2 The Russo-Japanese War
In the mid-nineteenth century, after more than two centuries of international isola-
tion, Japan opened its doors and began to expand as a way to survive in a competitive
world. Although its isolation from the outside world had also been a way of survival
(indeed, its isolation was never complete), this seclusion was irrevocably broken by
an expanding neighbor across the Paci c Ocean, namely the United States. This was
classic gun-boat diplomacy. Like many other nations, Japan was forced to accept un-
equal treaties with foreign colonial powers, although it was itself never colonized.
Overwhelmed by the military and economic might of the colonial powers, which had
already colonized much of the world and were now doing the same to Japan’s neigh-
bor, China, Japan pursued a policy of “enrich the country, strengthen the military”
(fukoku kyohei ̄ ). In this process, Russia and Japan came into con ict.
With regard to other Asian nations, Japan behaved like a colonial power: indeed,
it became the rst non-European imperial power in the modern era. This inevitably
brought Japan on a collision course with other imperial powers. Already in 1894–95,
Japan’s imperialist ambitions clashed with China over the control of Korea (whose tra-
ditional overlord was China), while Russia was equally interested in extending its con-
trol to Korea. In the Sino-Japanese war itself, the rapidly modernizing Japan beat a
China mired in tradition and torn by internal divisions. But fearing Japan’s advance
into Korea and China, Russia, together with France and Germany, intervened in the
Sino-Japanese settlement, forcing Japan to return the Liaodong Peninsula to China
(the so-called Tripartite Intervention). This in turn set the background for military con-
frontation ten years later between Russia and Japan.
The “Sleeping Tiger” proved to be rather fragile, and China’s defeat stimulated
the semicolonization of this giant country by imperial powers, Russia and Japan in-
cluded. Russia’s expansion in the Far East was long-standing. After its defeat in the
Crimean War at the hands of Britain, France, and Ottoman Turkey, Russia’s atten-
tion turned sharply to the East, leading to the annexation of much of central Asia
in the 1860s and 1870s.¹Russia also acquired the Maritime Province (including the
Amur and Usuri regions and Vladivostok) from China in 1860. In return for helping
China recover the Laiodong Peninsula from Japan, Russia gained the right to build rail-
ways in Manchuria, leading to the construction of the Chinese Eastern Railway linking
Chita and Vladivostok through Manchuria. Russia also gained the lease of Dalian (now
named Dal’nyj, literally meaning “Far” in Russian) and Lushun from China. Russia
built railways linking these cities to Harbin and thereby to the Trans-Siberian Railway
via the Chinese Eastern Railway. Northeastern China thus came under de facto Russian
control. At the same time, Russia sought to extend its control further to Korea, which
Japan interpreted as an explicit and direct threat to its own interests and security.1 Orlando Figes,The Crimean War: A History(New York: Metropolitan Books, 2010), 453-56.©2016 Hiroaki Kuromiya and Georges Mamoulia
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