title: Alice in Chains

text: Following the tour, Alice in Chains entered the studio to record demos for its next album, but ended up recording five acoustic songs instead. While in the studio, drummer Sean Kinney had a dream about "making an EP called "Sap"". The band decided "not to mess with fate", and on February 4, 1992, Alice in Chains released their second EP, "Sap". The EP was released while Nirvana's "Nevermind" was at the top of the "Billboard" 200 charts, resulting in a rising popularity of Seattle-based bands, and of the term "grunge music". "Sap" was certified gold within two weeks. The EP features Cantrell on lead vocals on the opening track, "Brother", and guest vocals by Ann Wilson from the band Heart, who joined Staley and Cantrell for the choruses of "Brother" and "Am I Inside". The EP also features Mark Arm of Mudhoney and Chris Cornell of Soundgarden, who shared vocals with Staley and Cantrell on the song "Right Turn", credited to "Alice Mudgarden" in the liner notes.


title: Alice in Chains

text: In 1992, Alice in Chains appeared in the Cameron Crowe film "Singles", performing as a "bar band". The band also contributed the song "Would?" to the film's , whose video received an award for Best Video from a Film at the 1993 MTV Video Music Awards.


title: Alice in Chains

text: In March 1992, the band returned to the studio. With new songs written primarily on the road, the material has an overall darker feel than "Facelift", with six of the album's thirteen songs dealing with the subject of addiction. "We did a lot of soul searching on this album. There's a lot of intense feelings." Cantrell said, "We deal with our daily demons through music. All of the poison that builds up during the day we cleanse when we play."


title: Alice in Chains

text: On September 29, 1992, Alice in Chains released its second album, "Dirt". The album peaked at number six on the "Billboard" 200 and since its release has been certified quadruple platinum by the RIAA, making "Dirt" the band's highest selling album to date. The album was a critical success, with Steve Huey of Allmusic praising the album as a "major artistic statement, and the closest they ever came to recording a flat-out masterpiece." Chris Gill of "Guitar World" called "Dirt" "huge and foreboding, yet eerie and intimate", and "sublimely dark and brutally honest."


title: Alice in Chains

text: "Dirt" spawned five singles that reached the top 30 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart: "Would?", "Rooster", "Them Bones", "Angry Chair", and "Down in a Hole", and remained on the charts for nearly two years. Alice in Chains was added as openers to Ozzy Osbourne's "No More Tours" tour. Days before the tour began, Layne Staley broke his foot in an ATV accident, forcing him to use crutches on stage.


title: Alice in Chains

text: Starr left the band shortly after the Hollywood Rock concert in Rio de Janeiro on January 22, 1993, stating that he wanted to spend more time with his family. Staley told "Rolling Stone" in 1994 about Starr leaving the band, "It was just a difference in priorities. We wanted to continue intense touring and press. Mike was ready to go home." Years later, Starr claimed that he was fired due to his drug addiction.


title: Alice in Chains

text: Starr was replaced by former Ozzy Osbourne bassist Mike Inez. Inez had met Alice in Chains during Ozzy Osbourne's "No More Tours" tour and became friends with them. When the band was in Brazil, they called Inez to join them and he accepted. Inez wanted to do the shows in Brazil and even got his immunization shots, but the band called him back telling that Starr wanted to do the last two shows in Brazil, so they would meet Inez in London instead. Inez ended up getting sick with his vaccination shots for a couple of days. Inez played his first concert with Alice in Chains on January 27, 1993, at the Camden Underworld in London.


title: Alice in Chains

text: In April 1993, the band recorded two songs with Inez, "What the Hell Have I" and "A Little Bitter", for the "Last Action Hero" soundtrack. During the summer of 1993, Alice in Chains toured with the alternative music festival Lollapalooza, their last major tour with Staley.


title: Alice in Chains

text: Following Alice in Chains' extensive 1993 world tour, Staley said the band "just wanted to go into the studio for a few days with our acoustic guitars and see what happened." "We never really planned on the music we made at that time to be released. But the record label heard it and they really liked it. For us, it was just the experience of four guys getting together in the studio and making some music."


title: Alice in Chains

text: Columbia Records released Alice in Chains' second acoustic-based EP, "Jar of Flies", on January 25, 1994. Written and recorded in one week, "Jar of Flies" debuted at number one on the "Billboard" 200, becoming the first EP—and first Alice in Chains release—to top the charts.


title: Alice in Chains

text: Paul Evans of "Rolling Stone" called the EP "darkly gorgeous", and Steve Huey said, "'Jar of Flies' is a low-key stunner, achingly gorgeous and harrowingly sorrowful all at once." "Jar of Flies" features Alice in Chains' first number-one single on the Mainstream Rock charts, "No Excuses". The second single, "I Stay Away", reached number ten on the Mainstream rock charts, while the final single "Don't Follow", reached number 25. "Jar of Flies" has been certified triple platinum by the RIAA, with over 2 million copies sold in the United States during its first year. "Jar of Flies" received two Grammy nominations, Best Hard Rock Performance for "I Stay Away", and Best Recording Package.


title: Alice in Chains

text: After the release of "Jar of Flies", Staley entered rehab for heroin addiction. The band was scheduled to tour during the summer of 1994 with Metallica, Suicidal Tendencies, Danzig, and Fight, as well as a slot during Woodstock '94, but while in rehearsal for the tour, Staley began using heroin again. Staley's condition prompted the other band members to cancel all scheduled dates one day before the start of the tour, putting the band on hiatus. Alice in Chains was replaced by Candlebox on the tour. Susan Silver's management office sent out a statement saying that the decision to withdraw from the Metallica tour and Woodstock was "due to health problems within the band."


title: Alice in Chains

text: The band broke up for six months. Kinney told "Rolling Stone" in 1996, "Nobody was being honest with each other back then. If we had kept going, there was a good chance we would have self-destructed on the road, and we definitely didn't want that to happen in public."


title: Alice in Chains

text: While Alice in Chains was inactive during 1995, Staley joined the "grunge supergroup" Mad Season, which also featured Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready, bassist John Baker Saunders from The Walkabouts, and Screaming Trees drummer Barrett Martin. Mad Season released one album, "Above", for which Staley provided lead vocals and the album artwork. The album spawned a number-two Mainstream Rock chart single, "River of Deceit", as well as a home video release of "Live at the Moore".


title: Alice in Chains

text: In April 1995, Alice in Chains entered Bad Animals Studio in Seattle with producer Toby Wright, who had previously worked with Corrosion of Conformity and Slayer. While in the studio, an inferior version of the song "Grind" was leaked to radio, and received major airplay. On October 6, 1995, the band released the studio version of the song to radio via satellite uplink to stem excessive spread of taped copies of the song.


title: Alice in Chains

text: On November 7, 1995, Columbia Records released the eponymous album, "Alice in Chains", which debuted at number one on the "Billboard" 200 and has since been certified triple platinum. Of the album's four singles, "Grind", "Again", "Over Now", and "Heaven Beside You", three feature Cantrell on lead vocals. Jon Wiederhorn of "Rolling Stone" called the album "liberating and enlightening, the songs achieve a startling, staggering and palpable impact."


title: Alice in Chains

text: On December 12, 1995, the band released the home video "The Nona Tapes", a mockumentary featuring interviews with the band members conducted by journalist Nona Weisbaum (played by Jerry Cantrell), and the music video for "Grind".


title: Alice in Chains

text: The song "Got Me Wrong" unexpectedly charted three years after its release on the "Sap" EP. The song was re-released as a single on the soundtrack for the independent film "Clerks" in 1994, reaching number seven on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. The band opted not to tour in support of "Alice in Chains", adding to the rumors of drug abuse.


title: Alice in Chains

text: Alice in Chains resurfaced on April 10, 1996, to perform their first concert in two and a half years for "MTV Unplugged", a program featuring all-acoustic set lists. The performance featured some of the band's highest-charting singles, including "Rooster", "Down in a Hole", "Heaven Beside You", "No Excuses" and "Would?", and introduced a new song, "Killer Is Me", with Cantrell on lead vocals. The show marked Alice in Chains' only appearance as a five-piece band, adding second guitarist Scott Olson. A live album of the performance was released in July 1996, debuting at number three on the "Billboard" 200, and was accompanied by a home video release, both of which received platinum certification by the RIAA. The band also made an appearance on "The Late Show with David Letterman" on May 10, 1996, performing the songs "Again" and "We Die Young".


title: Alice in Chains

text: Alice in Chains performed four shows supporting the reunited original Kiss lineup on their 1996–97 Alive/Worldwide Tour, including the final live appearance of Layne Staley on July 3, 1996, in Kansas City, Missouri. Shortly after the show, Staley was found unresponsive after he overdosed on heroin and was taken to the hospital. Although he recovered, the band was forced to go on hiatus.


title: Alice in Chains

text: Although Alice in Chains never officially disbanded, Staley became a recluse, rarely leaving his Seattle condominium following the death of his ex-fiancée Demri Parrott due to a drug overdose on October 29, 1996. "Drugs worked for me for years," Staley told "Rolling Stone" in February 1996, "and now they're turning against me ... now I'm walking through hell and this sucks. I didn't want my fans to think that heroin was cool. But then I've had fans come up to me and give me the thumbs up, telling me they're high. That's exactly what I didn't want to happen.."


title: Alice in Chains

text: Unable to continue with new Alice in Chains material, Cantrell released his first solo album, "Boggy Depot", in 1998, also featuring Sean Kinney and Mike Inez. Cantrell and Kinney were also featured on Metallica's 1998 album "Garage Inc.", both were guest musicians in the track "Tuesday's Gone", a cover of Lynyrd Skynyrd.


title: Alice in Chains

text: In October 1998, Staley reunited with Alice in Chains to record two new songs, "Get Born Again" and "Died". Originally intended for Cantrell's second solo album, the songs were reworked by Alice in Chains and were released in the fall of 1999 on the box set, "Music Bank". The set contains 48 songs, including rarities, demos, and previously released album tracks and singles. The band also released a 15-track compilation titled "", serving as a sampler for "Music Bank", as well as the band's first compilation album; a live album, simply titled "Live", released on December 5, 2000; and a second compilation, titled "Greatest Hits" in 2001.


title: Alice in Chains

text: In November 1998, Layne Staley recorded a cover of Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall" with the supergroup Class of '99, formed by guitarist Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine, bassist Martyn LeNoble, drummer Stephen Perkins, both from Jane's Addiction and Porno for Pyros, and keyboardist Matt Serletic. The song was featured on the soundtrack to the 1998 horror/sci-fi film, "The Faculty".


