Overview

The reason for the Open Door Policy being suggested by U.S. Secretary of State John Hay was to ensure that the United States would not be unfairly cheated in the imperialism of China. This policy, first introduced in September-October of 1889, asked for a formal declaration from all the other powerful countries involved (France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, Russia, and Japan) that would uphold Chinese territorial and administrative integrity and would not interfere with the free use of the treaty ports within their spheres of influence in China. After a period of time, in which the Open Door Policy was not accepted, a great deal of economic tension was drawn between countries. Each of them stated that they would not sign it unless everybody else did. So, in 1900 the Open Door Policy was finally put into effect. The policy, however, did never really work like it was supposed to. Due to many cases of countries disregaurding it or blatantly disobeying it, the Open Door Policy was being ignored. Japan finally and officially ended the policy by seizing Manchuria in 1931.