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22 THE SLIDE TO WAR 1918–1939

JAPANESE INVASION OF MANCHURIA 1931

Responding to an act of provocation (which was

staged by the Japanese army), Japanese forces

invaded Manchuria on September 19, 1931, seizing

the key city of Shenyang. They went on to take the

whole of Manchuria, establishing the state of

Manchukuo in 1932 with the former Chinese boy

emperor Pu Yi Hsuan-t’ung as puppet emperor.

The invasion and occupation of Manchuria marked

the start of Japanese imperial expansion into

northern and eastern China.

2

Invaded by Japan, 1931 Japanese invasion

CHINA IN

TURMOIL

China between the two world wars was a country embroiled in

internal conflict: its disunited provinces were ruled over by rival

warlords and threatened by a growing Communist insurgency,

while its national territory later came under attack from imperialist

army forces from Japan.

The Chinese Revolution of 1911

began with a mutiny among troops in

Wuchang in Hubei province, in central

China. It rapidly led to the overthrow

of the Manchu or Qing dynasty, whose

autocratic rulers had controlled the

country since 1644, and the formation

of a republic in 1912. The first president

of the republic, Yuan Shih-k’ai, tried to

turn his office into a virtual dictatorship

based on military force. However, on

his death in 1916 China fragmented

into a number of provincial military

dictatorships run by local warlords

who fought among themselves. Civil

war raged throughout China until,

under Chiang Kai-shek, China’s

“We shall not lightly talk about sacrifice until we are

driven to the last extreme which makes sacrifice inevitable.”

CHIANG KAI-SHEK, 1935

Nationalist Party, the Guomindang

(GMD), was able to unite the east of

the country by 1928. The GMD then

slowly extended their control over

the rest of the country by 1937.

Two forces emerged to oppose the

Nationalists: the Chinese Communist

Party (CCP), fighting for a social and

economic revolution, and the Japanese

army, intent on establishing an empire

in China. The Communists were largely

crushed in the cities in 1927, but the

Japanese were a more formidable foe,

absorbing the region of Manchuria in

1931 and the northern province of Jehol

in 1932, and setting up a puppet state

across northern China in 1935.

CHIANG KAI-SHEK 1887–1975

Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek was born

in Fenghua, a district of the city of Ningbo,

in Zhejiang province. The son of a merchant,

and a supporter of the new Chinese republic,

he built up the Republican army and became

commandant of the military school at

Whampoa in 1924. His connections enabled

him to take over the leadership of the

Nationalist Guomindang (GMD) party

and become commander-in-chief of the

army in 1926. Despite successes against the

warlords, Chiang’s rule over China was never

secure, as it was threatened by Communist

insurgents and Japanese invasions. In 1949

he was defeated in the Chinese Civil War by

the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) under

Mao Zedong and retreated to Taiwan.

DISUNITED CHINA

Republican China was initially ruled

by a number of local warlords and

was only united under Nationalist

control in 1937. By then China faced

Japanese armed incursions in the

north and east of the country.

1

2

3

4

TIMELINE

1910 1920 1930 1940

THE NATIONALIST REVIVAL 1919–1937

Student demonstrations in Beijing in May 1919

initiated a wave of nationalist feeling across

the country, which gave birth to the Chinese

Communist Party (CCP) in 1921 and a revived

Guomindang (GMD) in 1924. The GMD cooperated

with the CCP and began a campaign of unification

against warlord forces that culminated in the

Northern Expedition of 1926–1928, which was led

by Chiang Kai-shek. After its successful conclusion,

the Communists were purged from power.

1

Under direct control

of the Nationalist

government, 1928

Nationalist territory,

1929–1934

Nationalist territory,

1935–1937

Route of

Northern

Expedition

Pro-Nationalist

forces

△ Director of the masses

Mao Zedong, leader of China’s Communists, addresses followers

during the Sino-Japanese war. In 1945, at the conflict’s end, Mao

commanded an army of over 1.2 million Chinese Communists.

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