title: Alice in Chains

text: After they toured as part of Cantrell's solo band in 1998, Sean Kinney and Queensrÿche guitarist Chris DeGarmo formed a new band called Spys4Darwin. Mike Inez and Sponge lead vocalist Vin Dombroski joined the supergroup soon after. The band released their first and only album in 2001, a 6-track EP entitled "Microfish". In June 2001, Mike Inez joined Zakk Wylde's Black Label Society for the remaining dates of Ozzfest, following the departure of bassist Steve Gibb due to medical reasons. Inez joined the band again for their West Coast and Japanese tour in 2003.


title: Alice in Chains

text: By 2002, Cantrell had finished work on his second solo album, "Degradation Trip". Written in 1998, the album's lyrical content focused heavily on what Cantrell regarded as the demise of Alice in Chains, which still remained evident as the album approached its June 2002 release. However, in March that year, Cantrell commented, "We're all still around, so it's possible [Alice in Chains] could all do something someday, and I fully hope someday we will."


title: Alice in Chains

text: Reflecting on the band's hiatus in a 2011 interview, Kinney said that Staley wasn't the only one battling addiction. "He was the focal point, like singers are. So they'd single him out. But the truth was, it was pretty much everybody. I definitely had my hand firmly on the wheel going off the cliff. And the reason we pulled back – you know when you stop when you have two #1 records, it's not really the greatest career move – but we did that because we love each other and we didn't want to die in public. And I know for a fact in my heart that if we were to continue that I wouldn't be on the phone right now talking to you. I wouldn't have made it. I just wouldn't have."


title: Alice in Chains

text: After a decade of battling drug addiction, Layne Staley was found dead in his condominium in Seattle on April 19, 2002. The autopsy and toxicology report on Staley's body revealed that he died from a mixture of heroin and cocaine, known as "speedball". The autopsy concluded that Staley died on April 5, two weeks before his body was found. Cantrell dedicated his 2002 solo album, "Degradation Trip", released two months after Staley's death, to his memory. Mike Starr later claimed on "Celebrity Rehab" that he was the last person to see Staley alive, and admitted to feeling guilty about not calling 911 after Staley had warned him against it. "I wish I hadn't been high on benzodiazepine [that night], I wouldn't have just walked out the door," Starr said.


title: Alice in Chains

text: Following Staley's death, Mike Inez joined Heart and toured and recorded with the band from 2002 through 2006. Jerry Cantrell collaborated with several artists such as Heart, Ozzy Osbourne, and Damageplan. In 2004, Cantrell formed the band Cardboard Vampyres along with The Cult guitarist Billy Duffy, Mötley Crüe and Ratt vocalist John Corabi, The Cult bassist Chris Wyse and drummer Josh Howser.


title: Alice in Chains

text: On October 22, 2004, Sony BMG terminated their contract with Alice in Chains, 15 years after the band signed with the label, in 1989.


title: Alice in Chains

text: In 2005, Sean Kinney came up with the idea of doing a benefit concert for the victims of the tsunami disaster that struck South Asia in 2004. Kinney made calls to his former bandmates, as well as friends in the music community, such as former Alice in Chains manager Susan Silver. Kinney was surprised by the enthusiastic response to his idea. On February 18, 2005, Jerry Cantrell, Mike Inez, and Sean Kinney reunited to perform for the first time in nine years at "K-Rock Tsunami Continued Care Relief Concert" in Seattle. The band featured Damageplan vocalist Pat Lachman, as well as other special guests including Maynard James Keenan of Tool and Ann Wilson of Heart. A few months after that experience, the band called Susan Silver and Cantrell's manager Bill Siddons and said they wanted to tour as Alice in Chains again.


title: Alice in Chains

text: Alice in Chains was approached by the producers of the CBS reality show "Rock Star" about being featured on its second season, but the band turned the offer down. In the show, aspiring singers competed to become the lead vocalist of a featured group.


title: Alice in Chains

text: On March 10, 2006, the surviving members performed at VH1's Decades Rock Live concert, honoring fellow Seattle musicians Ann and Nancy Wilson of Heart. They played "Would?" with vocalist Phil Anselmo of Pantera and Down and bass player Duff McKagan of Guns N' Roses and Velvet Revolver, and at the end of the performance Cantrell dedicated the show to Layne Staley and the late Pantera and Damageplan guitarist Dimebag Darrell. They also played "Rooster" with Comes with the Fall vocalist William DuVall and Ann Wilson. The band followed the concert with a short United States club tour named "Finish What We Started", several festival dates in Europe, and a brief tour in Japan. Duff McKagan again joined the band for the reunion tour, playing rhythm guitar on selected songs. During the tour, the band played a 5-minute video tribute to Staley during the changeover from the electric to acoustic set.


title: Alice in Chains

text: To coincide with the band's reunion, Sony Music released the long-delayed third Alice in Chains compilation, "The Essential Alice in Chains", a double album that includes 28 songs.


title: Alice in Chains

text: Jerry Cantrell met William DuVall in Los Angeles in 2000 through a mutual acquaintance who introduced Cantrell to Comes with the Fall's first album. Cantrell started hanging out with the band and occasionally joined them onstage. Between 2001 and 2002, Comes with the Fall was both the opening act on Cantrell's tour for his second solo album, "Degradation Trip", and also his backing band, with DuVall singing Staley's parts at the concerts. DuVall joined Alice in Chains as lead singer during the band's reunion concerts in 2006, and made his first public performance with the band at VH1's "Decades Rock Live" concert. According to Cantrell, it only took one audition for DuVall to get the gig. For his first rehearsal with the band, DuVall sang "Love, Hate, Love". After they finished, Sean Kinney looked at his bandmates and said, "I think the search is pretty much over." According to Mike Inez, DuVall didn't try to emulate Staley, and that's what drew them to him.


title: Alice in Chains

text: Cantrell revealed that before he suggested DuVall for the band, Sean Kinney and Mike Inez invited Sponge and Spys4Darwin lead vocalist Vin Dombroski to jam with the band in their rehearsal space. Dombroski jammed with them to a couple of songs but they did not feel he was right for the band. According to Cantrell, Stone Temple Pilots and Velvet Revolver lead singer Scott Weiland was also interested in joining the band.


title: Alice in Chains

text: Cantrell explained the reunion saying, "We want to celebrate what we did and the memory of our friend. We have played with some [singers] who can actually bring it and add their own thing to it without being a Layne clone. We're not interested in stepping on [Staley's] rich legacy. It's a tough thing to go through. Do you take the Led Zeppelin approach and never play again, because the guy was that important? That's the approach we've taken for a lot of years. Or, do you give it a shot, try something? We're willing to take a chance on it. It's completely a reunion because the three of us who're left are back together. But it's not about separating and forgetting—it's about remembering and moving on." Before the tour, Kinney mentioned in an interview that he would be interested in writing new material, but not as Alice in Chains.


title: Alice in Chains

text: During the VH1 Rock Honors concert honoring Heart on May 12, 2007, Alice in Chains performed Heart's "Barracuda" fronted by country singer Gretchen Wilson. Heart's guitarist Nancy Wilson also joined them onstage.


title: Alice in Chains

text: Alice in Chains joined Velvet Revolver for a run of U.S. and Canadian gigs from August through October 2007. During that tour, the band also performed four special acoustic-only shows, named as "The Acoustic Hour". The acoustic performance at The Rave/Eagles Club in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on August 31, 2007, was recorded for an upcoming live album.


title: Alice in Chains

text: On November 2, 2007, Alice in Chains performed a four-song set at Benaroya Hall in Seattle for Matt Messina and the Symphony Guild's 10th anniversary benefit concert for the Seattle Children's Hospital & Regional Medical Center. In addition to the band's original material, they also played a cover of Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir" while backed by over 200 musicians, including the Northwest Symphony Orchestra and the Northwest Girlchoir.


title: Alice in Chains

text: Sean Kinney said about the band's reunion: "I never called Jerry; he never called me, and said, 'Hey, let's get the band back together,' you know? We had been taking every step extremely cautious and slow, and just doing whatever feels right: If it's genuine and we're doing it for genuine reasons and we're all okay with it then we take a little step. None of us is broke. Nobody needs to be a rock dork, and you know, stroke their ego. I mean, we don't really operate like that. So as long as it felt good and from the right place and it's about making music and carrying on…."


title: Alice in Chains

text: About the pressure being put on DuVall for replacing Staley as lead vocalist, Cantrell said, "To put all that weight on Will's shoulders is unfair. We're just figuring out how we work as a team. Although the band has changed, we've lost Layne, we've added Will, and there was no master plan. Playing again in 2005 felt right, so we did the next thing and toured. We did it step by step. It's more than just making music, and it always has been. We've been friends a long time. We've been more of a family than most, and it had to be okay from here," Cantrell said pointing to his heart.


title: Alice in Chains

text: Former The Doors manager Bill Siddons and his management company, Core Entertainment, co-managed Alice in Chains with original manager Susan Silver from 2005 to 2007.


title: Alice in Chains

text: The band started writing and demoing songs for a new album with DuVall in April 2007. But the band did not show further signs of progress until October 2008, when they announced that they had begun recording with producer Nick Raskulinecz in the studio.


title: Alice in Chains

text: Blabbermouth.net reported on September 5, 2008, that Alice in Chains would enter the studio that October to begin recording a new album for a summer 2009 release. On September 14, 2008, Alice in Chains performed at halftime during the Seattle Seahawks vs San Francisco 49ers game at the CenturyLink Field (then-named Qwest Field) in Seattle. The 12-minute performance for a crowd of 67,000 people featured a cover of Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir" accompanied by the Northwest Symphony Orchestra.


title: Alice in Chains

text: In October 2008, Alice in Chains began recording its fourth studio album at the Foo Fighters' Studio 606 in Los Angeles with producer Nick Raskulinecz. The band did not have a record label at the time and the album was funded by Jerry Cantrell and Sean Kinney. At the Revolver Golden God Awards, Cantrell said that the group had finished recording on March 18, 2009, and were mixing the album for a September release. The recording process was completed on Cantrell's 43rd birthday and also the same day that William DuVall's son was born. In April 2009, it was reported that the new Alice in Chains album would be released by Virgin/EMI, making it the band's first label change in its 20-plus year career. Susan Silver, who started managing Alice in Chains in 1988, now co-manages the band with David Benveniste and his Velvet Hammer firm.


