Book One: 1900 - 1938
The Historic Era of "Blue Sky Red Tears"
Japan and Russia long struggled for control of this rich, strategically important region. Japan tried to seize the Liao-tung peninsula in 1895, but was forestalled by the Triple Intervention. From 1898 to 1904 Russia was dominant. As a result of a Russo-Chinese alliance against Japan, the Russians built Harbin, the naval base at Port Arthur, the commercial center of Dalny (Dalian) and the Chinese Eastern Railroad. Japan, after victory in the Russo-Japanese War (1904–5), took control of Port Arthur, Dalny (renamed Dairen) and the Southern half of Manchuria, limiting Russian influence to the North. Chiefly through the South Manchurian Railroad, Japan developed the region's economy. From 1918 to 1931 the warlords Chang Tso-lin and Chang Hsüeh-liang controlled Chinese military power in Manchuria.
Japan occupied Manchuria in 1931–32, when Chinese military resistance, sapped by civil war, was weak. The seizure of Manchuria was, in effect, an unofficial declaration of war on China. Manchuria was a base for Japanese aggression in North China and a buffer region for Japanese-controlled Korea. In 1932, Japan annexed Manchuria and formed it as Manchukuo, an independent nation that was in truth a puppet state. The Japanese developed the cities of Dairen (Dalian), Anshan, Fushun, Mukden (Shenyang), and Harbin areas into a huge industrial complex of metallurgical, coal, petroleum, and chemical industries.
Manchuria Timeline
(Book One: 1900 - 1938)
1900  Nov 9, Russia completed its occupation of Manchuria.

1904  Feb 4, Russia offered Korea to Japan and defended its right to occupy Manchuria.

1904  Feb 6, Japan's foreign minister severed all ties with Russia, citing delaying tactics in negotiations over Manchuria.

1905  Jan 27, Russian General Kuropatkin took the offensive in Manchuria. The Japanese under General Oyama suffered heavy casualties.

1905  Feb 27, Japanese pushed Russians back in Manchuria, and cross the Sha River.

1905  Mar 5, Russians began to retreat from Mukden in Manchuria.

1907  Mar 22, Russians troops completed the evacuation of Manchuria in the face of advancing Japanese forces.

1910  Jan 21, Japan rejected the American proposal to neutralize ownership of the Manchurian Railway.

1928  Jun 3, Manchurian warlord Chian Tso-Lin died as a result of a bomb blast set off by the Japanese, who were planning to invade and claim Manchuria.

1928  The Japanese army unilaterally instigated armed clashes in China's Manchuria region to justify full-scale intervention.

1929  Sep 21, Fighting between China and the Soviet Union broke out along the Manchurian border.

1929  Nov 18, Stalin sent troops to Manchuria.

1929  Dec 22, Soviet troops left Manchuria after a truce was reached with the Chinese over the Eastern Railway dispute.

1931  Sep 18, The Mukden Incident was initiated by the Japanese Kwantung Army in Mukden. It involved an explosion along the Japanese-controlled South Manchurian Railway. It was soon followed by the Japanese invasion of Manchuria and the eventual establishment of the Japanese-dominated state of Manchukuo. The neutrality of the area, and the ability of Japan to defend its colony in Korea, was threatened in the 1920s by efforts at unification of China. Within three months Japanese troops had spread out throughout Manchuria.

1931  Sep 18, Japan took Manchuria and renamed it Manchukuo.

1931  Sep 19, Japanese troops conquer Mukden, South Manchuria.

1931  Nov 20, Japan and China rejected the League of Council terms for Manchuria at Geneva.

1931  Ten years of comparative peace ended when Japan attacked and seized  Manchuria to ensure a supply of natural resources. The Japanese army invaded Manchuria without its own government's consent.

1932  Jan 2, Japanese forces in Manchuria set up a puppet government known as Manchukuo.

1932  Feb 18, Manchurian independence was formally declared.

1935  Jan 31, The Soviet premier told Japan to get out of Manchuria.