85406 - Notes on the Russo-Japanese War

N. Lygeros

The First Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895)
The Treaty of Shimonoseki (1895)
China had been defeated
by European powers in the 19th century
but a defeat by an Asian power was
a bitter psychological blow.
A consequence of the Chinese xenophobic reaction was
the Boxer Rebellion between 1899 and 1901.
The Anglo-Japanese Alliance started in 1902
and was replaced in 1921
by the Four-Power Treaty
which was signed by Japan
with Great Britain, France and the United States.
The Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905).
It was again a Japanese victory.
The Treaty of Portsmouth (1905).
As Roosevelt was instrumental in the negotiation,
he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1906
«for his role in bringing to an end
the bloody war reentry waged
between two of the world’s great powers,
Japan and Russia».
The Taft-Katsura agreement (1905).
The treaty forced Russian Empire to abandon
its expansionist policies in East Asia.
But it also gave cancel to the Japanese colonisation of Korea.