1. History 12
Readings and Questions from: Global Forces of the twentieth Century
Chapter-6 Japan’s Ascendency in Asia
1842-1941
Western Imperialism in Japan and China
1. Describe nineteenth-century British involvement in Asia.
2. Explain the nineteenth-century reforms that propelled Japan into the industrial world.
Japanese Imperialism
3. Explain the American Open Door Policy. Why did Americans support this policy?
4. What was the purpose of the mutual defence treaty of 1902 signed by Britain and Japan?
The Russo-Japanese War
5. Give three results for Japan of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05. What was its longterm significance for Japan’s foreign policy?
The First World War and Worsening relations
6. What was the result for Japan of the Washington Naval Conference? Why did Japan
accept its final terms?
7. Why was the 1902 Anglo-Japanese alliance permitted to lapse?
Resurgent China
8. Explain the program put forward by the Goumindang in China.
The Road to War and the Manchurian Incident
9. Explain the conflict over Manchuria. What was the result?
10. What was Japan’s response to the Lytton report? What was the significance of this
response for global affairs?
The Long March
11. What part did ideology play in the differences between the Goumindang and the Chinese
Communist party?
12. What characteristics of Communist ideology make it intolerable to other political parties
and businesspeople?
13. Describe how Mao won the peasants over to his side. Why was that important?
14. Why were the Nationalist forces unable to eliminate the Communists?
Mao Zedong (Mao Tse-Tung)
15. Why do you think Mao appealed to the common Chinese people? Write out a time line of
Mao’s life as leader of China. Do you think Mao was a successful leader? Explain.
Nationalists Battle the Communists in China and the Pacific War of 1937
16. Describe the incident at the Marco Polo Bridge on 1 July 1937. Explain its significance.
Pearl Harbour
17. How did Japan’s military leaders view Southeast Asia in the interwar years?
18. Was the attack on the American fleet at Pearl Harbour necessary to Japan’s expansionist
plans? Explain.
19. How did the economic crisis attributable to the American oil embargo affect Japanese
strategy?
20. How can industrial powers secure needed resources if not by conquest?
21. Why were American forces not prepared for an attack?
2. Chapter 6: Vocabulary
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Extraterritorial Rights
Treaty Ports
Tokugawa Family
Commodore Matthew Perry
Meiji Mutsuhito
Open Door Policy
Treaty of Portsmouth
Nine Power Treaty
Exclusion Act
Four Power Pact
Goumindang
Sun Yixian
Generalissimo Jiang Jieshi
Manchukuo
Xian Incident
Marco-Polo Bridge Incident
China Lobby
Rape of Nanjing
Anti-Comintern Pact
Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere
General Tojo
Japanese-Soviet Non-aggression Pact
