21. RUSSO-JAPANESE WAR. Causes of the War.—The Russo-Japanese War was caused by the conflict of interests between the two nations owing to the pursuance by Russia of a policy of expansion do the Far East.
Commencing the colonization of Siberia from the latter part of the 16th century, Russia stead ily advanced toward the East, until after about a century she succeeded in the subjugation of nearly the whole of that vast region. She then advanced into Manchuria, with the result that China objected to her action and the Nertchinsk Treaty, by which the boundary line between the two countries was fixed, was concluded on 27 Aug. 1689. By virtue of this treaty, Russia had to withdraw from the Amur region, which she had occupied, and was checked from seeking an outlet on the Pacific coast for about a cen tury and a half. This did not mean, however, that Russia abandoned her Eastern policy, and with the appointment of Muravieff to the gov ernorship of eastern Siberia in 1847, she began to move toward the southeast, and by way of the Amur at last reached the Sea of Okotsk. On 16 May 1854, she concluded the Treaty of Aigun with China, by which she annexed the district to the north of the Amur. Two years after, when China was invaded by the allied troops of Great Britain and France, General Ignatieff, the then Russian Ambassador at Pe king, took the opportunity to win the good will of the Chinese government by intervening be tween China and her enemies. In return for this service, the Treaty of Peking was signed on 2 Nov. 1860, by which Russia took posses sion of the district east of the Usuri, and thus for the first time in her history expanded her dominion to the coast washed by the Sea of Japan. She now founded the city of Vladivos tock, which she made the basis for carrying-out her long-cherished Far Eastern policy.
But as the long distance between Saint Petersburg and Vladivostock proved impeditive in many ways to the successful realization of her scheme, Russia determined to connect the two cities by rail. Thus the construction of the Siberian Railway was commenced in May 1891 and finished about 10 years later. Russia now found herself in possession of a powerful in strument in realizing her but she was not satisfied, for being ice-bound in winter Vladivostock was not suited to her commercial and strategical purposes. Russia, therefore, wished to get an ice-free port somewhere in the south and waited for an opportunity to at tain that object.
In 1894 the Japan-China War broke out and in the following year, by the Treaty of Shimo noseki, China agreed to cede to Japan the Liao tung Peninsula. Seeing in this a great obstacle
to the pursuance of her policy, Russia, backed by Germany and France, coerced Japan to re turn the Liaotung Peninsula to its original owner, which act of Russia was viewed by the Japanese people with anything but gratitude.
In 1896 Russia signed a secret treaty, the celebrated Cassini Treaty, with China, by which she obtained the privilege of constructing rail ways in Manchuria. She founded the Eastern Chinese Railway Company, and immediately set herself to the work of building railways in that region. In December 1897, she took an other decided step forward. She occupied Port Arthur and Talien, the very places from which she had ousted Japan, dbtained the formal lease of the two ports from China on 27 March of the following year, and immediately began to equip them with armaments.
In 1900 the Boxer rising took place in China, which was quelled by the allied troops of the Western Powers and Japan. Russia, which had now completed her two lines of rail way in Manchuria, seized the opportunity to send out a large force to that region on the pretext of guarding the railway, and after the Boxer disturbances were over refused to with draw her troops. Thus she not only continued the practical occupation of Manchuria, but, gradually increasing pressure on Korea by en croaching on the Yalu as well as by diplomacy in Seoul, menaced most seriously the indepen dence of that kingdom. As a matter of fact, Russia's ambition on Korea was not a new thing. After the conclusion of the Japan-China War, M. Waeber, the then Russian Minister at Seoul, left nothing undone to extend Russia's influence in the Korean court by utilizing the anti-Japanese faction. Subsequently, M. Speyer, who succeeded M. Waeber as the representative of Russia in Korea, attempted to get practical control over the financial and military power of that country. This attempt, however, was frustrated owing to a strong protest made by Japan and Great Britain. During the years following the Japan-China War, no less than three agreements had been arrived at between Russia and Japan, and at last it looked as if Russia was going to slacken her pace. As soon, however, as her plans were matured in Man churia, her activities again began to show themselves in Korea, in many cases completely ignoring the agreements above referred to.