title: Alice in Chains

text: On June 11, 2009, Blabbermouth.net reported that the new album would be titled "Black Gives Way to Blue" and was officially set to be released on September 29, 2009. The title first appeared on Amazon.com without any prior announcement from the band. In addition, it was announced that Elton John plays piano on the title track, a tribute to Layne Staley written and sung by Cantrell. The album features new vocalist and rhythm guitarist William DuVall sharing vocal duties with lead guitarist/vocalist Jerry Cantrell, who sings lead vocals on most of the songs. DuVall sings lead vocals on the song "Last of My Kind".


title: Alice in Chains

text: On June 30, 2009, the song "A Looking in View" was made available for purchase via iTunes and Amazon, and for a limited time it was available as a free download through the official Alice in Chains website in early July. Although it was not the album's first radio single, Rock stations across the U.S. started playing the song. The music video for "A Looking in View" debuted via the band's official website on July 7, 2009. The song was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance.


title: Alice in Chains

text: "Check My Brain" was released to radio stations as the first official single from the album on August 14, 2009, and was made available for purchase on August 17, 2009. The music video for "Check My Brain" premiered on September 14, 2009. The song was also nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance.


title: Alice in Chains

text: To promote the album, the band released an EPK featuring all four of the members being interviewed while the Kiss makeup is being applied on them. An app for iPhone was released on October 27, 2009, featuring songs, music videos, news, photos and networking.


title: Alice in Chains

text: Sean Kinney said about the new album and the fans' mixed reactions about the band moving on after Staley's death: "Look, it's a big move to fucking stand up and move on. Some people, the music connected with them so strongly, their opinions, how they feel about it ... It's amazing that they have such a connection but they seem to act like it happened to them. This happened to us and Layne's family, not them. This is actually our lives. If we're okay with it, why can't you be? This happened to us, this didn't happen to you. But this album isn't about that, it's a bigger universal point. We're all going to fucking die, we're all going to lose somebody, and it fucking hurts. How do you move on? This record is us moving on, and hurting. That, to me, is a victory. I already feel like I've won." "Sometimes people ask us, 'Wouldn't Layne have been pissed off that we did this?' And I tell them it would have been the opposite: he would have been pissed off that it took us so long to do this. We're not doing this for money; there is no money in the music business anymore. Jerry and I funded the whole album, and we spent lots of our own money, because we believe in this. And one of the reasons I'm doing this is so more light is turned on to something where the light was turned off." And Cantrell added: "We've toured around the world, we've lost some friends, we buried a dear friend, and somebody that you just can't fucking replace, and then we've chosen by circumstance to get together again. That turned into 'maybe we can fucking do this.' And that turned into this."


title: Alice in Chains

text: In September 2008, it was announced that Alice in Chains would headline Australia's Soundwave Festival in 2009, alongside Nine Inch Nails and Lamb of God. In February 2009, it was also announced that Alice in Chains would play at the third annual Rock on the Range festival. On August 1, 2009, Alice in Chains performed, along with Mastodon, Avenged Sevenfold, and Glyder, at Marlay Park, Dublin as direct support to Metallica. The band made an appearance on "Later... with Jools Holland" on November 10, 2009, performing "Lesson Learned", "Black Gives Way to Blue", and "Check My Brain" as the final performance of the episode.


title: Alice in Chains

text: To coincide with the band's European tour, Alice in Chains released its next single, "Your Decision", on November 16, 2009, in the UK and on December 1 in the US. The last single from the album was "Lesson Learned", and it was released to rock radio on June 22, 2010.


title: Alice in Chains

text: "Black Gives Way to Blue" debuted at No. 5 on the "Billboard" 200. On May 18, 2010, the album was certified gold by the RIAA for selling over 500,000 copies in the U.S. The singles ""Check My Brain"" and ""Your Decision"" reached No. 1 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock Tracks, while ""Lesson Learned"" reached No. 4. ""Check My Brain"" was also the band's first #1 song on the Alternative Songs chart, and on the Hot Rock Songs chart, it also reached No. 92 on Billboard's Hot 100, becoming the band's first single to appear on the chart.


title: Alice in Chains

text: Along with Mastodon and Deftones, Alice in Chains toured the United States and Canada in late 2010 on the Blackdiamondskye tour, an amalgam of the three bands' latest album titles ("Black Gives Way to Blue", "Diamond Eyes", and "Crack the Skye").


title: Alice in Chains

text: On March 8, 2011, former Alice in Chains bassist Mike Starr was found dead at his home in Salt Lake City. Police told Reuters they were called to Starr's home at 1:42 pm and found his body; Starr was 44. Reports later surfaced that Starr's roommate had seen him mixing methadone and anxiety medication hours before he was found dead. Later reports indicated Starr's death may have been linked to two different types of antidepressants prescribed to him by his doctor. A public memorial was held for Starr at the Seattle Center's International Fountain on March 20, 2011. A private memorial was also held, which Jerry Cantrell and Sean Kinney attended according to Mike Inez.


title: Alice in Chains

text: On March 21, 2011, Alice in Chains announced that they were working on a fifth studio album, and both Cantrell and Inez later made statements that they had begun the recording process. The album was expected to be finished by summer of 2012 and released by the end of 2012 or beginning of 2013. While Alice in Chains were writing for the album in 2011, Cantrell underwent surgery on his right shoulder, which delayed recording the new material. In an interview published in May 2012, Cantrell explained, "The thing that set me back is I had some bone spurs [and] cartilage issues in my shoulders. I had the same issue in the other shoulder about six years ago so I've had them both done now. It's a repetitive motion injury from playing." Cantrell could not play guitar for eight months while he was recovering from surgery. While recuperating at home in a sling, Cantrell heard a riff in his head and sang it into his phone. The riff later became the song "Stone".


title: Alice in Chains

text: Alice in Chains played their first concert in nearly 10 months and their first concert after Cantrell's shoulder surgery at the Winstar Casino in Thackerville, Oklahoma on August 13, 2011. The band's only concert in 2012 was a five-song acoustic set on May 31 at the eighth annual MusiCares MAP Fund Benefit Concert honoring Jerry Cantrell.


title: Alice in Chains

text: On December 4, 2012, Cantrell confirmed that the new album had been completed. The first single, "Hollow", debuted online on December 18, available for digital download in January 2013, along with an official music video. On February 13, 2013, Alice in Chains posted on Facebook that their new album title would be an anagram of the letters H V L E N T P S U S D A H I E E O E D T I U R R. The next day they announced that the album would be called "The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here", which was released on May 28, 2013, and debuted at No. 2 on the "Billboard" 200.


title: Alice in Chains

text: To promote the album, Alice in Chains teamed up with Funny or Die for an 11-minute mockumentary titled "", in which Film Studies professor Alan Poole McLard (played by W. Earl Brown) attempts to make a documentary on Alice in Chains without any help from the actual band, interviewing other musicians instead. Among them are country singer Donnie 'Skeeter' Dollarhide Jr. (played by Jerry Cantrell), Reggae singer Nesta Cleveland (played by William DuVall), Black Metal musician Unta Gleeben Glabben Globben Globin (played by Mike Inez) and the hipster Stanley Eisen (played by Sean Kinney). The video was released on April 3, 2013, and also features cameos by Ann and Nancy Wilson from Heart, Mike McCready from Pearl Jam, Kim Thayil from Soundgarden, Duff McKagan from Guns N' Roses, Brent Hinds and Bill Kelliher from Mastodon, and Lars Ulrich and Robert Trujillo from Metallica.


title: Alice in Chains

text: In June 2013, the band released a pinball game app for iOS as part of "Pinball Rocks" HD compilation, featuring the single "Hollow", the band's logo and the album artwork, as well as references to the band's previous albums such as "Jar of Flies" and the self-titled record.


title: Alice in Chains

text: The band released videos for the songs "Hollow", "Stone", "Voices", the title track and "Phantom Limb". ""Hollow"" and ""Stone"" reached No. 1 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock Tracks, while ""Voices"" reached No. 3, and each one of the three songs stayed on the chart for 20 weeks. "The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here" was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical in 2014.


title: Alice in Chains

text: Alice in Chains toured extensively in the U.S., Canada, and Europe in 2013 and 2014. In May 2013, the band co-headlined the annual MMRBQ festival with Soundgarden in Camden, New Jersey. Asked in September 2013 if Alice in Chains would make another album, Cantrell replied, "It'll be a while. It's [been] four years since we put the last one out, but at least it's not the gap that was between the last one, so that's about right - about three to four years."


title: Alice in Chains

text: On January 18, 2015, Alice in Chains performed in the halftime show of the NFC Championship Game between the Seattle Seahawks and the Green Bay Packers at CenturyLink Field in Seattle. Cantrell is a lifelong Seahawks fan and often attends their games. In August 2015, Bassist Mike Inez said that the band had been "throwing around riffs for a new record" and "taking it nice and slow". The band toured in the summer of 2015 and the summer of 2016, including select shows opening for Guns N' Roses as part of the Not in This Lifetime... Tour. The band finished their 2016 tour with a concert at the Grand Sierra Resort and Casino in Reno, Nevada on October 8, 2016.


title: Alice in Chains

text: In November 2016, Alice in Chains released a cover of the Rush song "Tears", which was included in the 40th anniversary release of the album "2112". The home video "Live Facelift" was released on vinyl for the first time on November 25, 2016, as part of Record Store Day's Black Friday event. The album features six songs and only 5000 copies were issued.


title: Alice in Chains

text: To celebrate the tenth anniversary of Record Store Day, on April 22, 2017, Legacy Recordings released "Get Born Again"/"What the Hell Have I", a special 45 RPM double 7" single featuring four tracks remastered and available on vinyl for the first time, "What the Hell Have I", "A Little Bitter", "Get Born Again" and "Died".


title: Alice in Chains

text: In January 2017, Mike Inez stated in an interview that the band had begun work on a new album. In June 2017, it was reported that the band would return to Studio X (formerly Bad Animals Studios) in Seattle to record a new album later that month, for a tentative early 2018 release. The sessions were helmed by Nick Raskulinecz, who produced the band's last two albums. Studio X was the studio where Alice in Chains recorded its 1995 self-titled album. According to Inez, the band was not signed to a label, having completed its previous two-record contract with the Universal Music Group. "This [upcoming album], we're not sure where it's gonna land ... I mean, we financed ['Black Gives Way To Blue'] on our own too, so we're not too worried about that stuff. We've just gotta get it out to ... a significant label [with worldwide distribution]."


