1. Revision: The Manchurian Incident
Japan invaded Manchuria in 1931.
The League of Nations failed to solve the crisis.
It weakened the League as it was made to look powerless in the face of aggression.

2. Manchuria

3. Background Facts Which large country was Manchuria a province of?
China
What transport link did Japan already have there?
South Manchurian railway
What problems did Japan have before the invasion?
Suffered greatly in the Depression due to
US tariffs and reduced trade.

4. Manchuria: Causes of the invasion
•   The government of China was weak, corrupt
and busy fighting the Communists.
•   Because of the Great Depression, the USA was
no longer buying Japanese goods so Japan had
no money to buy food & raw materials.
•   The Japanese government was controlled by the army
which wanted to expand the Japanese empire.
•   China ruled Manchuria, but the Japanese army ran the
railway there, so it was easy to get soldiers there.
• Manchuria had farmland, raw materials such as
coal and iron ore and forestry.

5. 4 Mark Question:
Describe the reasons for the Japanese invasion of Manchuria.
Remember: You need THREE adequately explained points.

6. Manchuria

7. Events of the invasion The Japanese invade Mukden
•   Sept 1931: There was some vandalism on the Manchurian railway; Japan claimed the Chinese had sabotaged the
railway.  
•   They invaded Manchuria and set up the 'independent' (i.e. Japanese-controlled) state of Manchukuo under the former Emperor of China.   
•   China appealed to the League for help.
The Japanese invade Mukden

8. Manchuria: The League’s Actions
•   Dec 1931: the League appointed a commission
of inquiry led by Lord Lytton to investigate.  
•   He did not go to Manchuria until April 1932
and did not report until October. By this time the
Japanese army was embedded there.
•   Oct 1932: Lytton's report stated that Japan was
the aggressor and should leave.
•   24 Feb 1933: The Assembly voted that Japan
should leave Manchuria
•  Japan walked out of the meeting and left the
League

9. How did these events make the League look?
The Doormat Cartoon
How did these events make the League look?

10. Manchuria • Japan stayed in Manchuria.
•   The League could not agree economic sanctions
or an arms sales ban. This was due to the effects
of the Depression which was at its worst.
• No army could be sent. The nearest great power
was the USSR and it wasn’t in the League. Over
the Pacific Ocean was the USA and they too were
not in the League. It was too far from Europe for Britain &
France to send an army.
•  In 1933 Japan resigned from the League, and
invaded/ conquered Jehol (next to Manchuria).

11. Why Manchuria didn’t finish the League
The Manchurian Crisis was the ‘first nail in the League’s coffin’.
This means that it weakened the League but didn’t ‘kill’ it off.
In what way did the League have genuine reasons/ excuses why it couldn’t solve this crisis?

12. Consequences or Results of the Manchurian Crisis
A SPECTACULAR failure:
1. The Japanese continued to expand:
•     they kept Manchuria
• they invaded Jehol in 1933 and China in 1937.

13. Manchuria A SPECTACULAR failure:
2.  The League was discredited/ Manchuria showed:
•     It was slow (the Lytton Report took almost a year)
•     A country could get its own way if it ignored it
•     ‘Collective security' was useless against big
countries - especially during the Great Depression.
•     Even the great powers within the League (Japan
was on the Council) were happy to ignore it.

14. The weakness of the League was clear for all to see (no army, great powers missing) and this gave Mussolini and Hitler ideas that they could do the same.

15. The remilitarisation of the Rhineland