<P> In violation of the Treaty of Versailles and the spirit of the Locarno Pact and the Stresa Front, Germany re-militarized the Rhineland on March 7, 1936 . It moved German troops into the part of western Germany where, according to the Versailles Treaty, they were not allowed . France could not act because of political instability at the time . According to his official Biography, King Edward VIII, who thought the Versailles provision was unjust, ordered the government to stand down . </P> <P> After the Stresa Conference and even as a reaction to the Anglo - German Naval Agreement, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini attempted to expand the Italian Empire in Africa by invading the Ethiopian Empire (also known as Abyssinia). The League of Nations declared Italy the aggressor and imposed sanctions on oil sales that proved ineffective . Italy annexed Ethiopia in May 7 and merged Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Somaliland into a single colony known as Italian East Africa . On June 30, 1936, Emperor Haile Selassie gave a stirring speech before the League of Nations denouncing Italy's actions and criticizing the world community for standing by . He warned that "It is us today . It will be you tomorrow". As a result of the League's condemnation of Italy, Mussolini declared the country's withdrawal from the organization . </P> <P> Between 1936 and 1939, Germany and Italy lent support to the Nationalists led by general Francisco Franco in Spain, while the Soviet Union supported the existing democratically elected government, the Spanish Republic, led by Manuel Azaña . Both sides experimented with new weapons and tactics . The League of Nations was never involved, and the major powers of the League remained neutral and tried (with little success) to stop arms shipments into Spain . The Nationalists eventually defeated the Republicans in 1939 . </P> <P> Spain negotiated with joining the Axis but remained neutral during World War II, and did business with both sides . It also sent a volunteer unit to help the Germans against the USSR . Whilst it was considered in the 1940s and 1950s to be a prelude to World War II and It prefigured the war to some extent (as it changed it into an antifascists contest after 1941), it bore no resemblance to the war that started in 1939 and had no major role in causing it . </P>

What tensions contributed to the outbreak of war in europe