The postwar global economy had some advantages over the prewar globalization, such as its functioning in a better international political climate, but it had one serious problem, its excessive dependence on the United States. The world had become so accustomed to depending on American financial resources that it would be faced with a threat of total collapse unless the United States now did something to alleviate the situation. The American and British representatives believed that to grant Japan's request would jeopardize their Pacific possessions' security. The economic and diplomatic crises of the Hoover years witnessed a severe challenge to the ideological foundations of American foreign policy and of postwar international relations. Capitalism and democracy at home, and economic interdependence and cultural exchange abroad, had been visualized as essential elements of a reglobalized world. To be sure, many colonies remained, and not all countries espoused liberalism or democracy.

The story of China's international position from 1931 to 1949 indicates that Japanese aggression, and the ways in which other nations coped with it, served steadily to transform the country from being a weak victim of invasion into a world power, a partner in defining a stable framework of peace. The two factors, China's relative insignificance in international economic relations, and its increasing domestic unity, provided the background of the country's troubles after 1931. On the eve of the Manchurian incident, Chiang Kai-shek's authority had been steadily extended, having weathered serious challenges from some warlords and party dissidents. The Chinese-Japanese conflict over Manchuria was a clash of forces between an industrial country going through severe economic difficulties and a predominantly agricultural society determined to regain and retain national rights. Two years after the Mukden incident, it was clear that while the Manchurian crisis might have given the powers an excellent opportunity to solidify the postwar international system.