manchurian crisis (sep 18, 1931 – feb 27, 1933)

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Japan invaded Manchuria for multiple reasons. For example, one of the reasons why Japan invaded Manchuria was in order to steal its natural resources. Japan has almost no natural resources, so it needed a place to get these, especially because trade was limited due to import tax and economic tariffs. Another reason why Japan invaded Manchuria was because it was relatively easy and did not take much effort. This is due to the fact that Japan had already invaded and taken over Korea, so Manchuria was the obvious next option. Additionally, China was very weak and disorganised at the time, with no clear leader and would be very easy to beat in battle. It would be an easy way to gain resources and power over more of east Asia.

The League struggled to deal with the crisis in Manchuria due to two main reasons. One reason was the fact that Japan was a permanent member of the League. This was an issue because Japan was supposed to be one of the countries that helped strive for peace, rather than take it away. In addition to this, the League remembered how it was able to be manipulated easily by Italy and Mussolini in the Corfu Crisis and wanted to prevent another situation like this from happening again. The Corfu Crisis greatly diminished their reliability and reputation throughout the world as many other countries saw how easily the league could be manipulated. Another reason the League struggled with handling the crisis in Manchuria was the fact that no country was in any state to help China at this point. After the Wall Street Crash, every single country had to abandon the internationalistic mindset and worry about their own economy. Even a year after the Crash, the Great Depression was still very present, and prevented previously great powers such as America or Britain and France from going and helping push back the Japanese troops. They simply did not have the money to ship their troops halfway across the world at this point in time.

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