• The Twenty-One Demands were made in secret by the Japanese government to the Chinese government. 
• These would greatly extend Japan's control over China and would have made China a protectorate of Japan.
• China published the demands and appealed to the US and Britain.
• Chinese people boycotted Japanese goods in response.
• The US and Britain forced Japan to drop the 5th set of demands which would have given Japan control over the Chinese economy.

• The Four Power agreement abrogated the Anglo-Japanese alliance of 1902.  It agreed that the signatories - Britain, Japan, France and the US would consult each other if any issues arose 'in the Pacific'.
• The Five Power Naval Limitations Treaty agreed a relative ratio of 5:5:3:1.67:1.67 for Britain, US, Japan, Italy and France of capital ships.  This halted the post-WW1 naval arms race.
• The Nine Power Treaty was signed by all attendees at the Washington Conference (Britain, Japan, the US, France, China, Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands and Portugal).  The treaty affirmed the sovereignty and integrity of China.

• Eastern parts of Manchuria and most of the Korean peninsula had already been under the control of the Japanese empire for three decades after the First Sino-Japanese War of 1895.
• Japan had gained control of Port Arthur, as well as control of railway and mineral rights when it defeated Russia in the Russo-Japanese War in 1904 - 05.
• With the growth of nationalism in Japan, and also the economic crisis that started in 1930 following the Wall Street crash, the attraction of Manchuria as 'a lifeline' for Japan grew.
• Its wealth of resources (coal, iron and timber) and its potential as a market for Japanese goods, were increasingly enticing to a Japan suffering the deprivations of the depression.
• It could provide living space for an over-populated Japan. Diplomat Yosuke Matsuoko described Manchuria as as a 'lifeline' and 'our only means of survival'.

• A group of Kwantung Army officers plotted to seize Manchuria - against the policies of the Japanese government (the latter focused on peaceful principles to maintain Japan's position in North-East China).
• Prime Minister Wakatsuki was warned of the plan by Japanese consul officials in Manchuria. He informed the emperor who ordered the minister of war, General Minami to restrain the army.
• Minami's letter to the commander of the Kwantung Army was intentionally delayed and the plan was executed before it could be halted and in direct contradiction to the wishes of the Emperor.

With the failure of the politicians within Japan to stand up to the Kwantung Army, and indeed the popularity of its actions within Japan, the conquest of Manchuria effectively became Japanese policy.

• Lord Lytton was appointed by the League of Nations to head a commission to determine the cause of the Japanese invasion of Manchuria.
• Sent in December 1931 - Lytton only arrived in Manchuria in April
• The commission then submitted its report in September 1932

• After resignging from the League of Nations, Japan removed itself from the sanctions of that international body
• This also destroying any hope for reconciliation between the two nations.
• Friction between China and Japan continued

• The Japanese military went beyond Manchuria and advanced into Jehol.
• In May 1933 the 'Tanggu truce' was signed between the Kwantung Army and Chinese Nationalist commanders.
• This recognised the status quo and in addition China had to recognise a demilitarised zone between Beijing and the Great Wall

• 12 December 1936  Zhang Xueliang kidnapped Chiang Kai-shek in Xi'an to force an end to the conflict between GMD and CCP.
• To secure release ofJiang, GMD was forced to agree to a temporary end to the Chinese Civil War and the forming of a united front  against Japan on 24 December 1936.

• Historians now believe that the exchange of fire in the Marco Polo bridge incident was not engineered by the Japanese army in the same way as the Mukden Incident had been.
• Although Prince Konoye attempted to contain the army, the government was powerless to stop the actions of the army and to prevent a full scale war developing between China and Japan.
• Evidence of nationalist militarist sentiments - the strength of support for the Army's actions, it became unpatriotic to even speak of peace.

• Japanese leaders hoped that China would quickly capitulate and would accept Japanese leadership in a new Asian order.
• However this view underestimated the extent of Chinese nationalism and the outrage caused by such events as the Rape of Nanjing. With the Chinese refusing to agree for terms to peace, the Japanese were forced to fight further into the interior of China leading to overstretched supply lines by 1938 which were vulnerable to Chinese attack.

There was growing concern in the US concerning this new 'order' especially as Japan had suggested to Jiang that China could join this new order

• This stated that if Japan, Germany or Italy was attacked by any third power not then engaged in the European war or the China War, the other two Axis powers would aid the victim of the attack.
• This convinced many Americans that the war in Europe and the war in Asia were the same war.

• In July 1941 Japan occupied Indo China in spite of US warnings.
• The US response was swift with an embargo on the supply of oil.
• Japan, which relied on US oil supplies, planned to 'attack south' and seize oil from the European colonies
• On 7 December, the first wave of Japanese planes, launched from nearby aircraft carriers, struck Pearl Harbor.
• Roosevelt called on Congress to declare war on Japan the following day, and was joined by Britain.
• Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Cuba, Guatemala, and Panama also declared war on Japan. 
• Hitler’s Germany then declared war on the US on 11 December. 
• Pearl Harbor therefore led to a global war and US direct engagement in the war in Europe and Asia.