title: Alice in Chains

text: The band started recording their sixth studio album on June 12, 2017. On January 11, 2018, producer Nick Raskulinecz announced via Instagram that the album was nearly finished and that there was only one more day left of recording. During an interview with "Guitar World" published on April 11, 2018, Jerry Cantrell said that the album was recorded at four studios. After recording at Studio X in Seattle, the band went to Nashville to record vocals and lead guitars at Nick Raskulinecz's home studio. But Cantrell had to take an unexpected break from work for a couple of weeks after getting sick on a trip to Cabo for Sammy Hagar's birthday. Cantrell had the band's engineer, Paul Figueroa, come in to his house and record a lot of his vocals and solos there. The band finished recording the album at the Henson Recording Studios in Los Angeles. Cantrell also said he expected the album to be released "probably sometime this summer."


title: Alice in Chains

text: At the press room of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony on April 14, 2018, Cantrell revealed that Alice in Chains had just signed with BMG, and that they had finished mixing their new album.


title: Alice in Chains

text: Alice in Chains did not perform live in 2017. The band performed their first concert since October 2016 at the House of Blues in Boston on April 28, 2018. In May 2018, Alice in Chains headlined the festivals Carolina Rebellion, Lunatic Luau, Pointfest, Northern Invasion, the WMMR BBQ festival in Philadelphia, and the Rock on the Range festival in Columbus, Ohio on May 18, 2018, in which they paid tribute to Chris Cornell on the first anniversary of his death covering two Soundgarden songs to close their set, "Hunted Down" and "Boot Camp", respectively. At the end of the show, the lights on stage spelled out "CC" for Chris Cornell and "SG" for Soundgarden as feedback rang out. The band started their European tour in June 2018, and headlined the Tons Of Rock Festival in Norway alongside Ozzy Osbourne and Helloween. Alice in Chains are also scheduled to headline KISW's Pain in the Grass festival in August 2018.


title: Alice in Chains

text: The band released a new single, "The One You Know", via Spotify, Amazon and iTunes on May 3, 2018. A music video directed by Adam Mason was released on YouTube the same day. "The One You Know" peaked at No. 9 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock chart.


title: Alice in Chains

text: During an interview with Eddie Trunk on "Trunk Nation" on May 7, 2018, Jerry Cantrell said that the new album would be released at the end of August 2018. The band also revealed that they talked to director Adam Mason, who is making a dark sci-film, about doing two separate pieces of art and maybe molding them together, and that the music video for "The One You Know" is the first chapter of molding Mason's film and the band's music videos together.


title: Alice in Chains

text: The second single, "So Far Under", was released on Alice in Chains' YouTube channel and on streaming platforms on June 27, 2018. It was also announced that the album would be titled "Rainier Fog", with the release date scheduled for August 24, 2018. The album's artwork and the track listing were also revealed on the same day. Jerry Cantrell told "Rolling Stone" that the title "Rainier Fog" was inspired by the Mount Rainier in Seattle, and the title track is a tribute to the Seattle music scene. "This song is a little homage to all of that: where we come from, who we are, all of the triumphs, all of the tragedies, lives lived."


title: Alice in Chains

text: The album's third single, "Never Fade", was released on August 10, 2018, through digital and streaming services. The song is a tribute dedicated to frontman William DuVall's grandmother, Chris Cornell, and Alice in Chains' original singer Layne Staley. "Never Fade" peaked at No. 10 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock chart. A music video directed by Adam Mason was released on November 1, 2018, and continued the storyline from the music video of "The One You Know".


title: Alice in Chains

text: In June 2018, William DuVall said in an interview with Swedish website "Rocksverige" that the music video for "The One You Know" is the first chapter of what the band is hoping will be visuals for all ten songs from the album "Rainier Fog", and in addition to that, will be a companion piece to the film that director Adam Mason was shooting.


title: Alice in Chains

text: On August 20, 2018, the baseball team Seattle Mariners hosted a special "Alice in Chains Night" at the Safeco Field in Seattle to promote "Rainier Fog", with the team offering the fans a package that included a Safeco Field terrace club ticket, access to a pre-game listening party of the album, an Alice in Chains T-shirt and a Rainier Fog CD. Jerry Cantrell also threw out the ceremonial first pitch and delivered a strike before the Seattle Mariners vs. Houston Astros game.


title: Alice in Chains

text: To mark the launch of the album, on August 21, 2018, Alice in Chains performed an acoustic set at the top of Seattle's Space Needle and debuted the song "Fly". Alice in Chains were the first band to perform on the Space Needle's new "Loupe" glass floor, the world's first and only revolving glass floor 500 feet high. The concert was exclusive for an audience of SiriusXM subscribers. SiriusXM broadcast the concert on their channel Lithium on August 31, 2018.


title: Alice in Chains

text: On August 22, 2018, Alice in Chains sent fans on a Scavenger hunt to access a secret gig that the band would be performing in Seattle on August 24. Ten signed CD copies of "Rainier Fog" were hidden around the city as a ticket into the show, and the band asked the fans to keep an eye on their Instagram story for details on the 10 hidden locations. Once all 10 albums were found, the band revealed that the secret gig would be at the rock club The Crocodile, with limited tickets available with the purchase of their album at a pop-up event at the same venue the next day. Preview clips of each of the album tracks were posted on the band's Instagram.


title: Alice in Chains

text: The band also commemorated the release of the album with a pop-up museum installation at The Crocodile in Seattle on August 23 and 24. The museum featured rare Alice in Chains photos, limited-edition merchandise and memorabilia that showcased the band's 30+ year career.


title: Alice in Chains

text: "Rainier Fog" debuted at No. 12 on the "Billboard" 200 chart, selling 31,000 copies (29,000 in traditional album sales), in its first week of release. The album also debuted at No. 1 on Billboard's Top Rock Albums, Alternative Albums and Hard Rock Albums charts, and at No. 3 on the Vinyl Albums chart. "Rainier Fog" became Alice in Chains' first top 10 in the UK, peaking at No. 9, and topping UK's Rock & Metal Albums chart. The album has been nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Rock Album.


title: Alice in Chains

text: On December 13, 2018, the teaser of the film "Black Antenna" featuring the song "Rainier Fog" was released on Alice in Chains' official YouTube channel, with drummer Sean Kinney stating; "We've always toyed with the idea of creating videos for every song on one of our albums. Not only did we do that for "Rainier Fog", it got totally out of hand and we made a whole goddamn movie. Everything that will be seen in the videos will be footage from "Black Antenna" to preface the complete film's release." "Rainier Fog" was released as a single on February 26, 2019. The official trailer for "Black Antenna" was released on Alice In Chains' YouTube Channel on February 28, 2019. Besides a 90-minute film, a 10-part web-series focused on each track from the album will also be released. Episodes 1 and 2, "The One You Know" and "Rainier Fog", respectively, were released on March 7, 2019. The tenth and last episode, "All I Am", was released on July 17, 2019. The official music video for "Rainier Fog" was released on YouTube on May 15, 2019, and was co-directed by Alice in Chains and Peter Darley Miller, who also directed the band's 2013 mockumentary, "AIC 23".


title: Alice in Chains

text: On December 1, 2020, Alice in Chains was honored with the Founders Award from Seattle's Museum of Pop Culture. The benefit concert featured tribute performances from artists such as Ann Wilson, Korn, Metallica, Fishbone, Dallas Green, Billy Corgan, Tad Doyle, members of Soundgarden and Pearl Jam, among others. The event was made available for streaming for free and raised more than $600,000 for the museum in its first night. A compilation featuring highlights from the tribute was made available for streaming on Amazon Music.


title: Alice in Chains

text: In an April 2022 interview, vocalist William DuVall revealed that he was "sure" Alice in Chains will begin working on their seventh studio album later in the year: "We had a lot of time imposed on us and I think we're going through this period of catching up on things that we had planned for 2020 [and] 2021, and we're all finally getting to do that now. So, it's kind of like a stopgap and we're just dealing with all of these stockpiled projects that we had planned a few years back. So once we get back up to speed with things and we get these dates underway in late summer, I'm sure it will spark a whole bunch of ideas for the next Alice in Chains studio album."


title: Alice in Chains

text: Although Alice in Chains has been labeled grunge by the mainstream media, Jerry Cantrell identifies the band as primarily heavy metal. He told "Guitar World" in 1996, "We're a lot of different things  ... I don't quite know what the mixture is, but there's definitely metal, blues, rock and roll, maybe a touch of punk. The metal part will never leave, and I never want it to." The "Edmonton Journal" has stated, "Living and playing in Seattle might have got them the grunge tag, but they've always pretty much been a classic metal band to the core."


title: Alice in Chains

text: Over the course of their career, the band's sound has also been described as alternative metal, sludge metal, doom metal, drone rock, hard rock, and alternative rock. Regarding the band's constant categorization by the media, Cantrell stated "When we first came out we were metal. Then we started being called alternative metal. Then grunge came out and then we were hard rock. And now, since we've started doing this again I've seen us listed as: hard rock, alternative, alternative metal and just straight metal. I walked into an HMV the other day to check out the placement and see what's on and they've got us relegated back into the metal section. Right back where we started!" Drummer Sean Kinney rejects the grunge label, stating in a 2013 interview "I mean, before we first came out there was no grunge, they hadn't invented that word. Before they invented the word grunge we were alternative rock and alternative metal and metal and rock, and we didn't give a shit whatever, we were a rock and roll band!." According to Mike Inez, they were always the metal stepchildren of the Seattle scene.


title: Alice in Chains

text: The band are influenced to a great extent by English metal music; in 2018, Jerry Cantrell proclaimed Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi as "one of his biggest" inspirations, whilst Layne Staley named his "first influences" as Black Sabbath and Deep Purple. Cantrell adjudged English rock singer Elton John as "the artist that made me want to be a musician." In addition, members of Alice in Chains have cited artists including AC/DC, Accept, Aerosmith, The Beatles, Black Flag, David Bowie, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Dio, Funkadelic, Hanoi Rocks, Heart, Jimi Hendrix, Iron Maiden, King's X, Kiss, Led Zeppelin, Metallica, Motörhead, Mudhoney, Pink Floyd, Queensrÿche, the Rolling Stones, Rush, Scorpions, Soundgarden, The Stooges, Television, Thin Lizzy, U2, UFO, Van Halen, The Velvet Underground, Hank Williams, and ZZ Top as influential or inspirational.


title: Alice in Chains

text: Jerry Cantrell's guitar style combines "pummeling riffs and expansive guitar textures" to create "slow, brooding minor-key grinds". He is also recognized for his natural ability to blend acoustic and electric guitars. While down-tuned, distorted guitars mixed with Staley's distinctive "snarl-to-a-scream" vocals appealed to heavy metal fans, the band also had "a sense of melody that was undeniable," which introduced Alice in Chains to a much wider audience outside of the heavy metal underground.


