1932

The year in brief

In 1932 Japan organised the Manchuria it had seized. On 7 January the United States announced that it would not recognise any agreement in Manchuria reached in breach of the Kellogg–Briand Pact. At the end of January Japanese marines attacked the Chinese district of Zhabei in Shanghai, and on 1 March the “independent” state of Manchukuo was proclaimed, with the last emperor of China, Puyi, at its head. In Germany Hindenburg won the presidential election in April, and Hitler took almost 37 per cent of the vote. After Brüning’s resignation Papen became chancellor, in August Göring was elected President of the Reichstag, and in November Hitler was refused when he demanded the powers of a presidential chancellor. The year ended with General Schleicher’s government. On 25 July Poland and the USSR signed a non-aggression pact in Moscow, and in the United States Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected president.