Why was the League of Nations unable to stop Japan taking over Manchuria in the 1930s?

1423 Words3 Pages

The League of Nations was an international organisation formed in 1920 with its primary objective being to uphold world peace and promote collective security. This was based on the idea that if one of the League’s members was invaded, the other countries would stand up against the aggressor together. The League had a variety of successes, including settling the Aaland Islands dispute between Sweden and Finland, as well as failures, such as the Corfu incident between Greece and Italy. The main reason Japan took over Manchuria was because it did not want to fall victim to the vast European Empires at the time and be conquered. Instead, it was looking to be on par with major European nations such as Britain and France. As a result, it tried to expand its empire and had already taken control of Korea in 1876. In 1931, Japan invaded a North-eastern region of China – Manchuria. Manchuria was rich in resources and shared borders with Russia and Mongolia. Because both Japan and China were members of the League, China turned to the League for support and collective security. However, 20th century China was a country in decline and not considered a major country globally. In contrast, Japan was seen as the League’s most powerful member in the Far East and a permanent member of the League sitting in the League Council – which had full authority to make decisions, while China was not. There are several reasons why the League of Nations was unable to stop Japan from taking over Manchuria. Firstly, most of the respected countries in the League were powerful European nations such as Britain, France, Italy and Germany. Because the League had no army of its own, an army would be gathered from its member nations should it go to war. If war was t... ... middle of paper ... ...action to Japan’s use of force and simply not being confident of going to war with Japan. Therefore, because these permanent members of the League had no interest in stopping Japan, the League did not do anything. Furthermore, powerful countries including the USA and USSR were not part of the League and this greatly reduced the League’s authority. Lastly, the only action that the League did take – the Lytton Committee and Report, bore no fruits and exposed the League’s vulnerability to the world. As Italian Prime Minister said, ‘The League is very well when sparrows shout, but no good at all when eagles fall out’. During the 1920s, the League was able to solve minor disputes between relatively small countries. However, because the crisis in Manchuria involved Japan, a major power, the League was helpless against it and was unable to stop Japan taking over Manchuria.

Show More
Related

  • Reasons for the Attack on Pearl Harbor

    1675 Words  | 4 Pages

    Japan figured if it wanted to survive, it would have to expand to get more materials. o neal 410-413. Japan started trying to take over Asia. They landed on the east coast of China in Manchuria and stationed troops there in order to try to take over northeastern China. ("Japan Launches A Surprise Attack on Pearl Harbor: December 7, 1941").

    Read More

  • League Of Nations Dbq

    1214 Words  | 3 Pages

    Japan was strongminded to get new and fresh territories. Once the league decided to take action against Italy this is when the decided enough was enough and they left the league continuing its spiral of failure. These was almost a sense of loss of faith within the league as many of the nations no longer thought they could rely on the system in many different aspects. Clearly the military proneness was one of the major reasons as these countries soon realized there was no presence within that category. Overall in the end, these were all of several reason the League of Nations failed as a power and countries all left on their own. So in conclusion, because not all countries joined, their lack of military, and their inadequate ability to act was the reasoning for the failure to stop an additional world

    Read More

  • The Pros And Cons Of Dropping The Atomic Bomb

    1246 Words  | 3 Pages

    Japan's actions from 1852 to 1945 were stimulated by an extensive aspiration to elude the providence of 19th-century China and also to overtake as a great power. When Japanese soldiers stormed into Manchuria in 1931, Japan commenced the first in the succession of

    Read More

  • World War II: Pacific Theater Overview and Japanese Cruelty

    2155 Words  | 5 Pages

    Japanese aggression originated in the fall of 1931 when the explosion of a section of the South Manchurian Railway in northern China occurred, causing Japan’s Kwangtung Army, who was guarding the railroad, to exchange fire with the Chinese Army and then proceed to occupy all of Manchuria. Soon after, the Kwangtung Army set up a puppet government and renamed the region Manchukuo. The Chinese Army claimed that the Japanese purposely blew up part of the railroad to initiate a confrontation and therefore a reason to occupy Manchuria.2 Later, in 1937, Japan decided to go ahead with plans to further invade China, and conquered most of the northern and eastern regions within a year. This was later t...

    Read More

  • kamikaze

    1879 Words  | 4 Pages

    In 1933, Japan withdrew from the League of Nations since she was heavily criticized for her actions in China.