title: Alice in Chains

text: According to Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic, Alice in Chains' sound has a "Black Sabbath-style riffing and an unconventional vocal style." The band has been described by Erlewine as "hard enough for metal fans, yet their dark subject matter and punky attack placed them among the front ranks of the Seattle-based grunge bands." Three of the band's releases feature acoustic music, and while the band initially kept these releases separate, Alice in Chains' self-titled album combined the styles to form "a bleak, nihilistic sound that balanced grinding hard rock with subtly textured acoustic numbers."


title: Alice in Chains

text: Alice in Chains is also noted for the unique vocal harmonies of Staley (or DuVall) and Cantrell, which included overlapping passages, dual lead vocals, and trademark harmonies typically separated by a major third. Cantrell said it was Staley who gave him the self-assurance to sing his own songs. Alyssa Burrows said the band's distinctive sound "came from Staley's vocal style and his lyrics dealing with personal struggles and addiction." Staley's songs were often considered "dark", with themes such as drug abuse, depression, and suicide, while Cantrell's lyrics often dealt with personal relationships.


title: Alice in Chains

text: Alice in Chains has sold over 19 million records in the United States, and over 40 million records worldwide, released two number-one albums, had 23 top 40 singles, and has received eleven Grammy Award nominations. The band was ranked number 34 on VH1's "100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock". Alice in Chains was named 15th greatest live band by "Hit Parader", with Staley placing as 27th-greatest heavy metal vocalist of all time. The band's second album, "Dirt", was named 5th-best album in the last two decades by "Close-Up" magazine in 2008.


title: Alice in Chains

text: In October 2008, "Guitar World" ranked Cantrell's solo in "Man in the Box" at No. 77 on their list of "100 Greatest Guitar Solos". In August 2009, Alice in Chains won the "Kerrang!" Icon Award.


title: Alice in Chains

text: In November 2011, "Jar of Flies" was ranked number four on "Guitar World" magazine's top ten list of guitar albums of 1994. It was also featured in "Guitar World" magazine's "Superunknown: 50 Iconic Albums That Defined 1994" list, and in May 2014, the EP was placed at number five on Loudwire's "10 Best Hard Rock Albums of 1994" list.


title: Alice in Chains

text: Pantera and Damageplan guitarist Dimebag Darrell had expressed his admiration for Cantrell's guitar work in an interview for "Guitar International" in 1995, saying that "the layering and the honest feel that Jerry Cantrell gets on [Alice in Chains' "Dirt"] record is worth a lot more than someone who plays five million notes."


title: Alice in Chains

text: Street musician Wesley Willis wrote a song about the band entitled "Alice in Chains", featured on his 1996 album "Feel The Power".


title: Alice in Chains

text: Billy Corgan revealed that the song "Bleeding The Orchid" from The Smashing Pumpkins' 2007 album "Zeitgeist" has a bit of an homage to Alice in Chains in the harmonies and was indirectly inspired by the death of Staley.


title: Alice in Chains

text: Elton John stated that he is a fan of Alice in Chains and a big admirer of Cantrell. According to Jon Wiederhorn of MTV, Godsmack has "sonically followed Alice in Chains' lead while adding their own distinctive edge." Godsmack singer and founder Sully Erna has also cited Staley as his primary influence. Godsmack was named after the Alice in Chains song "God Smack" from the album "Dirt". Staind has covered Alice in Chains' song "Nutshell" live, which appears on the compilation "", and also wrote a song entitled "Layne", dedicated to Staley, on the album "14 Shades of Grey". Three Days Grace also performs a cover of "Rooster", which can be seen on the DVD "Live at the Palace". Other bands that have been influenced by Alice in Chains include 10 Years, Avenged Sevenfold, Breaking Benjamin, Creed, Dallas Green, Days of the New, Hoobastank, Incubus, Korn, Manic Street Preachers, Mudvayne, Nickelback, A Pale Horse Named Death, Puddle of Mudd, Queens of the Stone Age, Rains, Seether, Smile Empty Soul, Stone Sour, Tantric, Taproot, and Theory of a Deadman. Metallica said they have always wanted to tour with the band, citing Alice in Chains as a major inspiration for their 2008 release, "Death Magnetic".


title: Alice in Chains

text: Alice in Chains has also had a significant influence on modern heavy metal. Their songs were covered by various metal bands such as In Flames, Opeth, Dream Theater, Secrets of the Moon, Suicide Silence, 36 Crazyfists, Cane Hill, Ektomorf, Dritt Skitt, Grave and Thou, who described their 2018 EP "Rhea Sylvia" as "a melodic grunge, Alice in Chains homage." In 2009, Anders Fridén of Swedish melodic death metal band In Flames cited Layne Staley as an inspiration for his vocals on the band's later albums. In addition to fellow musicians, the band has also received praise from critics, with Steve Huey of AllMusic calling them "one of the best metal bands of the '90s" upon reviewing the 1999 compilation "Nothing Safe".


title: Alice in Chains

text: In 2009, the Vitamin String Quartet released the album "The String Quartet Tribute to Alice in Chains", featuring instrumental versions on viola, violin and cello of 12 of the band's biggest hits.


title: Alice in Chains

text: In August 2015, journalist David de Sola published the biography "". An updated version covering the period from 2014 to 2017 was published in November 2018. Neither the band nor their management had any involvement with the book. Sources tied directly to the band were interviewed instead.


title: Alice in Chains

text: In June 2017, "Metal Injection" ranked Alice in Chains at number 1 on their list of "10 Heaviest Grunge Bands". Ozzy Osbourne ranked "Facelift" among his list of "10 Favorite Metal Albums".


title: Alice in Chains

text: The claymation dolls of the band members used in the music video for "I Stay Away" are on display at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame museum in Cleveland, Ohio.


title: Axis powers

text: The Axis powers, originally called the Rome–Berlin Axis, was a military coalition that initiated World War II and fought against the Allies. Its principal members were Nazi Germany, the Kingdom of Italy, and the Empire of Japan. The Axis were united in their opposition to the Allies, but otherwise lacked comparable coordination and ideological cohesion.


title: Axis powers

text: The Axis grew out of successive diplomatic efforts by Germany, Italy, and Japan to secure their own specific expansionist interests in the mid-1930s. The first step was the protocol signed by Germany and Italy in October 1936, after which Italian leader Benito Mussolini declared that all other European countries would thereafter rotate on the Rome–Berlin axis, thus creating the term "Axis". The following November saw the ratification of the Anti-Comintern Pact, an anti-communist treaty between Germany and Japan; Italy joined the Pact in 1937, followed by Hungary and Spain in 1939. The "Rome–Berlin Axis" became a military alliance in 1939 under the so-called "Pact of Steel", with the Tripartite Pact of 1940 formally integrating the military aims of Germany, Italy, Japan, and later followed by other nations. The three pacts formed the foundation of the Axis alliance.


title: Axis powers

text: At its zenith in 1942, the Axis presided over large parts of Europe, North Africa, and East Asia, either through occupation, annexation, or puppet states. In contrast to the Allies, there were no three-way summit meetings, and cooperation and coordination were minimal; on occasion, the interests of the major Axis powers were even at variance with each other. The war ended in 1945 with the defeat of the Axis powers and the dissolution of their alliance. As in the case of the Allies, membership in the Axis was fluid, with some nations switching sides or changing their degree of military involvement over the course of the war.


title: Axis powers

text: Particularly within Europe, the use of the term "the Axis" primarily refers to the alliance between Italy and Germany, though outside Europe it is normally understood as including Japan.


title: Axis powers

text: The term "axis" was first applied to the Italo-German relationship by the Italian prime minister Benito Mussolini in September 1923, when he wrote in the preface to Roberto Suster's "La" "Germania Repubblicana" that "there is no doubt that in this moment the axis of European history passes through Berlin" ("non v'ha dubbio che in questo momento l'asse della storia europea passa per Berlino"). At the time, he was seeking an alliance with the Weimar Republic against Yugoslavia and France in the dispute over the Free State of Fiume.


title: Axis powers

text: The term was used by Hungary's prime minister Gyula Gömbös when advocating an alliance of Hungary with Germany and Italy in the early 1930s. Gömbös' efforts did affect the Italo-Hungarian Rome Protocols, but his sudden death in 1936 while negotiating with Germany in Munich and the arrival of Kálmán Darányi, his successor, ended Hungary's involvement in pursuing a trilateral axis. Contentious negotiations between the Italian foreign minister, Galeazzo Ciano, and the German ambassador, Ulrich von Hassell, resulted in a Nineteen-Point Protocol, signed by Ciano and his German counterpart, Konstantin von Neurath, in 1936. When Mussolini publicly announced the signing on 1 November, he proclaimed the creation of a Rome–Berlin axis.


title: Axis powers

text: Italy under "Duce" Benito Mussolini had pursued a strategic alliance of Italy with Germany against France since the early 1920s. Prior to becoming head of government in Italy as leader of the Italian Fascist movement, Mussolini had advocated alliance with defeated Germany after the Paris Peace Conference (1919–1920) settled World War I. He believed that Italy could expand its influence in Europe by allying with Germany against France. In early 1923, as a goodwill gesture to Germany, Italy secretly delivered weapons for the "Reichswehr", which had faced major disarmament under the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles.


title: Axis powers

text: Since the 1920s Italy had identified the year 1935 as a crucial date for preparing for a war against France, as 1935 was the year when Germany's obligations under the Treaty of Versailles were scheduled to expire. Meetings took place in Berlin in 1924 between Italian General Luigi Capello and prominent figures in the German military, such as von Seeckt and Erich Ludendorff, over military collaboration between Germany and Italy. The discussions concluded that Germans still wanted a war of revenge against France but were short on weapons and hoped that Italy could assist Germany.


title: Axis powers

text: However at this time Mussolini stressed one important condition that Italy must pursue in an alliance with Germany: that Italy "must ... tow them, not be towed by them". Italian foreign minister Dino Grandi in the early 1930s stressed the importance of "decisive weight", involving Italy's relations between France and Germany, in which he recognized that Italy was not yet a major power, but perceived that Italy did have strong enough influence to alter the political situation in Europe by placing the weight of its support onto one side or another, and sought to balance relations between the three.


