The Great Depression began around a decade before, leaving a great portion of the world unemployed and in financial ruin. In Germany Nationalism was taking over. The Empire of Japan had been at war since Japanese troops invaded Manchuria in 1931. Germany, Japan, and Italy were testing the League of Nations with multiple invasions and occupations of their neighbor countries. The Spanish Civil War broke out in the year 1936, which became a practice for the upcoming World War II. Germany and Italy were huge supporters of the Nationalist Rebels that were led by the General Francisco Franco. In the last couple years before World War II began, Nazi Germany spent their time, rearming, having signed a non-aggression treaty with the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, annexing Austria, and then invading Czechoslovakia.