Before the outbreak of World War II, the rankings of the countries of the world were like this: the United States, the Soviet Union, Germany, Britain and France, which is the world's top five. This rank is not easy to surpass, after all, everything must be based on its own national strength. The sixth place was Italy, and the most surprising thing was the seventh, which turned out to be Czechoslovakia. Japan and Spain are the eighth and ninth respectively, as the world's fourth power, why are Britain's colonies occupied by Japan, the eighth in the world?
Before World War II, Britain had a huge colonial system in Asia Britain was an old colonialist country, and after a long period of operation, Britain's colonies spread all over the world. Before the outbreak of World War II, the entire southeast Asian region was almost divided among countries, and Thailand was the only independent country. Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and other places were French colonies, where France established the Indochina Federation. The Philippines is a colony of the United States, a must-see place to enter Southeast Asia. The Dutch, once the coachman of the sea, controlled sumatra. Sumatra is rich in oil resources and is also a very important region. The rest of the territory was all British, and at that time a large area of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Burma, Malaya, and Singapore were British colonies. Britain at that time was a veritable empire that never set, but this empire faced a series of crises. After the effects of the First World War, Britain's national strength was greatly weakened. By the late 1930s, it had been surpassed by the Soviet Union and Germany.
The United States had already surpassed Britain economically in 1895, and after the Washington Conference, the United States gained a naval status on a par with Britain. The United States was the world's number one power at the time, and even Germany was very jealous. After several rounds of construction, the Soviet Union's national strength also increased significantly. After Hitler came to power, he proposed a plan to reorganize his armaments, and under the stimulation of the military economy, Germany once again became a world power. Britain and France were heavily depleted, and the Great Depression of the 1930s was exacerbated. In the face of Germany's gradual expansion, Britain and France did not want to be drawn into war again. So the policy of appeasement was introduced, and Britain and France gave way again and again. In order to stabilize Germany, Britain and France betrayed Austria, Spain and Czechoslovakia. Hitler saw this and repeatedly proposed political blackmail. Eventually, the Germans attacked Poland on a large scale, and as a Polish protectorate, Britain and France had no way to retreat and were forced to declare war on Germany.
Japan was Germany's Asian ally, but when several European countries fought a war, Japan had no intention of declaring war on Britain and France. There are two main reasons for this: the main force of the First Japanese Army is deeply trapped in the Chinese battlefield, and there is no possibility of withdrawal at all. Second, Japan wants to sit on the mountain and watch the tiger fight, after all, Britain and France are also world powers. In this way, Japan showed no signs of expanding the war except for a war with the Soviet Union at Nomonkan. Fast forward to 1940, when Germany began to attack the countries of Western Europe after completing its preparations for war. The Netherlands, Belgium and other countries surrendered one after another, and they were not opponents of Germany. Due to the wrong deployment, the Germans invaded French territory. For various reasons, France surrendered to Germany. After the surrender of France, only The British were left to resist in all of Western Europe. In order to deal with possible anti-landing operations, the main British army all returned to the mainland. Even the elite troops of Asia were transferred back, and Japan saw an opportunity.
Japan is a resource-poor country that has long coveted Southeast Asia. Rice from Vietnam, rubber from the Philippines, oil fields in Sumatra, copper mines in Malaya, these are all things that Japan needs. Until then, Japan was powerless against the mighty British and French. But now that France had surrendered and Britain was struggling to hold on, Japan thought its chance had come. Japan first took over the French colonies in Southeast Asia through Germany and then began to spy on Burma. At this time, the United States began to implement economic sanctions and a resource embargo on Japan based on its own interests, which further stimulated Japan. Japan had to speed up its expansion, and finally in December 1941, Japan began to move south to Southeast Asia. Due to the fact that all the main forces were on the mainland, coupled with insufficient preparation, in less than half a year, Burma, Singapore, Malaya and other places were all occupied by the Japanese army. After obtaining these regions, Japan even began to infect mainland India and Australia.