title: Axis powers

text: In 1933, Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party came to power in Germany. Hitler had advocated an alliance between Germany and Italy since the 1920s. Shortly after being appointed Chancellor of Germany, Hitler sent a personal message to Mussolini, declaring "admiration and homage" and declaring his anticipation of the prospects of German–Italian friendship and even alliance. Hitler was aware that Italy held concerns over potential German land claims on South Tyrol, and assured Mussolini that Germany was not interested in South Tyrol. Hitler in "Mein Kampf" had declared that South Tyrol was a non-issue considering the advantages that would be gained from a German–Italian alliance. After Hitler's rise to power, the Four Power Directorate proposal by Italy had been looked at with interest by Britain, but Hitler was not committed to it, resulting in Mussolini urging Hitler to consider the diplomatic advantages Germany would gain by breaking out of isolation by entering the Directorate and avoiding an immediate armed conflict. The Four Power Directorate proposal stipulated that Germany would no longer be required to have limited arms and would be granted the right to re-armament under foreign supervision in stages. Hitler completely rejected the idea of controlled rearmament under foreign supervision.


title: Axis powers

text: Mussolini did not trust Hitler's intentions regarding Anschluss nor Hitler's promise of no territorial claims on South Tyrol. Mussolini informed Hitler that he was satisfied with the presence of the anti-Marxist government of Engelbert Dollfuss in the First Austrian Republic, and warned Hitler that he was adamantly opposed to Anschluss. Hitler responded in contempt to Mussolini that he intended "to throw Dollfuss into the sea". With this disagreement over Austria, relations between Hitler and Mussolini steadily became more distant.


title: Axis powers

text: Hitler attempted to break the impasse with Italy over Austria by sending Hermann Göring to negotiate with Mussolini in 1933 to convince Mussolini to press Austria to appoint Austrian Nazis to the government. Göring claimed that Nazi domination of Austria was inevitable and that Italy should accept this, as well as repeating to Mussolini of Hitler's promise to "regard the question of the South Tyrol frontier as finally liquidated by the peace treaties". In response to Göring's visit with Mussolini, Dollfuss immediately went to Italy to counter any German diplomatic headway. Dollfuss claimed that his government was actively challenging Marxists in Austria and claimed that once the Marxists were defeated in Austria, that support for Austria's Nazis would decline.


title: Axis powers

text: In June 1934, Hitler and Mussolini met for the first time, in Venice. The meeting did not proceed amicably. Hitler demanded that Mussolini compromise on Austria by pressuring Dollfuss to appoint Austrian Nazis to his cabinet, to which Mussolini flatly refused the demand. In response, Hitler promised that he would accept Austria's independence for the time being, saying that due to the internal tensions in Germany (referring to sections of the Nazi Sturmabteilung that Hitler would soon kill in the Night of the Long Knives) that Germany could not afford to provoke Italy. Galeazzo Ciano told the press that the two leaders had made a "gentleman's agreement" to avoid interfering in Austria.


title: Axis powers

text: Several weeks after the Venice meeting, on 25 July 1934, Austrian Nazis assassinated Dollfuss. Mussolini was outraged as he held Hitler directly responsible for the assassination that violated Hitler's promise made only weeks ago to respect Austrian independence. Mussolini rapidly deployed several army divisions and air squadrons to the Brenner Pass, and warned that a German move against Austria would result in war between Germany and Italy. Hitler responded by both denying Nazi responsibility for the assassination and issuing orders to dissolve all ties between the German Nazi Party and its Austrian branch, which Germany claimed was responsible for the political crisis.


title: Axis powers

text: Italy effectively abandoned diplomatic relations with Germany while turning to France in order to challenge Germany's intransigence by signing a Franco–Italian accord to protect Austrian independence. French and Italian military staff discussed possible military cooperation involving a war with Germany should Hitler dare to attack Austria.


title: Axis powers

text: Relations between Germany and Italy recovered due to Hitler's support of Italy's invasion of Ethiopia in 1935, while other countries condemned the invasion and advocated sanctions against Italy.


title: Axis powers

text: Interest in Germany and Japan in forming an alliance began when Japanese diplomat Oshima Hiroshi visited Joachim von Ribbentrop in Berlin in 1935. Although at the time Japan was unwilling to make an alliance against the United Kingdom and France, Oshima informed von Ribbentrop of Japan's interest in forming a German–Japanese alliance against the Soviet Union. Von Ribbentrop expanded on Oshima's proposal by advocating that the alliance be based in a political context of a pact to oppose the Comintern. The proposed pact was met with mixed reviews in Japan, with a faction of ultra-nationalists within the government supporting the pact while the Imperial Japanese Navy and the Japanese Foreign Ministry were staunchly opposed to the pact. There was great concern in the Japanese government that such a pact with Germany could disrupt Japan's relations with Britain, endangering years of a beneficial Anglo-Japanese accord, that had allowed Japan to ascend in the international community in the first place. The response to the pact was met with similar division in Germany; while the proposed pact was popular amongst the upper echelons of the Nazi Party, it was opposed by many in the Foreign Ministry, the Army, and the business community who held financial interests in the Republic of China to which Japan was hostile.


title: Axis powers

text: On learning of German–Japanese negotiations, Italy also began to take an interest in forming an alliance with Japan. Italy had hoped that due to Japan's long-term close relations with Britain, that an Italo-Japanese alliance could pressure Britain into adopting a more accommodating stance towards Italy in the Mediterranean. In the summer of 1936, Italian Foreign Minister Galeazzo Ciano informed Japanese Ambassador to Italy, Sugimura Yotaro, "I have heard that a Japanese–German agreement concerning the Soviet Union has been reached, and I think it would be natural for a similar agreement to be made between Italy and Japan." Initially Japan's attitude towards Italy's proposal was generally dismissive, viewing a German–Japanese alliance against the Soviet Union as imperative while regarding an Italo-Japanese alliance as secondary, as Japan anticipated that an Italo-Japanese alliance would antagonize Britain that had condemned Italy's invasion of Ethiopia. This attitude by Japan towards Italy altered in 1937 after the League of Nations condemned Japan for aggression in China and faced international isolation, while Italy remained favourable to Japan. As a result of Italy's support for Japan against international condemnation, Japan took a more positive attitude towards Italy and offered proposals for a non-aggression or neutrality pact with Italy.


title: Axis powers

text: The Tripartite Pact was signed by Germany, Italy, and Japan on 27 September 1940, in Berlin. The pact was subsequently joined by Hungary (20 November 1940), Romania (23 November 1940), Slovakia (24 November 1940), and Bulgaria (1 March 1941).


title: Axis powers

text: The Axis powers' primary goal was territorial expansion at the expense of their neighbors. In ideological terms, the Axis described their goals as breaking the hegemony of the plutocratic Western powers and defending civilization from Communism. The Axis championed a number of variants on fascism, militarism, and autarky. Creation of territorially contiguous autarkic empires was a common goal of all three major Axis powers.


title: Axis powers

text: The Axis population in 1938 was 258.9 million, while the Allied population (excluding the Soviet Union and the United States, which later joined the Allies) was 689.7 million. Thus the Allied powers outnumbered the Axis powers by 2.7 to 1. The leading Axis states had the following domestic populations: Germany 75.5 million (including 6.8 million from recently annexed Austria), Japan 71.9 million (excluding its colonies), and Italy 43.4 million (excluding its colonies). The United Kingdom (excluding its colonies) had a population of 47.5 million and France (excluding its colonies) 42 million.


title: Axis powers

text: The wartime gross domestic product (GDP) of the Axis was $911 billion at its highest in 1941 in international dollars by 1990 prices. The GDP of the Allied powers was $1,798 billion. The United States stood at $1,094 billion, more than the Axis combined.


title: Axis powers

text: The burden of the war upon participating countries has been measured through the percentage of gross national product (GNP) devoted to military expenditures. Nearly one-quarter of Germany's GNP was committed to the war effort in 1939, and this rose to three-quarters of GNP in 1944, prior to the collapse of the economy. In 1939, Japan committed 22 percent of its GNP to its war effort in China; this rose to three-quarters of GNP in 1944. Italy did not mobilize its economy; its GNP committed to the war effort remained at prewar levels.


title: Axis powers

text: Italy and Japan lacked industrial capacity; their economies were small, dependent on international trade, external sources of fuel and other industrial resources. As a result, Italian and Japanese mobilization remained low, even by 1943.


title: Axis powers

text: Among the three major Axis powers, Japan had the lowest per capita income, while Germany and Italy had an income level comparable to the United Kingdom.


title: Axis powers

text: Hitler in 1941 described the outbreak of World War II as the fault of the intervention of Western powers against Germany during its war with Poland, describing it as the result of "the European and American warmongers". Hitler had designs for Germany to become the dominant and leading state in the world, such as his intention for Germany's capital of Berlin to become the "Welthauptstadt" ("World Capital"), renamed Germania. The German government also justified its actions by claiming that Germany inevitably needed to territorially expand because it was facing an overpopulation crisis that Hitler described: "We are overpopulated and cannot feed ourselves from our own resources". Thus expansion was justified as an inevitable necessity to provide "lebensraum" ("living space") for the German nation and end the country's overpopulation within existing confined territory, and provide resources necessary to its people's well-being. Since the 1920s, the Nazi Party publicly promoted the expansion of Germany into territories held by the Soviet Union.


title: Axis powers

text: Germany justified its war against Poland on the issues of German minority within Poland and Polish opposition to the incorporation of the ethnically German-majority Free City of Danzig into Germany. While Hitler and the Nazi party before taking power openly talked about destroying Poland and were hostile to Poles, after gaining power until February 1939 Hitler tried to conceal his true intentions towards Poland, and signed a 10-year Non-Aggression Pact in 1934, revealing his plans to only to his closest associates. Relations between Germany and Poland altered from the early to the late 1930s, as Germany sought rapprochement with Poland to avoid the risk of Poland entering the Soviet sphere of influence, and appealed to anti-Soviet sentiment in Poland. Hitler even tried to convince Poland to join the Anti-Comintern Pact. The Soviet Union in turn at this time competed with Germany for influence in Poland. At the same time Germany was preparing for a war with Poland and was secretly preparing the German minority in Poland for a war.


title: Axis powers

text: A diplomatic crisis erupted following Hitler demanding that the Free City of Danzig be annexed to Germany, as it was led by a Nazi government seeking annexation to Germany. Germany used legal precedents to justify its intervention against Poland and annexation of the Free City of Danzig (led by a local Nazi government that sought incorporation into Germany) in 1939. Poland rejected Germany's demands and Germany in response prepared a general mobilization on the morning of 30 August 1939.


