![]() First, although he was not sorry that the Japanese had defeated and humiliated the haughty Russians, he did not want Japan’s victory to be so great that it upset the balance of power in East Asia. TR intervened in the faraway war for several reasons. The story of Roosevelt’s startling intrusion of himself into the rarified world of geopolitical diplomacy is wonderful, and quintessentially American. Theodore Roosevelt, “Citizenship in a Republic” at the Sorbonne in Paris on April 23, 1910. It was, in effect, the birth of the American Century. President Roosevelt’s diplomatic intervention was effectively the moment when the United States announced to the world that it was ready to join the handful of first-tier nations, even in the ancient art of diplomacy. Meanwhile, Japan’s treasury was exhausted, but it was stubbornly vowing to continue the war to achieve all of its territorial aims. ![]() The Japanese had shocked the world in its stunning victories: taking Port Arthur with little loss of life occupying the southern half of the contested island of Sakhalin annihilating Russia’s Baltic Fleet that had traveled all the way around the world to take on the Japanese navy. Russia wasn’t ready to give up, but it was badly beaten both on land and sea. (loc.gov)The Russian Empire and the Empire of Japan had been fighting a bloody war in the Far East for a couple of years, at great cost to both sides. ![]() Map of the Russo-Japanese War, with a chronological sequence of major events, on Jfrom The Hawaiian Gazette. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |