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Manchuria is a region in northeasr Asia, today essentially Northeast China, but historically beyond the Great Wall and the home of Steppe people who raided into China or were attacked by Chinese armies trying to pacify the area. Wanyan Aguda, the founder and first emperor of Jin dynasty established Jin's capital Shangjing (Upper Capital) Huining Fu in what is today the Acheng District of Harbin--called Fuchiatien until the Chinese Revolution. After the fall of the Dynty, it was abandoned. The actual borders of Manchuria have varied over time. Most of Mancuria at its largest extent was part part of modern China, but some areas are part of the the Russian Far East. The Russian part is sometimes referred to as Outer Manchuria. Manchuria is the homeland of the Manchu people, a term introduced to describe the Jurchen people, Tungusic people which seized control of China -- laubching the Qing dynasty (17th century. The population increased greatly during the Qing (Manchu) Dynasty from about 1 million people (1750) to 14 million (1900), by the time Russia and Japan were vying for control of the area. The major reason for the population increase was the migration of Chinese farmers hungary for land. Manchuria by the late-19th century had become a cockpit for three great nations, a declining Chinese Empire and the expanding Japanese and Riussian Empires. A Treaty with Tsarist Russia gave the Russians control over the northern Manchuria -- the Beijing Treaty (1860). The Russians began building the Trans-Siberian Railway (1891). The Russians financed the construction of the Chinese Eastern Railway extending the Trans-Siberian Railway. This reduced the distance from China to Vladivostok and linking the new port city of Dalny (Dalian) and the Russian Naval Base Port Arthur (Lüshun). The Russians selected Harbin as the base of their administration over this railway and the Chinese Eastern Railway Zone. Japan after the Meiji Restoration (1868s) set out on both a program of industrialization and reforms including building a military modernization program. Within in only two decades this was accomanied by a program of aggressive trritorial exampion an imperialism. The primry targets were in East Asia (China, Korea, and Manchuria). Beginning with the First Sino-Japanese War (1894-95), Japan began to encroach on traditional Chinese client states and set up treaty ports. This led to rising levels of conflict between Russia and China over both Korea and Manchuria. This led to the Russo-Japanese War (1904-05). Russia with its rail connections used Harbin as a base for military operations. With the Japan victory, the Russian influenced declined and the Japanese influece stradily increased. Japan seized Korea (1909) and forced Russia out of the region. The Japanese expanded their influence north into Manchuria as well neighboria areas of northern China. World War I enabled them to seize German assetts in the area. Japan was attracted by Manchuria;s mineral resources and the vast expanses which offered densely populated Japan the possibility for emigration and colonization.
Manchuria is a region in northeast Asia, today essentially Northeast China, but historically beyond the Great Wall and the home of Steppe people who raided into China or were attacked by Chinese armies trying to pacify the area. Wanyan Aguda, the founder and first emperor of Jin dynasty established Jin's capital Shangjing (Upper Capital) Huining Fu in what is today the Acheng District of Harbin--called Fuchiatien until the Chinese Revolution. After the fall of the Dynty, it was abandoned. The actual borders of Manchuria have varied over time. Most of Mancuria at its lergest extent was part of China, but some areas are part of the the Russian Far East. The Russian part is sometimes referred to as Outer Manchuria.
Manchuria is the homeland of the Manchu people, a term introduced to describe the Jurchen people, Tungusic people which seized control of China -- launching the Qing dynasty (17th century. The population increased greatly during the Qing (Manchu) Dynasty from about 1 million people (1750) to 14 million (1900), by the time Russia and Japan were vying for control of the area. The major reason for the population increase was the migration of Chinese farmers hungary for land.
Manchuria by the late-19th century had become a cockpit for three great nations, a declining Chinese Empire and the expanding Japanese and Riussian Empires. A Treaty with Tsarist Russia gave the Russians control over the northern Manchuria -- the Beijing Treaty (1860). The Russians began building the Trans-Siberian Railway (1891). The Russians financed the construction of the Chinese Eastern Railway extending the Trans-Siberian Railway. This reduced the distance from China to Vladivostok and linking the new port city of Dalny (Dalian) and the Russian Naval Base Port Arthur (Lüshun). The Russians selected Harbin as the base of their administration over this railway and the Chinese Eastern Railway Zone.
