720 Ch. 18 • The Dominant Powers in the Age of Liberalism

Three Manchurian men crouch before the hulks of Russian ships sunk during the

Russo-Japanese War.

peninsula in southern Manchuria but was forced by Russia, Germany, and

France to return it.

Russia viewed the expansion of Japanese interests in the Far East with

concern. In 1898, Tsar Nicholas II (ruled 1894-1917) signed a treaty

with China and obtained a concession to build the Manchurian railway

and to construct a port at Port Arthur on the tip of the Liaodong peninsula,

providing a source of conflict between Japan and Russia. Japan, in turn,

signed a treaty in 1902 with Great Britain, Russia’s rival for influence in Af­

ghanistan. Britain would remain neutral if Japan and Russia went to war

against each other. But Britain would join Japan in any conflict that allied

Russia with any other power in a war against Japan.

In February 1904, Japanese torpedo boats launched a surprise attack on

the Russian fleet at Port Arthur, destroying a number of ships while the

Japanese army drove Russian forces away on land. In March 1905, Japan­

ese troops defeated the Russians in the bloody Battle of Mukden where,

for the first time, two armies faced each other across trenches dug for pro­

tection. Two months later, the Japanese navy pounced on the Russian fleet,

which had spent nine months at sea. The Battle of Tsushima ended with

nineteen Russian ships sunk, five captured, and six forced to neutral ports.

Only three ships of the Russian fleet reached Vladivostok.

How could the Russian Empire be defeated by a small island nation in

Asia? Only a single-track railway line stretching across thousands of miles