young marshal spring and autumn

At the turn of the century, the U.S. Navy stationed in the Far East was affected by two major events.The Spanish-American War was the first of these events.The United States dispatched a naval squadron under Commodore George & #8226; Dewey to Hong Kong and then to Manila, which defeated Spanish forces in Manila, an event of great consequence.

Dewey's victory allowed the United States to take the Philippine Islands as its own, so that the Philippine Islands became a base of operations for the United States to promote military and commercial activities in the Far East.More importantly, after 1898, the politics of the Far East had obvious interests for the United States. The United States occupied the Philippine Islands, which made the United States assume the obligation to protect the Philippine Islands.In order to fulfill this obligation, the United States must continue to station U.S. Army and Navy forces in this region.

The US naval forces stationed in the Far East waters are relatively weak.After the United States took possession of the Philippines, it faced an insoluble defense problem because the United States Army did not have enough troops to hold the archipelago to prevent a successful invasion.At the same time, the size of the U.S. Navy fleet in peacetime is not large, only enough to maintain the necessary forces in one ocean area in a period, and it cannot take care of two oceans.Due to the strategic priority of the United States in the Atlantic theater, it is impossible to deploy a combat fleet in the Western Pacific.The United States recognizes that the Philippine Islands are strategically vulnerable, so in the first 25 years of this century, the United States implemented two policies to make up for this weakness.First, the United States is trying to reach an agreement to protect the archipelago diplomatically; second, the United States has also stationed a naval force in the area.

Both military and foreign policymakers see Japan as the most serious threat to the Philippines.The U.S. is trying to forge closer ties with Japan to protect the Philippine archipelago.The United States and Japan signed the "Taft-Guangxi Agreement" in 1905, the "Rott-Kohei Agreement" in 1908, and the "Lansing-Ishii Agreement" in 1917.The U.S. wanted Japan to recognize U.S. sovereignty over the Philippines through these agreements.What these agreements imply is that in exchange, the United States will acquiesce to Japan's various desires in North Korea and China.This "mutual pursuit on paper" culminated in the Washington Limitation Conference in 1921-1922.The United States sought to secure the status quo in the Pacific in the four-power and nine-power treaties concluded at this conference, and to reinforce the credibility of the "open door" policy of 1899 and 1900.If these goals are achieved, the need for the United States to maintain a naval force in the Far East to protect the Philippine Islands and U.S. commercial activities in the region will be greatly reduced.

In the 20s, the commander of the Asian Fleet described the mission of the Asian Fleet: the most important task in wartime is to implement "Operation Orange Plan", which is the navy's master plan in case of war with Japan.The main content is that the troops stationed in the Far East should try to hold off the Japanese attack on the Philippines long enough to allow the main US fleet to cross the Pacific Ocean and engage the enemy forces. The development process of "Operation Orange" has never been interrupted. In early 1923, the Joint Committee developed a "Strategic Outline for the Pacific."This overview is based on the following four assumptions:

([-]) Any major war involving the United States in the Pacific Ocean will be a war with Japan;

([-]) The United States must win in the Western Pacific;

(iii) Manila Bay is the most desirable location for the outposts required by the fleet;

(iv) Victory depended on the United States being able to occupy Manila Bay and "all ports" in the Trust Islands and the Philippine Islands, to impose a blockade on Japan, and to take "further actions" capable of forcing Japan to surrender.

In the 20s, the commanders-in-chief of the Asian Fleet believed that their primary mission was to prepare for a large-scale naval battle. Instead, they believed that protecting and advancing American interests in China were secondary tasks.

After the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, conflicts between the United States and Japan became increasingly acute as they competed for interests in China. In 1921, the United States was eager to change Japan’s dominance in China, disintegrate the Anglo-Japanese alliance, and isolate Japan. Under such circumstances, it was imperative to hold a conference to divide global military and political power.So in the name of solving the Chinese problem, the meeting was held.

The proposal was put forward by the Beiyang government of China under the instigation of the United States. During the meeting, the Chinese side proposed to take back the autonomy of tariffs, abolish consular jurisdiction, withdraw foreign troops stationed in China, and take back concessions and leased land, etc., but all were rejected.The "open door" policy of the United States was proposed this time.

From November 1921, 11 to February 11, 1922, the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Portugal, and China held an international conference in Washington, the capital of the United States.The Chinese government sent Shi Zhaoji, Gu Weijun, and Wang Chonghui as plenipotentiaries, and Yu Rizhang and Jiang Menglin as national representatives. A large delegation of more than 2 people attended the event.The original plan was to have Wu Chaoshu, the vice-minister of foreign affairs of the Guangzhou government, as a representative, but Sun Yat-sen refused to recognize the Beijing government and asked for his own delegation to fail, and Wu Chaoshu did not go.

