• One of the aims of Marxism, on which Communism is based, is to spread its ideas internationally and to instigate workers' revolutions worldwide.
• An organisation, called Comintern, was established in Moscow to promote this idea.
• Japan and Germany both hated and feared Communism, and therefore the USSR.
• In November 1936 Hitler signed the Anti-Comintern Pact with Japan, agreeing to work together to fight the spread of Communism in their countries.
• They agreed that the Comintern threatened national and world peace, and it was their responsibility to protect their people from it.

Hitler maintained throughout World War II that Germany was not an aggressor, but a saviour, which had saved the West from Communism. He said the Western democracies should be grateful to Germany.

The Rome-Berlin-Tokyo Axis

• Italy joined the Anti-Comintern Pact in 1937, after which it was called the Rome-Berlin-Tokyo Axis.
• Reasons for the alliance:

Conclusion

• Instead of being faced with a strong alliance of countries opposing him, Hitler was in a position of power, backed by an agreement with two strong, militaristic countries.
• France, Britain and many other European countries had agreements with each other, but these tended to be informal, fragile relationships, and did not yet yield the power that Germany's group did.