In 1931 the League faced its first big test from a powerful country. Japan was a permanent member of the Council, and it invaded a neighbour that was also a League member. This lesson follows the Manchuria crisis from invasion to Japan's exit.
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Unlock This CourseJapan was a crowded island country with few raw materials. It had won the right to run the South Manchuria Railway after a war with Russia in 1904-05, and it kept troops (the Kwantung Army) in Manchuria to guard it. Japan also had large investments there.
The Great Depression hit Japan hard. Its trade, especially in silk, collapsed. Many Japanese people lost faith in the elected government, and army leaders argued that Japan needed Manchuria's coal, iron and farmland to be safe and rich. Some army officers were ready to act without waiting for orders from Tokyo.
On 18 September 1931 came the Mukden incident: an explosion on the South Manchuria Railway near Mukden. Japanese officers blamed Chinese soldiers. The Kwantung Army used it as an excuse to seize Mukden, and over the next months it took control of the whole of Manchuria.
Japan set up a new state called Manchukuo. Its head was Puyi, the last emperor of China, but Japan held the real power. The new state was a puppet state.
China was a League member. Within days of Mukden, in September 1931, it appealed to the League for help under the Covenant. The League's Council asked Japan to withdraw its troops. Japan said it would do so once its citizens were safe, but its army kept advancing. Japan claimed it was only protecting its own interests and its people.
In December 1931 the League decided to send a commission of enquiry, led by Lord Lytton from Britain. This was a slow process. The Lytton Commission travelled to Manchuria in 1932 and published its report in October 1932, by which time Japan controlled the whole region.
The report did not tell the League to punish Japan or to use sanctions or force. In February 1933 the League Assembly voted 42 to 1 to accept the report, with only Japan voting against. Japan then walked out of the meeting. In March 1933 it announced that it was leaving the League. Japan also went on to invade the neighbouring province of Jehol in early 1933, and in May 1933 China had to agree to a truce that left Japan in control.
The result was a disaster for the League's reputation. It had shown that an aggressive Great Power could break the Covenant and get away with it. Mussolini and Hitler were watching.
In the 1920s the League had stopped a dispute between small countries, such as the Greek-Bulgarian War of 1925. In 1931-33 it failed to stop a Great Power. What stayed the same was the League's reliance on its members, because it had no army of its own.
Explain TWO ways in which the League's response to the Japanese invasion of Manchuria (1931-33) was different from its response to the Greek invasion of Bulgaria in 1925. [6 marks]
One difference is the outcome. In 1925 the Council, with Briand in the chair, ordered Greece to withdraw its troops from Bulgaria, and Greece obeyed and paid compensation of 45,000 pounds. In 1931-33, however, Japan ignored the League's calls to withdraw from Manchuria, set up the puppet state of Manchukuo and, in March 1933, left the League. So the League settled the Bulgarian crisis but failed to remove Japan.
A second difference is the speed and the target. In 1925 the League acted quickly against Greece, a smaller power that gave way to pressure from the Great Powers. In 1931-33 it set up the Lytton Commission in December 1931 and did not publish its report until October 1932. By then Japan, a Great Power and a permanent member of the Council, controlled the whole of Manchuria. The League's slow response against a strong country achieved nothing.
What lifts this to the top level: two different ways, each making a direct comparison with a precise fact about both sides.
In a "different from" question, write each way as a direct comparison: "In 1925 ... whereas in 1931-33 ...". A way that only describes one side gets few marks, and a single way scores at most 3 out of 6.