. . . the Russo-Japanese War began. The first hostilities occurred roughly 3 hours prior to the Russian Empire receiving Japan\u2019s declaration of war, when the Japanese attacked the Russian naval base at Port Arthur. (At the time, an attack prior to a declaration of war was not contrary to international conventions or law.)<\/p>\n
The war confirmed Japan as the ascendant power in eastern Asia, and also showed that they were militarily competitive with European nations in terms of strategy, tactics, training, and equipment. The war also demonstrated many aspects of early 20th Century warfare \u2013 trench warfare and massive casualties due to automatic weapons and artillery among them.<\/p>\n
The war was ended by the Treaty of Portsmouth, brokered by US President Theodore Roosevelt. For this, Roosevelt received the 1906 Nobel Peace Prize.<\/p>\n
The long-term effects of the war were substantial. The financial strain imposed by rearmament (Russia lost most of two of its three fleets in the war, and afterwards was in naval terms on a par with Austria-Hungary vice the other major naval powers) played havoc with the late Russian Empire\u2019s finances.\u00a0 This may have contributed indirectly to the abysmal performance of Russia\u2019s armed forces (and government in general) during World War I.<\/p>\n
For Japan, their successes may well have encouraged their later Imperial policies in eastern Asia, thus contributing indirectly to their eventual entry into World War II.\u00a0 (Japan fought on the allied side in World War I, but appear to have done so as a matter of convenience and to have used this participation as a convenient excuse to appropriate former German Pacific territories.) Further, the tactically indecisive but strategically successful attack on Port Arthur may have been the intellectual inspiration for the later Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.<\/p>\n
The Wikipedia article on the Russo-Japanese War<\/a><\/em> isn\u2019t bad. If you\u2019d like a brief but reasonable overview of this long-ago and largely forgotten \u2013 but important \u2013 war, it\u2019s worth a read.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"