The Japanese imperial line dates back more than a millennium. The country for centuries was, however, ruled by shoguns, essentially medieval war lords. The arrival of Commodore Perry's blck ships shocked the Japanese. Reformers realized that the traditional-based shogunate could not protect Japan from foreign inroads as China was suffering. Tbey thus set out to restore imperail rule so reform could bgin. After a prolonged civil war, the imprial forces previled. The Meiji Restoration or Meiji Ishin (明治維新) was the series of events events that ended the Shogunate and restored imperial rule to Japan under the young Emperor Meiji (1868). The Restoration established the practical abilities and consolidated the political system under the Emperor of Japan, which previously was held by the Tokugawa shogunate. The goals of the restored government were expressed by the new emperor in the Charter Oath. The Restoration led to enormous changes in Japan's political and social structure, and spanned both the late Edo period (often called Late Tokugawa shogunate) and the beginning of the Meiji period. The period spanned from 1868 to 1912 and was responsible for the emergence of Japan as a modernized nation in the early-20th century. The Meiji leaders after their victory took about 20 years to decide on the details of the new imperial system. This was decided with a new Constotution (1889). Under the Constitution, the emperor was 'sacred and inviolable'. Japan's sovereignty rested with him as the Head of the Empire. The emperor commanded the armed forces whoch were created on western models. The emperor declared war and concluded treaties. Laws required his approval and were enforced in his name. Yet in a typically Japanese twist, the emperor had no real political power. He was like so many emperor's in Japan's history was to ratify and give the imperial stamp of approval to yhe governing decisions made by his ministers.
Japan began using it rising military power to build an overseas empire. The Japanese shocked the Chinese when they emerged victorious in the First Sino-Japanese War. Tension between China and Japan over interests in Korea broke out in war (1894). The War highlighted the decline of the Qing dynasty. It also highlighted the weakness of the Chinese military and the success of the modernization process in Japan. The Yi dynasty in Korea attempted continue its traditional seclusion. Korea had a tributary relationship with China which in exchange had provided military protection. China allowed Japan to recognize Korea as an independent state (1875). Subsequently the situation in Korea became complicated. China attempted to maintain its influence while Japan attempted to expand its influence. The Koreans divided between conservative traditionalists and reformists, many of who supported the Japanese. After the assassination of a reformer, a Korean religious sect, the Tonghak, launched a rebellion. The traditionalist Korean Government asked for Chinese military support. A Japanese military expedition reached Seoul (June 8, 1894), ostensibly to support the reformers. China declared war (August 1) after both land and naval engagements had occurred. The War was a disaster for China. The Japanese Arny mauled the Chinese in battles around Seoul and Pyóngyang. The Chinese retreated north and suffered another defeat at Liaoning. The Japanese then took Port Arthur (Luda) (November 21). The Chinese fared even worse at sea. China's northern fleet was devastated by the Japanese Navy in a battle at the mouth of the Yalu River. The Yalu forms part of the border between China and Korea. The Japanese sank 8 of 12 Chinese ships engaged. The surviving 4 ships withdrew behind the fortifications of the naval base at Weihaiwei. There they were destroyed when the Japanese attacked by land across the Liaodong Peninsula. Japan took Weihaiwei (February 2, 1895). After the harsh Winter weather passed, The Japanese drove into Manchuria. The Chinese finally sued for peace. The Treaty of Shimonoseki ended the War (April 1895). Korea was recognized as a sovereign state, but effectively became a Japanese protectorate. China ceded Formosa (Taiwan), the Liaodong Peninsula, and the Pescadores Islands to Japan. The Japanese set out on a comprehensive program of imposing the Japanese language and culture. China was required to pay an indemnity of 200 million taels. Even more humiliating for China, they were forced to open four more treaty ports to external trade. The outcome of the War, however, was modified by the Triple Intervention (Russia, France, and Germany). They forced Japan to return the Liaodong Peninsula, but China was required to pay an additional 30 million taels to mollify the Japanese. China's defeat outraged Chinese students and strengthened the reform movement in China. Sun Yat-sen founded the revolutionary republican movement which evolved into the Kuomintang.
The Russo-Japanese war was fought over the resources of East Asia and trade with China. The Russians controlled Siberia and were expanding their influence south into Koraa and northern China (especially Manchuria). Manchuria was rich in natural resources that both Russia and China wanted. This was especilly important for the Japanese who had no alternative resources. For the Russians it was more of a stratehic issue, expanding and securing what they already had. The Meiji Restoration and ecinomic development gave Japan the ability to contest East Asia with the Russians. Russia of course was a more powerful nation, but its asbility to project power in the region was limited by the narrow thread of the Trans-Siberial Railroad. This thus gave Japan, a local power, the ability to contest control of the region. The result was the Russo-Japanese War which ended with the naval battle of the Tsushima Straits. The decisive Japanese victory settled Japanese dominnce in the areas--for a time. It also cemented Japanee strategic and military thinking -- the commitment to a single descisive battle as tennant in naval warfare. And as Japan would probably face a Western advisary as a weaker naval force, the idea of a surprise attack to redress any balance of forces became deeply ingrained in Japanese naval thinking.
