In ten extended chapters, supported by a wide selection of contemporary documents, Ian Nish provides an important new account and assessment of the turbulent times suffered by the three north-eastern provinces of China, generally called ‘Manchuria’, in the course of the last two centuries. The territory rarely enjoyed peace (three major wars were fought on its soil in 1894, 1904 and 1919), although its economy progressed as a result of the building of arterial railways. From 1932, it also had an important role in world affairs when the short-lived state of Manchukuo was declared by the Japanese Government – subsequently brought to an end by the punitive occupation of the country by Soviet forces in 1945. Thereafter, the devastated country was fought over in a brutal civil war by Chinese Nationalist and Communist armies until Mukden (Shenyang) fell to the Communists in October 1948.