19361938

1936–1938 refers to the three-year span spanning the mid to late 1930s, a period marked by rapid militarization, political realignment, and escalating conflicts that helped pave the way to World War II. In Europe, Germany’s violation of the post–World War I order was evident through the remilitarization of the Rhineland in 1936, a move that went unchallenged by the major powers. That year also saw the formal formation of the Rome–Berlin Axis and the Anti-Comintern Pact, which linked Germany with Italy and Japan in opposing the Allies and the international communist movement. The Spanish Civil War began in 1936, drawing in foreign intervention and serving as a laboratory for modern warfare tactics and air power.

In Asia, the conflict between Japan and China intensified after the Marco Polo Bridge Incident in 1937, marking the start of a full-scale war. The Sino-Japanese conflict brought widespread devastation, including the Nanjing Massacre, and contributed to rising tension between Japan and Western powers. The period also encompassed internal upheaval in other regions and the continuing collapse of collective security mechanisms, such as the League of Nations.

The year 1938 further destabilized Europe. Austria was annexed by Germany in the March Anschluss, and Western powers faced a crisis over Czechoslovakia’s Sudetenland, culminating in the Munich Agreement of September 1938. That year also saw the Kristallnacht pogrom in Germany, highlighting the regime’s increasing repression and antisemitism. In the Soviet Union, the late 1930s encompassed intensified political repression during the Great Purge, which extended into 1938.

Overall, 1936–1938 marked a turning point in which aggressive expansion, alliance-building among revisionist powers, and widespread violence signaled the impending broader conflict of the late 1930s.