title: Axis powers

text: Germany justified its invasion of the Low Countries of Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands in May 1940 by claiming that it suspected that Britain and France were preparing to use the Low Countries to launch an invasion of the industrial Ruhr region of Germany. When war between Germany versus Britain and France appeared likely in May 1939, Hitler declared that the Netherlands and Belgium would need to be occupied, saying: "Dutch and Belgian air bases must be occupied ... Declarations of neutrality must be ignored". In a conference with Germany's military leaders on 23 November 1939, Hitler declared to the military leaders that "We have an Achilles heel, the Ruhr", and said that "If England and France push through Belgium and Holland into the Ruhr, we shall be in the greatest danger", and thus claimed that Belgium and the Netherlands had to be occupied by Germany to protect Germany from a British-French offensive against the Ruhr, irrespective of their claims to neutrality.


title: Axis powers

text: Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941 involved issues of "lebensraum", anti-communism, and Soviet foreign policy. After Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, the Nazi regime's stance towards an independent, territorially-reduced Russia was affected by pressure beginning in 1942 from the German Army on Hitler to endorse a "Russian Liberation Army" led by Andrey Vlasov. Initially the proposal to support an anti-communist Russian army was met with outright rejection by Hitler, however by 1944 as Germany faced mounting losses on the Eastern Front, Vlasov's forces were recognized by Germany as an ally, particularly by Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler.


title: Axis powers

text: After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the outbreak of war between Japan and the United States, Germany supported Japan by declaring war on the US. During the war Germany denounced the Atlantic Charter and the Lend-Lease Act that the US adopted to support the Allied powers prior to entry into the alliance, as imperialism directed at dominating and exploiting countries outside of the continental Americas. Hitler denounced American President Franklin D. Roosevelt's invoking of the term "freedom" to describe US actions in the war, and accused the American meaning of "freedom" to be the freedom for democracy to exploit the world and the freedom for plutocrats within such democracy to exploit the masses.


title: Axis powers

text: At the end of World War I, German citizens felt that their country had been humiliated as a result of the Treaty of Versailles, which included a war guilt clause and forced Germany to pay enormous reparations payments and forfeit territories formerly controlled by the German Empire and all its colonies. The pressure of the reparations on the German economy led to hyperinflation during the early 1920s. In 1923 the French occupied the Ruhr region when Germany defaulted on its reparations payments. Although Germany began to improve economically in the mid-1920s, the Great Depression created more economic hardship and a rise in political forces that advocated radical solutions to Germany's woes. The Nazis, under Hitler, promoted the nationalist stab-in-the-back legend stating that Germany had been betrayed by Jews and Communists. The party promised to rebuild Germany as a major power and create a Greater Germany that would include Alsace-Lorraine, Austria, Sudetenland, and other German-populated territories in Europe. The Nazis also aimed to occupy and colonize non-German territories in Poland, the Baltic states, and the Soviet Union, as part of the Nazi policy of seeking "Lebensraum" ("living space") in Central and Eastern Europe.


title: Axis powers

text: Germany renounced the Versailles treaty and remilitarized the Rhineland in March 1936. Germany had already resumed conscription and announced the existence of a German air force, the Luftwaffe, and naval force, the Kriegsmarine in 1935. Germany annexed Austria in 1938, the Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia, and the Memel territory from Lithuania in 1939. Germany then invaded the rest of Czechoslovakia in 1939, creating the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia and the country of Slovakia.


title: Axis powers

text: On 23 August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, which contained a secret protocol dividing eastern Europe into spheres of influence. Germany's invasion of its part of Poland under the Pact eight days later triggered the beginning of World War II. By the end of 1941, Germany occupied a large part of Europe and its military forces were fighting the Soviet Union, nearly capturing Moscow. However, crushing defeats at the Battle of Stalingrad and the Battle of Kursk devastated the German armed forces. This, combined with Western Allied landings in France and Italy, led to a three-front war that depleted Germany's armed forces and resulted in Germany's defeat in 1945.


title: Axis powers

text: The Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia was created from the dismemberment of Czechoslovakia. Shortly after Germany annexed the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia, the Slovak Republic declared its independence from the rump Second Czechoslovak Republic. The new Slovak State allied itself with Germany. The remainder of the country was occupied by German military forces and organized into the Protectorate. Czech civil institutions were preserved but the Protectorate was considered within the sovereign territory of Germany.


title: Axis powers

text: The General Government was the name given to the territories of occupied Poland that were not directly annexed into German provinces, but like Bohemia and Moravia was considered within the sovereign territory of Germany by the Nazi authorities.


title: Axis powers

text: Reichskommissariats were established in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Norway, designated as places the "Germanic" populations of which were to be incorporated into the planned Greater Germanic Reich. By contrast the Reichskommissariats established in the east (Reichskommissariat Ostland in the Baltics, Reichskommissariat Ukraine in the Ukraine) were established as colonies for settlement by Germans.


title: Axis powers

text: In Norway, under Reichskommissariat Norwegen, the Quisling regime, headed by Vidkun Quisling, was installed by the Germans as a client regime during the occupation, while king Haakon VII and the legal government were in exile. Quisling encouraged Norwegians to serve as volunteers in the Waffen-SS, collaborated in the deportation of Jews, and was responsible for the executions of members of the Norwegian resistance movement. About 45,000 Norwegian collaborators joined the pro-Nazi party "Nasjonal Samling" (National Union), and some police units helped arrest many Jews. However, Norway was one of the first countries where resistance during World War II was widespread before the turning point of the war in 1943. After the war, Quisling and other collaborators were executed. Quisling's name has become an international eponym for traitor.


title: Axis powers

text: "Duce" Benito Mussolini described Italy's declaration of war against the Western Allies of Britain and France in June 1940 as the following: "We are going to war against the plutocratic and reactionary democracies of the West who have invariably hindered the progress and often threatened the very existence of the Italian people". Italy condemned the Western powers for enacting sanctions on Italy in 1935 for its actions in the Second Italo-Ethiopian War that Italy claimed was a response to an act of Ethiopian aggression against tribesmen in Italian Eritrea in the Walwal incident of 1934. Italy, like Germany, also justified its actions by claiming that Italy needed to territorially expand to provide "spazio vitale" ("vital space") for the Italian nation.


title: Axis powers

text: In October 1938 in the aftermath of the Munich Agreement, Italy demanded concessions from France to yield to Italy in Africa. Relations between Italy and France deteriorated with France's refusal to accept Italy's demands. France responded to Italy's demands with threatening naval manoeuvres as a warning to Italy. As tensions between Italy and France grew, Hitler made a major speech on 30 January 1939 in which he promised German military support in the case of an unprovoked war against Italy.


title: Axis powers

text: Italy entered World War II on 10 June 1940. Italy justified its intervention against Greece in October 1940 on the allegation that the Kingdom of Greece was being used by Britain against Italy, Mussolini informed this to Hitler, saying: "Greece is one of the main points of English maritime strategy in the Mediterranean".


title: Axis powers

text: Italy justified its intervention against Yugoslavia in April 1941 by appealing to both Italian irredentist claims and the fact of Albanian, Croatian, and Macedonian separatists not wishing to be part of Yugoslavia. Croatian separatism soared after the assassination of Croatian political leaders in the National Assembly of Yugoslavia in 1928 including the death of Stjepan Radić, and Italy endorsed Croatian separatist Ante Pavelić and his fascist Ustaše movement that was based and trained in Italy with the Fascist regime's support prior to intervention against Yugoslavia.


title: Axis powers

text: The intention of the Fascist regime was to create a "New Roman Empire" in which Italy would dominate the Mediterranean. In 1935–1936 Italy invaded and annexed Ethiopia and the Fascist government proclaimed the creation of the "Italian Empire". Protests by the League of Nations, especially the British, who had interests in that area, led to no serious action, although The League did try to enforce economic sanctions upon Italy, but to no avail. The incident highlighted French and British weakness, exemplified by their reluctance to alienate Italy and lose her as their ally. The limited actions taken by the Western powers pushed Mussolini's Italy towards alliance with Hitler's Germany anyway. In 1937 Italy left the League of Nations and joined the Anti-Comintern Pact, which had been signed by Germany and Japan the preceding year. In March/April 1939 Italian troops invaded and annexed Albania. Germany and Italy signed the Pact of Steel on May 22.


title: Axis powers

text: Italy was ill-prepared for war, in spite of the fact that it had continuously been involved in conflict since 1935, first with Ethiopia in 1935–1936 and then in the Spanish Civil War on the side of Francisco Franco's Nationalists.


title: Axis powers

text: Mussolini refused to heed warnings from his minister of exchange and currency, Felice Guarneri, who said that Italy's actions in Ethiopia and Spain meant that Italy was on the verge of bankruptcy. By 1939 military expenditures by Britain and France far exceeded what Italy could afford. As a result of Italy's economic difficulties its soldiers were poorly paid, often being poorly equipped and poorly supplied, and animosity arose between soldiers and class-conscious officers; these contributed to low morale amongst Italian soldiers.


title: Axis powers

text: By early 1940, Italy was still a non-belligerent, and Mussolini communicated to Hitler that Italy was not prepared to intervene soon. By March 1940, Mussolini decided that Italy would intervene, but the date was not yet chosen. His senior military leadership unanimously opposed the action because Italy was unprepared. No raw materials had been stockpiled and the reserves it did have would soon be exhausted, Italy's industrial base was only one-tenth of Germany's, and even with supplies the Italian military was not organized to provide the equipment needed to fight a modern war of a long duration. An ambitious rearmament program was impossible because of Italy's limited reserves in gold and foreign currencies and lack of raw materials. Mussolini ignored the negative advice.


title: Axis powers

text: By 1941, Italy's attempts to run an autonomous campaign from Germany's, collapsed as a result of military setbacks in Greece, North Africa, and Eastern Africa; and the country became dependent and effectively subordinate to Germany. After the German-led invasion and occupation of Yugoslavia and Greece, that had both been targets of Italy's war aims, Italy was forced to accept German dominance in the two occupied countries. Furthermore, by 1941, German forces in North Africa under Erwin Rommel effectively took charge of the military effort ousting Allied forces from the Italian colony of Libya, and German forces were stationed in Sicily in that year. Germany's insolence towards Italy as an ally was demonstrated that year when Italy was pressured to send 350,000 "guest workers" to Germany who were used as forced labour. While Hitler was disappointed with the Italian military's performance, he maintained overall favorable relations with Italy because of his personal friendship with Mussolini.