    Read More

  • Significance of the Night of the Long Knives for Hitler's Power

    1420 Words  | 3 Pages

    overseen by the League of Nations. But how did a party that was in a

    Read More

  • WW2 And American Involvement

    917 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Asia however there was a different dominant country, Japan. Japan had stayed and watched things go by in Asia for years, they were like a dormant volcano waiting to erupt. They had watched countries like America, England, France and even Holland take islands and turn them to colonies, so why couldn't they do the same thing? Japan was eager to expand its borders, they knew that they could do it, however there was one problem, The U.S. They were currently the dominant country in the southern islands of Asia. With bases situated in Pearl Harbour and the Philippines, Japan had to weaken the American Navy before they could expand. Japan attacked pearl harbour by surprise, thinking that they could put the American Fleet out of action. This would give them a year to expand all they wanted to. Japan first moved west and took Manchuria and parts of China.

    Read More

  • pearl harbor

    1075 Words  | 3 Pages

    In 1937 Japan declared war on China in an attempt to solve economic problems. They had a long an unsuccessful campaign until 1940 when they allied themselves with the axis powers. In response to these efforts the United States cut off all trade to japan which included all their essential resources like coal and oil. Their goal was to force japan to stop their expansion because of the lack of supplies, yet the opposite occurred making them more determined than ever. The two governments negotiated for months but neither side would budge, making war inevitable.

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast China And Japan's Response To Western Penetration

    917 Words  | 2 Pages

    Japan had to open ports to foreign commerce when they lost the fight against Europe and America in Tokyo Bay (Bentley 508). After losing, Japan began industrializing and soon enhanced their military by investing in tools from western empires, who had very strong and powerful militaries. Once Japan had built a strong military they began to fight for Korea. They fought China and “demolished the Chinese fleet in a battle lasting a mere five hours,” and they later gained Korea and treaty rights in China (Bentley 550). China’s military was very weak. After losing Hong Kong and many trading ports to western empires following the Opium War, China was in trouble. Chinese people began rebelling against the Qing Dynasty. After the most popular rebellion, The Taiping Rebellion, China began the Self-Strengthening Movement. “While holding to Confucian values, movement leaders built shipyards, constructed railroads, established weapons industries, opened steel foundries with blast furnaces, and founded academies to develop scientific expertise” (Bentley 543). After doing all of these things, China still did not have a strong enough military. They continued to deal with problems from the western

    Read More

  • League Of Nations Essay

    1453 Words  | 3 Pages

    The League of Nations has been seen as a seriously flawed international organisation and its failure to prevent World War Two has been well documented. Provide something of an alternative perspective by identifying and highlighting important policy-areas in which the League made valuable progress.

    Read More

  • League of Nations: Aspirations and Limitations

    750 Words  | 2 Pages

    The League of Nations sounds like a superhero team and in a sense, the goal that The League was trying to achieve could have been something straight out of a comic book. Originally proposed by President Woodrow Wilson during World War I, The League was born after some alterations. The League of Nations’ main intention was to bring an end to the war and prevent another one of the same atrocious proportions from happening in the future. Forty zealous countries joined this fight, but the most powerful country of all was not among them: The United States of America. While many Americans agreed with the goal of The League, many did not and those that did not were ones in power. The portion of the “mission statement” for The League that caused

    Read More

  • First World War The League of Nations

    506 Words  | 2 Pages

    With the conclusion of the First World War the League of Nations was founded in the Treaty of Versailles on June 28, 1919. It was the first intergovernmental organization that would keep peace and settle world disputes.

    Read More

  • Congress of Vienna (1815)

    730 Words  | 2 Pages

    In 1904, the Russian angered Japan by increasing it’s presence in China’s Northern Province of Manchuria. Eventually, the Japanese decided to attack the Russian to keep their power on the Asian Mainland and surprisingly, defeated them both on land and at sea. Eventually, Japanese became the dominant power in Manchuria.

    Read More

  • Assessment of the Success of the League of Nations

    764 Words  | 2 Pages

    The failures of the league do out way the successes. The league did fail in co-operation and working in unity. The major member states were to blame mainly due to their selfish decisions and disagreements against the league. The league was a success to the extent where decisions did not require armed forces or going against a large nation.

    Read More

  • The Manchurian Crisis

    960 Words  | 2 Pages

    By taking over Manchuria in 1931, the Japanese wished to de-populate overcrowded territories in Japan and settle its surplus population over seas. Due to the rate at which the Japanese population was growing, social problems began to arise and Japan needed a way to disperse its people into other regions other than its own. Many cities and villages became overcrowded and thousands of Japanese citizens in...

    Read More

More about Why was the League of Nations unable to stop Japan taking over Manchuria in the 1930s?

Open Document