Interwar period: Difference between revisions

In the [[history of the 20th century]], the '''interwar period''' (or '''interbellum''') lasted from 11{{spaces}}November 1918 to 1{{spaces}}September 1939 (20{{spaces}}years, 9{{spaces}}months, 21{{spaces}}days) – from the end of [[World War I]] (WWI) to the beginning of [[World War II]] (WWII). It was relatively short, yet featured many social, political, military, and economic changes throughout the world. Petroleum-based energy production and associated mechanisation led to the prosperous [[Roaring Twenties]], a time of [[social mobility|social]] and [[economic mobility]] for the [[middle class]]. [[Automobile]]s, [[Electric light|electric lighting]], [[radio]], and more became common among populations in the [[developed world|first world]]. The era's indulgences were followed by the [[Great Depression]], an unprecedented worldwide economic downturn that severely damaged many of the world's largest economies.▼

Politically, the era coincided with the rise of [[communism]], starting in Russia with the [[October Revolution]] and [[Russian Civil War]], at the end of World War IWWI, and ended with the rise of [[fascism]], particularly in Germany and Italy. China was in the midst of a half-century of instability and the [[Chinese Civil War]] between the [[Kuomintang]] and the [[Chinese Communist Party]] and many warlords. The empires of [[British Empire|Britain]], [[French colonial empire|France]], and others faced challenges as [[imperialism]] was increasingly viewed negatively and independence movements emerged in many [[Colony|colonies]]; in Europe, after protracted low-level fighting [[Irish War of Independence|most of Ireland became independent.]]▼

{{Main|Empire of Japan|Japanese colonial empire|List of territories occupied by Imperial Japan|Statism in Shōwa Japan}}▼

[[File:Pacific Area - The Imperial Powers 1939 - Map.svg|thumb|Political map of the Asia-Pacific region, 1939]]▼

The Japanese modelled their [[Economy of Japan|industrial economy]] closely on the most advanced Western European models. They started with textiles, railways, and shipping, expanding to electricity and machinery. The most serious weakness was a shortage of raw materials. Industry ran short of copper, and coal became a net importer. A deep flaw in the aggressive military strategy was a heavy dependence on imports including 100 per cent of the aluminium, 85 per cent of the iron ore, and especially 79 per cent of the oil supplies. It was one thing to go to war with China or Russia, but quite another to be in conflict with the key suppliers, especially the United States, Britain, and the Netherlands, of oil and iron.<ref name="FairbankReischauerCraig">{{cite book |first1=John K. |last1=Fairbank |first2=Edwin O. |last2=Reischauer |first3=Albert M. |last3=Craig |title=East Asia: The Modern Transformation |location=Boston |publisher=Houghton Mifflin |year=1965 |pages=501–4 |oclc=13613258 }}</ref>▼

Japan joined the [[Allies of World War I|Allies of the First World War]] to make territorial gains. Together with the British Empire, it divided up Germany's territories scattered in the Pacific and on the [[Coastline of China|Chinese coast]]; they did not amount to very much. The other Allies pushed back hard against Japan's efforts to dominate China through the [[Twenty-One Demands]] of 1915. Its [[Japanese intervention in Siberia|occupation of Siberia]] proved unproductive. Japan's wartime diplomacy and limited military action had produced few results, and at the Paris Versailles peace conference at the end of the war, Japan was frustrated in its ambitions. At the [[Paris Peace Conference (1919–1920)|Paris Peace Conference]] in 1919, its [[Racial Equality Proposal]] led to increasing diplomatic isolation. The 1902 alliance with Britain was not renewed in 1922 because of heavy pressure on Britain from Canada and the United States. In the 1920s Japanese diplomacy was rooted in a largely liberal democratic political system, and favoured internationalism. By 1930, however, Japan was rapidly reversing itself, rejecting democracy at home, as the Army seized more and more power, and rejecting internationalism and liberalism. By the late 1930s it had joined the Axis military alliance with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy.<ref name="FairbankReischauerCraig" />{{rp|563–612, 666}}▼

In 1930, the London disarmament conference angered the [[Imperial Japanese Armed Forces]]. The [[Imperial Japanese Navy]] demanded parity with the United States, Britain and France, but was rejected and the conference kept the 1921 ratios. Japan was required to scrap a [[capital ship]]. Extremists assassinated Japanese Prime Minister [[Inukai Tsuyoshi]] in the [[May 15 Incident]] and the military took more power, leading to rapid [[democratic backsliding]].<ref>{{cite book|author=Paul W. Doerr|title=British Foreign Policy, 1919–1939|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Zumqs15aTfwC&pg=PA120|year=1998|page=120|publisher=Manchester University Press |isbn=9780719046728|access-date=16 March 2018|archive-date=17 November 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191117110339/https://books.google.com/books?id=Zumqs15aTfwC&pg=PA120|url-status=live}}</ref>▼