China for most of its historywas with the Chinese cultural and political sphere. Korean states were at times independent and at other times Chinese client states. The Japanese at times coveted Korea, but for the most part cpu;ld not mtch Chinese economic and military power. A major exception was Japanese Shogin Toyotomi Hideyoshi's attempts to conquer Korea (1592-98). Korean Admiral Yi Sun-sin becme a famed natinal hero when he designing the famed turle ships ship equipped with cannons and beat back Toyotomi's massive fleet. The Meiji Resoration gave Japan the industrial power to finally seize Korea. The Japanese as a result of the First Sino-Japanese War (1894-95) largely ousted China from the Korean Peninsula and proceeded to expand their influence and position in Korea. They were fearful that Russia might intervenene in Korea. This was the prime reason for the Anglo-Japanese Naval Alliance (1901). Allied with Britain, the Russians would have to give considerable thought to any military intervention in Korea. This matter was settled by the Russo-Japanese war (1904-05). And Japan quickly proceeded to formally annex Korea and colonized it as part of the Japanese Empire (1909). This among other matters fully opened up Manchuria to Japanese. Access to Manchuria was no longer limied to to the Liáodōng Peninsula (辽东半岛 ). And in Korea the Japanese began an kndustrialization effort in northern Korea and a brutal cmpaign to extinguish Korean culture. One interesting matter is the difference between Korea and Taiwan. Both were colonized by the Japanese and experienced economic development dufring the Japanese colonial era. Yet Taiwan does not share the intense antipathy toward the Japanese that is common in Korea.
Japan at the time of world War I was a British ally. Britain had assited the Japanese during the Russo-Japanese war as part of its efforts to restrict Russian expoansion, most prominently into India--this became called the Great Game. The Japanese seeing territorial gains to be made, joined the Allies. As aesult of the Pacific war, the islnds seized from the Germans are well known, but there was also a major achievment in East Asian--Tsingtao (modern Qingdao). The Germans build a major naval base at Tsingtao in the Yellow Sea. It was here that the only major engagement in the Far East was fought. The Japanese supported by the British succeeded in seizing Tsingtao a very little cost in a combined land sea operation (November 1914). More importantly for the future, the Japanese seized control of the formerly German owned Shantung Railway. It was a railway in Shandong Province. Shangdong Province was located along the southern coast of the Yellow sea. The railway connected Tsingtao on the Jiaozhou Bay (Yellow Sea) and Jinan, the provincial capital of Shandong. Adolph von Hansemann and other German financiers funded construction of the railway then named th Schantung Eisenbahn Gesellschaft (1899-1904). Japanese seizure of the tailway increased Japanese influence anbd ecomomic involvment in East Asia and povided base for expansion expansion in China after the war. Another Japanese move during the war was to move troo[s into Siberoa--Vladivotok. The Japanese withdrew only after substantial pressure from the United states.
Japan had long desired to expand in East Asia. Its primary historic target, reflecting the geogrphy of East Asia, was Korea. Japan's ambitions were, however, limited by the tremenous power of China which for most of history dominated Korea and influenced client States. This changed with the Meiji Restoration anbd the development of Japan as an industrial power. The First Sino-Japanese war (1894) and Russo-Japanese war (1904-05) opened up East Asia to Japanese imperialism. Access to Manchria ws at first limited to the Liaodong Peninsula in the Yellow sea. The seizure of Korea (1909) and Japanese territoril expansion as a result of World war I, more fully opened up Mnchuria to Japanese expnsion. The Japanese Kwantung Army occupied Manchuria, a Chinese province, using as a pretext a faked incident on the main railroad (1931). Japan then decalared "Manchukuo" an independent state, setting up Pu Yi, the last Manchu Emperor of China as puppet Emperor (1932). Anti-Japanese disturbances broke out in Shanghai. The Japanese bombed the unprotected city to quell the disturbances. There was no effort to hit military targets. This was the first of many Japanese terror bombings of civilian populations. Japan withdrew from the League of Nations as a resulted of the criticism of her military operations in Manchuria and China (1933). The Japanese encouraged Japanese "colonizers" to emmigrate to Manchukuo, but few responded to the propaganda films depicting an Asian paradise. For the Chinese in Manchukuo, life became increasingly difficult.
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