Russo-japanese war 1904-05

• Start of the Russo-japanese war

  • Russia wanted to expand their empire and they had designs on the chinese province of Manchuria
  • Russia's rival influence in Manchuria was Japan and the relations between countries became intense
  • After Japan won the Sino-Japanese war over china it aimed to seize Port Arthur but was forced to back-pedal
  • In 1989, Russia arm-twisted china giving it power over Port Arthur which infuriated Japan
  • Negotiations failed and in early 1904 Japan attacked
• Manchuria


  The attractions of Manchuria were its mineral wealth and the 'warm water' sea port at Port Arthur, which was open all year round (vladivostok, Russia's main Pacific seaport, was iced over in winter)
• Russia in war

  In 1904 Russia went to war under-prepared and over-confident. Nicholas and his advisors viewed Japan as racial inferiors who would be easily swatted aside. Interior Minister Plehve claimed that it would be a 'short, victorious war'
• Russia's humiliating reverses

  • Japan laid siege to Port Arthur and in January 1905 it surrendered
  • Feb 1905 Russian land forces lost a major battle at Mukden
  • May 1905 Russia's defeat at the naval battle of Tsushima was its most humiliating defeat. With Russia's main naval force trapped in Port Arthur Nicholas ordered Russia's Baltic fleet to sail around the world to battle Japan and after 8 month voyage it was annihilated with only a handful of its 52 warships intact
  • Treaty of Portsmouth ended the war Russia agreed to abandon Port Arthur and ambitions
• Russo-Japanese war effect on the political situation

  • Liberal opinion was angered by the mishandling of the war and its hostility towards the regime intensified
  • Aware that the military failure left the regime wounded and vulnerable, liberals challenged it more boldly. The league of liberation's banquet campaign (late 1904) reflected this new assertiveness
  • Economic life was disrupted. Unemployment and inflation was on the rise and the working-class were discontent