There are two main items on the agenda of the Washington meeting: one is the issue of limiting naval armaments; the other is the issue of the Pacific and the Far East.To this end, two committees were formed: the "Arms Limitation Committee", which was attended by the five naval powers of Britain, the United States, Japan, France, and Italy; the "Pacific and Far East Issues Committee", with representatives from nine countries, and the two committees held discussions separately .The main results of the meeting included three important treaties: the Four-Power Treaty, the Naval Arms Limitation Treaty, and the Nine-Power Treaty. These three conventions are collectively referred to as the "Washington Treaty."

On December 1921, 12, the United States, Britain, Japan, and France signed the "Treaty Concerning Pacific Island Dependencies and Territories" in Washington, referred to as the "Four Powers Convention".The convention stipulates that if any two of the four signatories have a dispute over any issue in the Pacific region, all the signatories should hold a joint meeting to negotiate and resolve it.The annex to the treaty stipulates that the signatories will mutually respect the rights of other signatories in the relevant Pacific islands and mandate areas.Another annex stipulates the territorial boundaries of Japan in the Pacific region.Because the wording of the four-nation agreement is too vague, it has no legal binding force.The biggest beneficiary of this condition is the United States. Not only can it maintain its position in Asia with a relatively weak Asian fleet, it also restrains Japan’s activities in the Western Pacific, terminates the Anglo-Japanese alliance since 13, and ends Japan’s The state of cooperation with the UK in the Pacific.It also cut off the legal restrictions on Britain assisting Japan with an alliance relationship in case of trouble.

1922年2月6日，美国、英国、日本、法国、意大利在华盛顿签订的关于限制海军主力舰吨位的《华盛顿海军条约》。条约规定各签约国战舰、战斗巡洋舰总吨位比率为10：10：6：3。5：3。5。同时对主力舰的建造、轮替、吨位和武器都作出了严格的限制。条约同时还规定各签约国在西太平洋岛屿的防御区和海军基地维持现状。该五国还另外签订了一项条约，对潜艇和毒气的使用作出了规定。这一条约的最大的赢家是美国和日本。通过此条约，美国获得了与号称“日不落帝国”英国在海军力量上的平等地位，为美国依靠强大的工业力量最终统治两大洋打开潘多拉之盒。日本则堂而皇之地成为海军地区强国，扩大了其在太平洋的实际存在。

On the same day, the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Portugal and China signed the "Treaty of Principles and Policies Applicable to China's Events", referred to as the "Nine-Power Pact".The Convention respects China's sovereignty and independence, territorial and administrative integrity, and establishes the principles of "open door" and "equal opportunities" for all countries in China.In order to ensure the implementation of Article 1905, Article 1922 stipulates that the contracting states "shall not enter into treaties or agreements or agreements or understandings among themselves or individually or jointly with any one or more countries", infringing or hindering the various provisions mentioned in Article [-]. item principle.The third article further implements the principles of "open door" and "equal opportunity", stipulating that no one shall seek or sponsor its own people to seek "general superior rights related to commercial or economic development in any designated area of ​​China" and "any patent or superiority".All countries have equal trade opportunities with China.The relevant provisions stipulate that the nine countries should set up an international committee to study China's tariff policy.This clause is essentially a new aggression, but it is only under the guise of respecting China's sovereignty, in essence, it is to coerce the Chinese government to implement the principles of "open door" and "equal opportunity", and prevent Japan from dominating China through the openness of the conclusion of the treaty. Purpose, very poor evaluation in Chinese history.However, time has passed, and Zhang Hanqing feels that as long as he has strong strength, it may be of value to use this treaty to stop possible territorial threats.Since Japan captured Dalian in the Russo-Japanese War in [-], its government has been entrenched in the Northeast for many years, and its government has never dared to use troops here, which also shows the binding force of this treaty on Japan.This treaty restrained Japan's monopoly over China during the war, and replaced it with the United States as the leader and the British and Japanese imperialists to jointly control China's aggression.Grandpa Mao once said, "The convention signed by the Washington Nine-Power Conference convened by the United States in [-] brought China back to a situation under the common dominance of several imperialist countries."

Prior to this, on February 2, China and Japan also signed the "Treaty on Solving the Unsolved Shandong Issue" and its appendices in Washington.The treaty stipulates that Japan will return the old German leased land to China, and China will open all the land as a commercial port; the Japanese troops stationed in Qingdao, Jiaoji Railway and its branches should immediately withdraw; Qingdao Customs should be returned to China; Jiaoji Railway and its branches should be returned to China, etc. .The appendix stipulated many special rights for Japanese and foreign nationals, but China recovered the sovereignty of Shandong Peninsula and the rights and interests of Jiaoji Railway through this treaty, which can be described as a blessing among misfortunes in old China.