The years between the two
world wars of the 20th century are generally considered to be ones
of peace, albeit with tensions rising that would ultimately explode into the
Second World War. That impression is not entirely true as several smaller wars
and troubles broke out around the world.
In 1919 the League
of Nations was established to find a peaceful solution to any future conflict.
Based in Geneva, the League was joined by all the victors of the First World
War, except the USA, and most neutral countries. Germany and the USSR joined
later. Although it managed to solve disputes between smaller states in the
1920s, it failed to constrain aggression by larger states in the 1930s.
Early in 1912
Chinese rebel army officers and provincial governors had seized power and
announced that the 6 year old emperor, Puyi, had abdicated in favor of a
republic. The new regime proved to be just as ineffectual as that it replaced.
The provinces of Tibet and Mongolia declared themselves independent while
several provincial governors acted as independent warlords. In 1926 a new
force, the Kuomintang led by Chiang Kai-shek announced that it wanted to see a
strong, united China. Gathering mass support from peasants and city dwellers in
central China, Chiang seized the central government and by 1930 had imposed his
rule on most of China.
In 1931 a
dangerous new element entered the turbulent Chinese scene. Japan had long been
a major investor in Chinese industry, with Japanese owned enterprises being
concentrated in the north around Tientsin and Lu Shan which lay close to Korea,
held by Japan since 1910. Worried by the instability of warlord activity, the
Japanese invaded Manchuria in 1931, later expanding into the neighbouring
province of Jehol. Two years later the Japanese brought Puyi out of retirement
and declared him to be Emperor of Manchuria, though real power remained with
the Japanese. In 1936 the Japanese invaded China in force and by 1939 had
occupied all important coastal cities and great swathes of northern China.
from The Historical Atlas of the World at War by Rupert Matthews
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