The Mukden Incident was a 'false flag' operation staged by Japanese military personnel as a pretext for the invasion of Manchuria. Soldiers from the Imperial Japanese Army blew up a small section of a Japanese-owned railway near Mukden and blamed Chinese dissidents for the attack. Despite the minimal damage, Japan used the event to launch a full-scale invasion, quickly conquering the region and establishing the puppet state of Manchukuo. This event is often cited as the true beginning of the conflict that would become World War II in Asia. The League of Nations' failure to take significant action against Japan emboldened other aggressive regimes in Europe, signaling that the post-WWI international order was crumbling and that territorial expansion through force was once again possible.