In 1938 , at the outbreak of World War II , which had a larger population , the Western Allies ( United Kingdom , France , Poland and British Dominions ) or the European Axis ( Germany and Italy )
In 1938 Germany annexed Austria and Italy assisted Germany in resolving the diplomatic crisis between Germany versus Britain and France over claims on Czechoslovakia by arranging the Munich Agreement that gave Germany the Sudetenland and was perceived at the time to have averted a European war , these hopes faded when Hitler violated the Munich Agreement by ordering the invasion and partition of Czechoslovakia between Germany and a client state of Slovakia in 1939 .