Manchuria (Cherry, Plum, and Chrysanthemum)

The State of Manchuria (Manchurian Chinese: 滿洲国 Mǎnzhōuguó), is a sovereign state in the region of Manchuria. This region is the traditional homeland of the Xianbei, Korean, Khitan, and Jurchen people. The region is also the homeland of the Manchus, after whom Manchuria is named.

Manchuria neighbored with Russia to the north, North China to the west, Korea to the east, and the East China Sea to the south. The country covers a total area of 771,500 km square kilometers and has a population of almost 110 million peoples. The capital and largest city is Harbin, with a population of 21,719,628 inhabitants.

Climate
The climate of Manchuria has extreme seasonal contrasts, ranging from humid, almost tropical heat in the summer to windy, dry, Arctic cold in the winter. This occurs because the position of Manchuria is on the boundary between the great Eurasian continental landmass and the huge Pacific Ocean causes complete monsoonal wind reversal.

In the summer, when the land heats up faster than the ocean, low pressure forms over Asia and warm, moist south to southeasterly winds bring heavy, thundery rain, yielding annual rainfall ranging from 400 mm (16 in.), or less in the west, to over 1150 mm (45 in.) in the Changbai Mountains. Temperatures in the summer are very warm to hot, with July average maxima ranging from 31°C (88°F) in the south to 24°C (75°F) in the extreme north. Except in the far north near the Amur River, high humidity causes major discomfort at this time of year.

In the winter, however, the vast Siberian High causes very cold, north to northwesterly winds that bring temperatures as low as −5°C (23°F) in the extreme south and −30°C (−22°F) in the north, where the zone of discontinuous permafrost reaches northern Heilongjiang. However, because the winds from Siberia are exceedingly dry, snow falls only on a few days every winter and it is never heavy. This explains why, whereas corresponding latitudes of North America were fully glaciated during glacial periods of the Quaternary, Manchuria, though even colder, always remained too dry to form glaciers – a state of affairs enhanced by stronger westerly winds from the surface of the ice sheet in Europe.

History
Manchuria was the homeland of several nomadic tribes, including the Manchu, Ulchs and Hezhen. Various ethnic groups and their respective kingdoms, including the Sushen, Donghu, Xianbei, Wuhuan, Mohe, Khitan and Jurchens have risen to power in Manchuria. At various times in this time period, Han Dynasty, Cao Wei Dynasty, Western Jin Dynasty, Tang Dynasty and some other minor kingdoms of China established control in parts of Manchuria and in some cases tributary relations with peoples in the area. Various kingdoms in Korea, such as Gojoseon, Buyeo, Goguryeo and Balhae were also established in parts of this area. With the Song Dynasty to the south, the Khitan people of Western Manchuria created the Liao Empire in the region, which went on to control adjacent parts of Northern China as well.

In the early 12th century the Tungusic Jurchen people, who were Liao's tributaries, overthrew the Liao and formed the Jin Dynasty (1115–1234), which went on to control parts of Northern China and Mongolia. During the Yuan Dynasty (1271–1368), Manchuria was administered under the Liaoyang province. In 1375, Nahacu, a Mongol official of the Northern Yuan in Liaoyang province invaded Liaodong, but later surrendered to the Ming Dynasty in 1387. In order to protect the northern border areas the Ming decided to "pacify" the Jurchens in order to deal with its problems with Yuan remnants along its northern border. The Ming solidified control over Manchuria under Yongle Emperor (1402–1424). Starting in the 1580s, a Jianzhou Jurchen chieftain, Nurhaci (1558–1626), started to unify Jurchen tribes of the region. Over the next several decades, the Jurchen, took control over most of Manchuria. In 1616, Nurhaci founded the Later Jin Dynasty.

In 1644, after the Ming Dynasty's capital of Beijing was sacked by the peasant rebels, the Jurchens (now called Manchus) allied with Ming general Wu Sangui and seized control of Beijing, overthrowing the short-lived Shun Dynasty and establishing Qing Dynasty rule (1644–1912) over all of China. But in 1858, a weakening Qing Empire was forced to cede Manchuria north of the Amur to Russia under the Treaty of Aigun. In 1860, at the Treaty of Peking, the Russians managed to obtain a further large slice of Manchuria, east of the Ussuri River. As a result, Manchuria was divided into a Russian half known as "Outer Manchuria", and a remaining Chinese half known as "Inner Manchuria". In modern literature, "Manchuria" usually refers to Inner (Chinese) Manchuria. As a result of the Treaties of Aigun and Peking, China lost access to the Sea of Japan.

As a direct result of the Russo-Japanese War (1904/05), Japanese influence replaced Russia's in Inner Manchuria. In 1906, Japan laid the South Manchurian Railway to Port Arthur (Japanese: Ryojun). After the World War I, Manchuria became a political and military battleground between Russia, Japan, and China. Japan moved into Outer Manchuria as a result of the chaos following the Russian Revolution of 1917. A combination of Soviet military successes and American economic pressure forced the Japanese to withdraw from the area, however, and Outer Manchuria returned to Soviet control by 1925.

During the warlord period in China, the warlord Zhang Zuolin established himself in Inner Manchuria with Japanese backing. Later, the Japanese Kwantung Army found him too independent, so he was assassinate in 1928.

Following the establishment of the Republic of Japan in 1931, China and Japan began to seek a peaceful diplomacy to end the conflict between two nations. Japan agreed to sign an armistice with China, while China handed over the authority over nine Chinese territories to Japan in return. The territories later transformed into the associated state of Japan under the Dominion of Manchuria government in 1932.

During the World War II, Manchuria fallen under the Fascist Japan authority. Under Fascist control, Manchuria was one of the most brutally run regions in the world, with a systematic campaign of terror and intimidation against the local Russian and Chinese populations including arrests, organised riots and other forms of subjugation. Manchuria was used as a base to invade the rest of China.

After Republican Japan signed an armistice with the Allied armed forces and the war ended in 1945, Manchuria placed under the U.S administration between 1945 and 1949. In 1949, Dominion of Manchuria government restored by the United States

The independence of dominion was proclaimed on February 18, 1950, and the dominion renamed as State of Manchuria with Shao Chin-tsu as its first President and Fu Shanxun as the first Prime Minister. In early 1950, Manchuria's border with the People’s Republic of China became the site of the most serious tension between Manchuria and North China which later escalated into the Sino-Manchurian War (1950-1952).

After the economic revitalization in late 1950s, Manchuria is the one of major industrial power of Asia and also the one of the nations with higher Gross Domestic Products rate among other East Asian nations during recent days.