact, it also contained a secret idea behind the agreement, which established that in the case of either signatory power becoming involved in a war with the Soviet Union, the other signatory power would maintain benevolent neutrality.

If the Soviet Unit attacks Germany or Japan, the two countries agreed to consult each other on which measures should be taken "to safeguard their common interests". They also agreed that neither of them is allowed to make political treaties with the Soviet Union.

When Italy joined the pact in 1937, the group known as the Axis Powers was beginning to form.

In June 1935, the Anglo-German Naval Agreement was signed by the United Kingdom and Nazi Germany. This was the point which marked the beginning of a series of attempts by Adolf Hitler (principal character of Nazism) to improve relations between the two countries. Hitler also wanted to influence Poland and made an effort to make the Poles join the Anti-Comintern Pact, for this, he tried to convince them by presenting his idea of settling territorial disputes between Germany and Poland. However, Poland refused to Germany's terms, because they feared that an alliance with Hitler (“murderer”) would make from Poland a “German puppet state”.

Hitler also wanted to develop relations with Britain, but as with Poland, he failed. In August 1939, Germany broke the terms of the Anti-Comintern Pact because of the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. And finally, by 1940, Adolf Hitler started planning for an invasion of the Soviet Union.