title: Axis powers

text: On 25 July 1943, following the Allied invasion of Sicily, King Victor Emmanuel III dismissed Mussolini, placed him under arrest, and began secret negotiations with the Western Allies. An armistice was signed on 8 September 1943, and four days later Mussolini was rescued by the Germans in Operation Oak and placed in charge of a puppet state called the Italian Social Republic ("Repubblica Sociale Italiana"/RSI, or "Repubblica di Salò") in northern Italy. In order to liberate the country from the Germans and Fascists, Italy became a co-belligerent of the Allies; as result, the country descended in Civil War, with the Italian Co-Belligerent Army and the partisans, supported by the Allies, contended the Social Republic's forces and its German allies. Some areas in Northern Italy were liberated from the Germans as late as May, 1945. Mussolini was killed by Communist partisans on 28 April 1945 while trying to escape to Switzerland.


title: Axis powers

text: The Dodecanese Islands were an Italian dependency known as the Italian Islands of the Aegean from 1912 to 1943.


title: Axis powers

text: Montenegro was an Italian dependency from 1941 to 1943 known as the Governorate of Montenegro that was under the control of an Italian military governor. Initially, the Italians intended that Montenegro would become an "independent" state closely allied with Italy, reinforced through the strong dynastic links between Italy and Montenegro, as Queen Elena of Italy was a daughter of the last Montenegrin king Nicholas I. The Italian-backed Montenegrin nationalist Sekula Drljević and his followers attempted to create a Montenegrin state. On 12 July 1941, they proclaimed the "Kingdom of Montenegro" under the protection of Italy. In less than 24 hours, that triggered a general uprising against the Italians. Within three weeks, the insurgents managed to capture almost all the territory of Montenegro. Over 70,000 Royal Italian Army troops and 20,000 of Albanian and Muslim irregulars were deployed to suppress the rebellion. Drljevic was expelled from Montenegro in October 1941. Montenegro then came under full direct Italian control. With the Italian capitulation of 1943, Montenegro came directly under the control of Germany.


title: Axis powers

text: Politically and economically dominated by Italy from its creation in 1913, Albania was occupied by Italian military forces in 1939 as the Albanian king Zog l fled the country with his family. The Albanian parliament voted to offer the Albanian throne to the King of Italy, resulting in a personal union between the two countries.


title: Axis powers

text: Italian East Africa was an Italian colony existing from 1936 to 1943. Prior to the invasion and annexation of Ethiopia into this united colony in 1936, Italy had two colonies, Eritrea and Somalia since the 1880s.


title: Axis powers

text: Libya was an Italian colony existing from 1912 to 1943. The northern portion of Libya was incorporated directly into Italy in 1939; however the region remained united as a colony under a colonial governor.


title: Axis powers

text: The Japanese government justified its actions by claiming that it was seeking to unite East Asia under Japanese leadership in a Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere that would free East Asians from domination and rule by clients of Western powers. Japan invoked themes of Pan-Asianism and said that the Asian people needed to be free from Western influence.


title: Axis powers

text: The United States opposed the Second Sino-Japanese War, and recognized Chiang Kai-Shek's Nationalist Government as the legitimate government of China. As a result, the United States sought to bring the Japanese war effort to a halt by imposing an embargo on all trade between the United States and Japan. Japan was dependent on the United States for 80 percent of its petroleum, and as a consequence the embargo resulted in an economic and military crisis for Japan, as Japan could not continue its war effort against China without access to petroleum.


title: Axis powers

text: In order to maintain its military campaign in China with the major loss of petroleum trade with the United States, Japan saw the best means to secure an alternative source of petroleum in the petroleum-rich and natural-resources-rich Southeast Asia. This threat of retaliation by Japan to the total trade embargo by the United States was known by the American government, including American Secretary of State Cordell Hull who was negotiating with the Japanese to avoid a war, fearing that the total embargo would pre-empt a Japanese attack on the Dutch East Indies.


title: Axis powers

text: Japan identified the United States Pacific Fleet based in Pearl Harbor Naval Base as the principal threat to its designs to invade and capture Southeast Asia. Thus Japan initiated the attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941 as a means to inhibit an American response to the invasion of Southeast Asia, and buy time to allow Japan to consolidate itself with these resources to engage in a total war against the United States, and force the United States to accept Japan's acquisitions. On 7 December 1941 Japan declared war on the United States and the British Empire.


title: Axis powers

text: The Empire of Japan, a constitutional monarchy with Hirohito as its Emperor, was the principal Axis power in Asia and the Pacific. Under the emperor were a political cabinet and the Imperial General Headquarters, with two chiefs of staff. By 1945 the Emperor of Japan was more than a symbolic leader; he played a major role in devising a strategy to keep himself on the throne.


title: Axis powers

text: At its peak, Japan's Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere included Manchuria, Inner Mongolia, large parts of China, Malaysia, French Indochina, the Dutch East Indies, the Philippines, Burma, a small part of India, and various Pacific Islands in the central Pacific.


title: Axis powers

text: As a result of the internal discord and economic downturn of the 1920s, militaristic elements set Japan on a path of expansionism. As the Japanese home islands lacked natural resources needed for growth, Japan planned to establish hegemony in Asia and become self-sufficient by acquiring territories with abundant natural resources. Japan's expansionist policies alienated it from other countries in the League of Nations and by the mid-1930s brought it closer to Germany and Italy, who had both pursued similar expansionist policies. Cooperation between Japan and Germany began with the Anti-Comintern Pact, in which the two countries agreed to ally to challenge any attack by the Soviet Union.


title: Axis powers

text: Japan entered into conflict against the Chinese in 1937. The Japanese invasion and occupation of parts of China resulted in numerous atrocities against civilians, such as the Nanking massacre and the Three Alls Policy. The Japanese also fought skirmishes with Soviet–Mongolian forces in Manchukuo in 1938 and 1939. Japan sought to avoid war with the Soviet Union by signing a non-aggression pact with it in 1941.


title: Axis powers

text: Japan's military leaders were divided on diplomatic relationships with Germany and Italy and the attitude towards the United States. The Imperial Japanese Army was in favour of war with the United States, but the Imperial Japanese Navy was generally strongly opposed. When Prime Minister of Japan General Hideki Tojo refused American demands that Japan withdraw its military forces from China, a confrontation became more likely. War with the United States was being discussed within the Japanese government by 1940. Commander of the Combined Fleet Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto was outspoken in his opposition, especially after the signing of the Tripartite Pact, saying on 14 October 1940: "To fight the United States is like fighting the whole world. But it has been decided. So I will fight the best I can. Doubtless I shall die on board [his flagship]. Meanwhile, Tokyo will be burnt to the ground three times. Konoe and others will be torn to pieces by the revengeful people, I [shouldn't] wonder. " In October and November 1940, Yamamoto communicated with Navy Minister Oikawa, and stated, "Unlike the pre-Tripartite days, great determination is required to make certain that we avoid the danger of going to war. "


title: Axis powers

text: With the European powers focused on the war in Europe, Japan sought to acquire their colonies. In 1940 Japan responded to the German invasion of France by occupying northern French Indochina. The Vichy France regime, a "de facto" ally of Germany, accepted the takeover. The allied forces did not respond with war. However, the United States instituted an embargo against Japan in 1941 because of the continuing war in China. This cut off Japan's supply of scrap metal and oil needed for industry, trade, and the war effort.


title: Axis powers

text: To isolate the US forces stationed in the Philippines and to reduce US naval power, the Imperial General Headquarters ordered an attack on the US naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on 7 December 1941. They also invaded Malaya and Hong Kong. Initially achieving a series of victories, by 1943 the Japanese forces were driven back towards the home islands. The Pacific War lasted until the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. The Soviets formally declared war in August 1945 and engaged Japanese forces in Manchuria and northeast China.


title: Axis powers

text: Taiwan was a Japanese dependency established in 1895. Korea was a Japanese protectorate and dependency formally established by the Japan–Korea Treaty of 1910.


title: Axis powers

text: The South Seas Mandate were territories granted to Japan in 1919 in the peace agreements of World War I, that designated to Japan the German South Pacific islands. Japan received these as a reward by the Allies of World War I, when Japan was then allied against Germany.


title: Axis powers

text: Japan occupied the Dutch East Indies during the war. Japan planned to transform these territories into a client state of Indonesia and sought alliance with Indonesian nationalists including future Indonesian President Sukarno, however these efforts did not deliver the creation of an Indonesian state until after Japan's surrender.


title: Axis powers

text: In addition to the three major Axis powers, six other countries signed the Tri-Partite Pact as its member states. Of the additional countries, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, the Independent State of Croatia, and Slovakia participated in various Axis military operations with their national armed forces, while the sixth, Yugoslavia, saw its pro-Nazi government overthrown earlier in a coup merely days after it signed the Pact, and the membership was reversed.


title: Axis powers

text: The Kingdom of Bulgaria was ruled by Тsar Boris III when it signed the Tripartite Pact on 1 March 1941. Bulgaria had been on the losing side in the First World War and sought a return of what the Bulgarian leadership saw as lost ethnically and historically Bulgarian territories, specifically in Macedonia and Thrace (divided between the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, the Kingdom of Greece, and Turkey). During the 1930s, because of traditional right-wing elements, Bulgaria drew closer to Nazi Germany. In 1940 Germany pressured Romania to sign the Treaty of Craiova, returning to Bulgaria the region of Southern Dobrudja, which it had lost in 1913. The Germans also promised Bulgaria — if it joined the Axis — an enlargement of its territory to the borders specified in the Treaty of San Stefano.


title: Axis powers

text: Bulgaria participated in the Axis invasion of Yugoslavia and Greece by letting German troops attack from its territory and sent troops to Greece on April 20. As a reward, the Axis powers allowed Bulgaria to occupy parts of both countries—southern and south-eastern Yugoslavia (Vardar Banovina) and north-eastern Greece (parts of Greek Macedonia and Greek Thrace). The Bulgarian forces in these areas spent the following years fighting various nationalist groups and resistance movements. Despite German pressure, Bulgaria did not take part in the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union and actually never declared war on the Soviet Union. The Bulgarian Navy was nonetheless involved in a number of skirmishes with the Soviet Black Sea Fleet, which attacked Bulgarian shipping.


title: Axis powers

text: Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, the Bulgarian government declared war on the Western Allies. This action remained largely symbolic (at least from the Bulgarian perspective), until August 1943, when Bulgarian air defense and air force attacked Allied bombers, returning (heavily damaged) from a mission over the Romanian oil refineries. This turned into a disaster for the citizens of Sofia and other major Bulgarian cities, which were heavily bombed by the Allies in the winter of 1943–1944.