Manchurian Crisis

2. To what extant was the League of Nations a success?

How did the Manchurian Crisis weaken the league?

The first major test of the league was when the Japanese invaded Manchuria in 1931.

Since 1900, Japan's economy and population and had been increasing rapidly.

By 1920, Japan was a major power.

- Strong and powerful navy and army - leaders of the army dictated Government policy.

- Strong industry, exporting good to the USA and China.

- It had a growing empire known as the Korean Peninsula.

The depression hit Japan very badly. Both China and USA put up tariffs against Japan goods. The crash of the American market put the Japanese in crisis.

Without the trade from the USA, Japan could not feed its people.

The Army leaders only had one solution - to build the Japanese empire by force.

In 1931, an incident in Manchuria gave the Japanese and excuse to expand on thier empire.

The Japanese army control half the Southern Manchurian Railway.

In September 1931, they claimed that the Chinese had sabtoged the area they owned.

Consequently, they overran all Manchuria and threw out the Chinese forces.

In February 1932, they set up a puppet government in Manchuria which did exactly what the Japanese told it…