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RUSSIA PART THREE

 

 

Russo-Japanese War

 

The Russo-Japanese War (8 February 1904 – 5 September 1905) was "the first great war of the 20th century."

It grew out of rival imperial ambitions of the Russian Empire and the Empire of Japan over Manchuria and Korea.
The major theatres of operations were Southern Manchuria, specifically the area around the Liaodong Peninsula and Mukden; and the seas around Korea, Japan, and the Yellow Sea.

Russia sought a warm water port on the Pacific Ocean, for their navy as well as for maritime trade.
Vladivostok was only operational during the summer season, but Port Arthur would be operational all year.

From the end of the First Sino-Japanese War and 1903, negotiations between Russia and Japan had proved impractical. Russia had demonstrated an expansionist policy in Manchuria dating back to the reign of Ivan of the Terrible in the 19th century.

Japan offered to recognize Russian dominance in Manchuria in exchange for recognition of Korea as a Japanese sphere of influence.
Russia refused this, and demanded Korea northern than the 39th parallel to be a neutralized zone as a buffer between Russia and Japan.
The Japanese government perceived a Russian threat to its strategic interests and chose to go to war.
After the negotiations had broken down in 1904, the Japanese Navy opened hostilities by attacking the Russian eastern fleet at Port Arthur, a naval base in the Liaotung province leased to Russia by China.

The resulting campaigns, in which the Japanese military attained complete victory over the Russian forces arrayed against them, were unexpected by world observers.
Over time, the consequences of these battles would transform the balance of power in East Asia, resulting in a reassessment of Japan's recent entry onto the world stage.

Scholars today debate the historical significance of the Russo-Japanese War.
The Russo-Japanese has been referred to by some scholars of history as just a regional conflict, while others associate it as the precursor for the type of warfare that took place during World War II.

Russia would suffer numerous defeats at the hands of Japan and would remain engaged in the war mainly due in part to the will of the Tsar, Nicholas II.
After faring poorly early into the war, Nicholas II, convinced that Russia would ultimately obtain victory in the war, chose to remain engaged in the war; at first, to await the outcomes of certain naval battles, and later on, upon realizing imminent defeat, it has been debated, to preserve the dignity of Russia by averting a "humiliating peace".

The Russo-Japanese War would be concluded with the Treaty of Portsmouth, mediated by U.S President Theodore Roosevelt at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard on Seavey's Island, Kittery, Maine, while the delegates stayed in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

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