World War II
In Asia, German successes encouraged Japan to call for oil supplies from the Dutch East Indies. Many Western countries reacted to the occupation of French Indochina by banning oil trading with Japan. Plans to take over European colonies in Asia to create a great defensive area in the Pacific was made by Japan to give it more resources. However, before any future invasion, Japan first had to destroy the American Pacific Fleet in the Pacific Ocean. On December 7, 1941, it attacked Pearl Harbor as well as many harbors in several South East Asian countries. That event led the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, and the  Western Allies to declare war on Japan, but the Soviet Union remained neutral. Most of the Axis nations reacted by declaring war on the United States.