==== Japan seizes Manchuria ====▼

{{Main|Japanese invasion of Manchuria}}▼

In September 1931, the Japanese [[Kwantung Army]]—acting on its own without government approval—[[Japanese invasion of Manchuria|seized control of Manchuria]], an anarchic area thatin northeastern China hadthat notwas controlled inby the powerful warlord [[Zhang decadesXueliang]]. It created the puppet government of [[Manchukuo]]. Britain and France effectively controlled the League of Nations, which issued the [[Lytton Report]] in 1932, saying that Japan had genuine grievances, but it acted illegally in seizing the entire province. Japan quit the League, and Britain and France took no action. US Secretary of State [[Henry L. Stimson]] announced that the United States would also not recognise Japan's conquest as legitimate. Germany welcomed Japan's actions.<ref>{{cite journal |first=David Wen-wei |last=Chang |title=The Western Powers and Japan's Aggression in China: The League of Nations and 'The Lytton Report' |journal=American Journal of Chinese Studies |year=2003 |volume=10 |issue=1 |pages=43–63 |jstor=44288722 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=Shin'ichi |last=Yamamuro |title=Manchuria under Japanese Dominion |publisher=U. of Pennsylvania Press |year=2006 |postscript=; }} online {{cite journal |title=Review |journal=Journal of Japanese Studies |volume=34 |issue=1 |year=2007 |pages=109–114 |doi=10.1353/jjs.2008.0027 |s2cid=146638943 }}</ref>▼

==== Towards the conquest of China ====▼

{{Main|Second Sino-Japanese War}}▼

[[File:First pictures of the Japanese occupation of Peiping in China.jpg|thumb|right|Japanese march into [[Zhengyangmen]] of Beijing after capturing the city in July 1937]]▼

The civilian government in Tokyo tried to minimise the Army's aggression in Manchuria, and announced it was withdrawing. On the contrary, the Army completed the conquest of Manchuria, and the civilian cabinet resigned. The political parties were divided on the issue of military expansion. Prime Minister Tsuyoshi tried to negotiate with China but was assassinated in the May 15 Incident in 1932, which ushered in an era of [[Japanese nationalism|nationalism]] and [[Japanese militarism|militarism]] led by the [[Imperial Japanese Army]] and supported by other right-wing societies. The IJA's nationalism ended civilian rule in Japan until after 1945.<ref>{{cite book |first=James L. |last=Huffman |title=Modern Japan: An Encyclopedia of History, Culture, and Nationalism |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YWLhAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA143 |year=2013 |page=143 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-135-63490-2 |access-date=16 March 2018 |archive-date=13 December 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191213140338/https://books.google.com/books?id=YWLhAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA143 |url-status=live }}</ref>▼

The Army, however, was itself divided into cliques and factions with different strategic viewpoints. One faction viewed the Soviet Union as the main enemy; the other sought to build a mighty empire based in Manchuria and northern China. The Navy, while smaller and less influential, was also factionalised. Large-scale warfare, known as the [[Second Sino-Japanese War]], began in August 1937, with [[Battle of Shanghai|naval and infantry attacks focused on Shanghai]], which quickly spread to other major cities. There were numerous [[Japanese war crimes|large-scale atrocities]] against Chinese civilians, such as the [[Nanjing massacre]] in December 1937, with mass murder and mass rape. By 1939 military lines had stabilised, with Japan in control of almost all of the major Chinese cities and industrial areas. A puppet government was set up.<ref name="FairbankReischauerCraig" />{{rp|589–613}} In the U.S., government and public opinion—even including those who were isolationist regarding Europe—was resolutely opposed to Japan and gave strong support to China. Meanwhile, the Japanese Army fared badly in large battles with the [[Red Army|Soviet Red Army]] in Mongolia at the [[Battles of Khalkhin Gol]] in summer 1939. The USSR was too powerful. Tokyo and Moscow [[Soviet–Japanese Neutrality Pact|signed a nonaggression treaty in April 1941]], as the militarists turned their attention to the European colonies to the south which had urgently-needed oil fields.<ref>{{cite book |first=Herbert |last=Feis |title=The Road to Pearl Harbor: The Coming of the War Between the United States and Japan |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=1960 |pages=8–150 |oclc=394264 }}</ref>▼