196 Lansing-Ishii Agreement (1917) Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1960; Unger, Nancy C Fighting Bob LaFollette: The Righteous Reformer Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2000 John M Mayernik Lansing-Ishii Agreement (1917) The scramble for concessions in China opened in 1898 when Germany established a sphere of influence in Shandong (Shantung) Province In 1914 Japan joined World War I against the Central Powers in accordance with the Anglo-Japanese Alliance, conquered German-held islands in the northern Pacific, and drove the Germans out of Shandong China remained neutral partly due to Japanese pressure To ensure its right to Shandong, Japan presented a set of Twenty-one Demands to China in January 1915 They included China’s agreement to the transfer of German rights in Shandong to Japan China leaked the terms of the demands to the United States, hoping for its intervention in vain, partly because the administration of President Woodrow Wilson was preoccupied with events in Europe Unable to resist Japanese pressure, China acceded to most of the terms of the Twenty-one demands in May 1915 Japan subsequently negotiated secret agreements with Russia, Great Britain, France, and Italy that secured its claims to Shandong in postwar peace negotiations In November 1917 Japan sent special ambassador viscount Ishii Kikujiro to Washington, ostensibly to congratulate the United States for joining the Allied cause but also to obtain U.S agreement with Japan’s claims on Shandong In the resulting Lansing-Ishii Agreement (negotiated with U.S secretary of state Robert Lansing), the United States recognized that “geographic propinquity creates special relations between nations,” thus tacitly acknowledging Japan’s special position in China They also signed a secret protocol in which both nations pledged not to seek special privileges in China that would infringe on the existing rights of friendly nations While the United States believed that the agreement upheld Chinese interests and the Open Door policy, Japan took it to mean the United States had accepted Japan’s “paramount interest” in China Its future in Shandong secure, Japan then allowed China to declare war against Germany and other Central Powers Japan further consolidated its position in Shandong in 1918 by signing a secret pact with the warlord then in power in China whereby in exchange for a Japanese loan, that warlord agreed to additional concessions to Japan in Shandong Japan came to the Paris Peace Conference after World War I as one of the Big Five powers, while China had the lowly status of an associated power Japan also came armed with secret treaties bolstering its claim to Shandong China pleaded for the return of Shandong based on President Wilson’s support of the right of national self-determination and the fact that its declaration of war with Germany had terminated previous treaties and agreements between the two nations Wilson’s eventual acquiescence to Japan’s demands on Shandong, over the objections of Secretary of State Lansing and other U.S delegates, became an important issue when the Versailles Treaty with Germany was presented to the U.S Senate for ratification and factored in its rejection Thus the Lansing-Ishii Agreement further embroiled the United States in East Asian international relations See also Shandong Question (1919); Yuan Shikai Further reading: Cohen, Warren I America’s Response to China, An Interpretative History of Sino-American Relations 2d ed New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1971; Fifield, Russell H Woodrow Wilson and the Far East, The Diplomacy of the Shantung Question New York: Crowell, 1952 Jiu-Hwa Lo Upshur Lateran Treaty (1929) Between 1924 and 1926, the Italian Fascist leader Benito Mussolini consolidated his power until he had dictatorial control over the nation of Italy and was formally designated as Il Duce, the leader No longer did Mussolini have to answer to parliament; only the monarch, Victor Emmanuel III, could dismiss him from his post Once Mussolini became dictator, he turned his attention to societal issues As part of this process he began discussions with the Holy See, the political entity of the papacy and Vatican City, in order to improve relations between the two parties The support of the papacy was extremely important to Mussolini’s continued domination over the Italian people However, the papacy had remained estranged from outright support for the Italian government following the confiscation without compensation of the Papal States during the process of Italian unification This estrangement had a serious impact on the