Thanks for the interest everyone!
The period following the end of the Great War was a tumultuous time for Asia. The Russian Goliath, long looming over the continent, fell apart. Civil War raged through the nation, as White Admiral Kolchak controlled Siberia and fought against the Bolshevik Reds. While this might not have been an issue for the other Asian states, such as fractured China, the rising star of Japan made it an issue. While officially acting as part of the international effort to defeat the Bolsheviks, the Japanese leadership sent more troops than anyone had anticipate--over 70,000 men. These men quickly fought as far as Lake Baikal, propping up the White Forces in Siberia to a certain extent.
With the defeat of Admiral Kolchak in 1920, however, the Japanese were forced to withdraw from Red Russia. The problem with this was apparent, as the Japanese had put much effort into the area around the Amur River...Outer Manchuria. Vladivostok, for example, held upwards of 50 thousand Japanese civilians brought in during the days it seemed that Kolchak might win. Most of these settlers were loathe to leave their new homes, though the Bolsheviks would likely oppress the firmly capitalist Japanese. Because of this fact, the Japanese Government delayed leaving the area as long as possible, taking advantage of Red Russia's continued issues with White rebels.
Further impetuous to make a decision came in the form of the Washington Naval Treaty. The Japanese were forced to downscale their navy, and naval construction, drastically. The 5-5-3 ratio of ships left the Japanese with multiple ships they would have to scrap, or otherwise get rid of. The Treaty was bitter, and left the Navy leadership looking for some way to retain their hitting power. Such an opening came with the unexpected death of Zhang Zuolin, leader of the Fengtien Clique...roughly controlling Inner Manchuria. The Japanese had been sponsoring the Clique in the ongoing Chinese Civil War, much as they had supported Kolchak. With the sudden power vacuum this opened up, the leadership of the Island Empire scrambled to find an appropriate leader for Manchuria, to retain at least some influence in mainland Asia. Zhang's son was leaning towards the Republic of China more than Japan, and that was unacceptable.
Another option was quickly found...Pu-Yi, deposed Qing Emperor. With Manchuria being the ancestral home of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, the Japanese felt that returning Pu-Yi to control of his 'ancestral homeland' to be an acceptable compromise. The deposed Emperor agreed, on condition that the Japanese leadership endorse his claims to the rest of China. Most of the Japanese leadership refused outright, but the remaining minority managed to push through the agreement...on the logic that having Pu-Yi in their debt could gain Japan far more than Manchuria's resources, should the Republic of China collapse in on itself. And thus, the state of Manchukuo was born in early 1924.
With the exception of Soviet controlled Mongolia and Japanese controlled Inner Mongolia, the reborn Qing Dynasty laid down its claims to all of historical China. Were it not for the support of Japan, this would have brought Manchukuo into conflict with several factions in the fractured Chinese realms. The Republic of China, the People's Republic, Shanxi Clique, Ma Clique, Quanxi Clique, Yunnan Clique, Tibet, and Xinjiang. All of these states had territory Pu-Yi claimed as his right to rule, and none were inclined to give their land up to the Qing Empire, diminished as it was. And with the various factions supporting each other, there was no way that Manchukuo could claim its lost territory without Japanese support...something it had not received in the decade since being formed.
While the Japanese leadership was willing to 'humor' Pu-Yi and allow him his claims on China, they would not outright go to war with the various factions to support a Qing Restoration in full. And as Manchukuo was nothing more than a Japanese sponsored puppet state, Pu-Yi had to agree to what the Japanese said. Not that there were no benefits to Japanese rule however. The Manchurian region was heavily industrialized by the Japanese, more so than any other region of China relative to its population and resources in fact.
The Imperial Navy's reaction to the Washington Treaty has already been mentioned as part of the reasoning behind taking the Fengtien Clique and replacing it with Manchukuo. The Japanese Navy, as part of its treaty obligations, would have been forced to retire several battleships, in addition to halting most construction in its yards. There was something of a loophole in the treaty however--nothing said that the Japanese could not sell their oldest Dreadnoughts instead of scrapping them. While Manchukuo was primarily a land-locked nation, the choice was made to 'sell' the three oldest Dreadnoughts in the Imperial Fleet to them.
Satsuma, Aki, and
Settsu were the ships in question. The former two are considered semi-dreadnoughts to be technical, while the latter was a full dreadnought. All three would have been decommissioned according to the Treaty, the former two scrapped due to their age, while the last would have been converted to a target ship. While the three ships, and the equally old cruisers and destroyers that would have been scrapped alongside them, were no match for modern warships, having them around provided more strategic options for the Japanese Navy. It was for this reason, that the ships were granted to the Manchukuo government, though they retained their Japanese names and crews.
That fact raises another point with the new Qing Nation. Other nations that signed the treaty condemned the fact that Japan gave several of their ships to a nation that was nothing more than a puppet. In fact, few nations even recognized the Manchukuo government, something that added to that issue. Giving the ships to a nation that was unrecognized was...recognized...as a ploy to get around the Treaty. But in the days so soon after the Great War had ended, none of the nations of the world were inclined to push the issue.
As was previously mentioned, the Japanese poured funds and engineers into Manchukuo to improve the regions industry, as a way of providing for the ever-hungry Japanese war machine. This industrial improvements gave the Qing an industry that could provide for most of the needs of the relatively small population living in Manchuria at the time.
The other notable improvement compared to Fengtien Manchuria was in the education system. While it lagged behind the great powers of the world (or even more minor European powers), the amount of work put into the schools and universities by the Manchukuo government was massive for its time.
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Okay, explanation time:
Non-modded Manchukuo, or even HPP Manchukuo, has very few techs and a weak industry for a nation that was heavily industrialized by the Japanese. Understandable when its only been four years since the founding of the nation. However, when playing as a puppet it makes it very not-fun. Thus, I went a bit alt-history here, in order to make the experience more fun (though the massive education funding is actually historical, which makes it odd that Manchukuo has no education techs without me changing things).
The changes to the cores is so that I can actually
get my goal of restoring Qing China (though I left Mongolia untouched, and same goes from Menjiang cores since I don't want to mess with that decision). If I only had the base cores in Manchuria, I'd have to somehow sneak past the Japanese and conquer Shanxi, PRC, the Ma, Quanxi, Yunnan, and Xinjiang...see the problem? By giving myself the cores, and removing the ROC-Nanjing decision, I set it up so Japan would transfer territory they conquer to me...tying into the alt-history.
Ships are simply because I like having a navy and trying to build one up would take a lot of time. None of these ships are advanced, in fact they would get slaughtered against the IJN, Royal Navy, or USN. The entire fleet is all of 11 ships, which is smaller than Sweden's actually.
I also improved other techs to fit the much-larger Japanese influence this go-round. Again, nothing drastic and I'm still very much behind the times...just not quite
as much behind.
Sadly, I remain a puppet though. While full independence could probably be justified...it messes with the Khalkin Gol event-chain. And I want that to remain untouched so that a war with the Sovs could still happen.