Events Preceding World War II in Asia - Noteworthy Events

Noteworthy Events

The following events played a significant role in setting the stage for the involvement of Asia and the Pacific in World War II:

• 1839: First Opium War in China against the west, forcing China to import British opium. Britain won the war and as a result gained control over Hong Kong.
• 1856: Outbreak of the Second Opium War or the Arrow War in China. Resulting Treaties of Tianjin at 1858, Treaty of Aigun, etc., Unequal Treaties and also burning, looting of the Old Summer Palace and New Summer Palace. "Beyond any doubt, by 1860 the ancient civilization that was China had been thoroughly defeated and humiliated by the West."
• 1853: American Commodore Matthew Perry arrives in Tokyo harbor and forces Japanese to allow trade with American merchants with threat of military action.
• 1858: Western nations force Japan to sign the Unequal Treaties. These articles established export and import tariffs and the concept of "extraterritoriality" (i.e. Japan held no jurisdiction over foreign criminals in its land. Their trials were to be conducted by foreign judges under their own nation's laws). Japan had no power to change these terms.
• 1868: Japan, in an effort to modernize and prevent future Western dominance, ousts the Tokugawa Shogunate and adopts a new Meiji Emperor. The next few decades see arguably the most rapid and successful industrialization of any economy in world history during the Meiji Restoration.
• 1899: With newly gained power from recent industrialization, Japan successfully renegotiates aspects of the Unequal Treaties.
• 1899–1901: The Boxer Rebellion led China to a humiliating defeat by the Eight-Nation Alliance of Western powers including the United States and Japan, ceding more territory, and dealing one of the final blows to the struggling Qing Dynasty.
• 1904–1905: The Russo-Japanese War begins with a surprise attack and ends by an eventual Japanese victory over Imperial Russia. Japanese control over Korea until World War II is assured.