Gerhard L. Weinberg: Hitler’s Foreign Policy 1933-1939: Road to WWII: trade PB
With the remilitarization of the Rhineland, the stalemate in the Spanish Civil War, the forming of the Axis, and the signing of the Anti-Comintern Pact, the first phase was completed. In the second phase, the diplomatic initiative in the world belonged to Germany and its partners.

