ABSTRACT
Europe had avoided a general war for nearly one hundred years before August 1914. The single most important cause was the onset of a world depression in the early 1930s. Japan raised the first major challenge to the principle of collective security in Manchuria during the autumn of 1931. The depression had been devastating to the Japanese economy, which relied heavily on overseas trade, and there had been crop failures, as well. The Chinese had started boycotting Japanese goods during the late 1920s and continued to do so after the depression began. More important, they indicated that they meant to reassert control over Manchuria, long regarded by Japan as a special preserve. Japanese behavior in Manchuria called into question a number of international agreements: the League of Nations Covenant, the Nine Power Pact providing for an Open Door in China, and the Kellogg-Briand Pact.
