South Manchurian Railway

South Manchurian Railway,

Japanese-developed enterprise, with a trackage of 701 mi (1128 km). The line from Changchun to Lüshun (Port Arthur), originally belonging to the Russian-built Chinese Eastern Railway, was part of Japan's indemnity in the Russo-Japanese War (1904–5). Japan later constructed a line to connect Shenyang (Mukden) and Dandong. Other cities served by the railroad are Dalian (Dairen), Anshan, and Fushun. The prosperity of Manchuria is in large part attributable to the linking by the railroad of the coastal ports and the hinterland. The South Manchurian Railway Company, formerly the largest economic enterprise in Manchuria and the main agency of Japanese penetration, was organized shortly after the Russo-Japanese War. It undertook construction of towns, harbor improvements, coal and iron mining, utility development, and agricultural experimentation. When the Manchurian warlord Chang Hsüeh-liangChang Hsüeh-liang
or Zhang Xueliang
, 1898–2001, Chinese warlord, son of Chang Tso-lin. On the death (1928) of his father, he succeeded as military governor of Manchuria. He was then known as Chang Hsiao-liang but later changed his name.
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 refused to halt construction of a competing Chinese railway network, the Japanese Kwantung army staged the Manchurian IncidentManchurian Incident
or Mukden Incident,
1931, confrontation that gave Japan the impetus to set up a puppet government in Manchuria. After the Russo-Japanese War (1904–5), Japan replaced Russia as the dominant foreign power in S Manchuria.
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 (1931) and set up the state of Manchukuo (1932). At the end of World War II, China expropriated the company's property.