1936

The year in brief

On 7 March 1936 the Wehrmacht marched into the demilitarised Rhineland, breaking the Treaties of Versailles and Locarno. France and Britain did not respond with force; it was Hitler’s first great gamble and a complete success. In May the Italians took Addis Ababa, although Ethiopia did not capitulate. In July generals in Spain rebelled against the Popular Front government. The coup failed in Madrid and Barcelona, and the country split into two zones. Franco received help from Germany and Italy, the Soviet Union sold arms to the Republic, and in November Condor Legion aircraft were fighting over besieged Madrid. In the autumn the Rome–Berlin Axis was formed, and Germany and Japan concluded the Anti-Comintern Pact. In the USSR, after the first Moscow trial, Nikolai Yezhov took over the NKVD. In December Chiang Kai-shek was detained in Xi’an to force him to end the war with the communists and fight Japan.