Axis (Tripartite) Pact

Concluded on September 27, 1940, at Berlin among Germany, Italy, and Japan, the Axis, or Tripartite, Pact was the primary treaty creating the alliance of the three major Axis powers in World War II. The pact was concluded early in the war and at a time of high triumph for Germany, which had already 140 Austria invaded and conquered Poland, occupied France and created the puppet Vichy government in the unoccupied portion of the country, and appeared in position to defeat Great Britain as well. Adolf Hitler, however, preferred to coerce the British to come to terms with his regime as he secretly prepared to violate the German-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact with an invasion of the Soviet Union. Hitler did not want to fight a two-front war, and his foreign minister, Joachim von Ribbentrop, suggested to Hitler that a three-power agreement with Italy and Japan might just provide the leverage needed to move the stubborn Brits. Such a pact, Ribbentrop reasoned, would dissuade the ostensibly neutral, but by now clearly pro-British, United States from intervening in Europe and prompt it instead to turn its attention to the Pacific, where Japanese aggression presented a more immediate threat to its security. By formally bringing Japan into the Berlin-Rome Axis, the pact would threaten the Soviet Union with a two-front war, once Germany had invaded that country. Finally, with the United States and the Soviet Union distracted or threatened on other fronts, Great Britain would see itself as truly standing alone, and this would bring the British, at last, to the bargaining table. As it turned out, the Axis Pact achieved none of these outcomes. Not only did it tend to reinforce and intensify pro-British U.S. policy, it failed to bring Japan into a war against the Soviet Union. It did, however, sharply define the adversaries in World War II. Article 2 clearly gave Japan license to expand into and dominate East Asia, and deftly, Article 4, while making reference to Germany's nonaggression pact with the USSR and thereby recognizing Russia as an ally, made it clear that the Soviets had no part in the Axis. The substantive portions of the text of the pact follow: The governments of Germany, Italy and Japan, considering it as a condition precedent of any lasting peace that all nations of the world be given each its own proper place, have decided to stand by and co-operate with one another in regard to their efforts in greater East Asia and regions of Europe respectively wherein it is their prime purpose to establish and maintain a new order of things calculated to promote the mutual prosperity and welfare of the peoples concerned. Furthermore, it is the desire of the three governments to extend co-operation to such nations in other spheres of the world as may be inclined to put forth endeavours along lines similar to their own, in order that their ultimate aspirations for world peace may thus be realized. Accordingly, the governments of Germany, Italy and Japan have agreed as follows: ARTICLE 1 Japan recognizes and respects the leadership of Germany and Italy in establishment of a new order in Europe. ARTICLE 2 Germany and Italy recognize and respect the leadership of Japan in the establishment of a new order in greater East Asia. ARTICLE 3 Germany, Italy and Japan agree to co-operate in their efforts on aforesaid lines. They further undertake to assist one another with all political, economic and military means when one of the three contracting powers is attacked by a power at present not involved in the European war or in the Chinese-Japanese conflict. ARTICLE 4 With the view to implementing the present pact, joint technical commissions, members which are to be appointed by the respective governments of Germany, Italy and Japan will meet without delay. ARTICLE 5 Germany, Italy and Japan affirm that the aforesaid terms do not in any way affect the political status which exists at present as between each of the three contracting powers and Soviet Russia. ARTICLE 6 The present pact shall come into effect immediately upon signature and shall remain in force 10 years from the date of its coming into force. At the proper time before expiration of said term, the high contracting parties shall at the request of any of them enter into negotiations for its renewal. Axis (Tripartite) Pact 141 In faith whereof, the undersigned duly authorized by their respective governments have signed this pact and have affixed hereto their signatures.