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 How European History merged into World History 579 to build forts there. Japan declared that Russia had repeatedly promised to withdraw her troops from Manchuria and had agreed that Korea should be independent. As the Tsar's government gave the Japanese no satisfaction, they boldly went to war with Russia in February, 1904. 1054. Russo-Japanese War. Japan was well prepared for war and was, moreover, within easy reach of the field of conflict. The Russian government, on the contrary, was corrupt and inefficient and was already engaged in a terrible struggle with the Russian people ( 1026). The eastern boundary of European Russia lay three thousand miles from Port Arthur, and the only means of communication was the single line of badly constructed railroad that stretched across Siberia to the Pacific. The Japanese laid siege to Port Arthur, and for months the world watched in suspense the deadly attacks which the Japanese made upon the Russian fortress. On January i, 1905, after a siege of seven months, Port Arthur surrendered. Russia, meanwhile, dispatched its Baltic squadron to the Orient. It arrived in May in the straits of Korea, where Admiral Togo was waiting for it. The Tsar's fleet was practically annihilated in a few hours, with terrible loss of life, while the Japanese came out of the conflict almost unscathed. 1055. Treaty of Portsmouth. Lest the war should drag on indefinitely, President Roosevelt, acting under the provisions of the Hague Convention, took measures which brought about a peace. The conference between the representatives of Japan and Russia was held at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and on Septem- ber 5 the Treaty of Portsmouth was signed. This recognized the Japanese influence as paramount in Korea, which, however, was to remain independent. 1 Both the Japanese and Russians were to evacuate Manchuria ; the Japanese were, nevertheless, given the rights in the Liaotung peninsula and Port Arthur which Russia had formerly enjoyed. 1 The Japanese have not left Korea independent. They immediately took control of the administration, and finally, by the treaty of August 23, 1910, Korea was annexed to the Japanese Empire.