Entry of the Western powers The conditions imposed by Japan on China led to the
Triple Intervention of Russia, France, and Germany, western powers all active in China, with established enclaves and ports, just six days after its signing. They demanded that Japan withdraw its claim on the
Liaodong Peninsula, concerned that
Lüshun, then called Port Arthur by Westerners, would fall under Japanese control. Tsar
Nicholas II of Russia (an ally of France) and his imperial advisors, including Kaiser
Wilhelm II of Germany, had designs on Port Arthur, which could serve as Russia's long sought-after 'ice-free' port. , 8 November 1895 Under threat of war from three Western political powers, in November 1895, Japan — a weaker emerging nation not yet perceived as even a regional power — returned control of the territory and withdrew its
de jure claim on the
Liaodong Peninsula in return for an increased war indemnity from China of 30 million
Taels. At that time, the European powers were not concerned with any of the other conditions, or the free hand Japan had been granted in Korea under the other terms of the Treaty of Shimonoseki. This would prove to be a mistake, as Japan would end up occupying Korea by 1905 and expand into Russia's sphere of influence with the
Russo-Japanese War, and then encroach upon Germany's port in
Shandong during World War I. Within months after Japan returned the Liaodong peninsula, Russia started construction on the peninsula and a railway to Harbin from
Port Arthur, despite Chinese protests. Eventually, Russia agreed to offer a diplomatic solution (See
Russian Dalian) to the Chinese Empire, and agreed to a token lease of the region to save face, instead of annexing
Manchuria outright, which was its effect. Within two years, Germany, France, and Great Britain had similarly taken advantage of the economic and political opportunities in the weak Chinese Empire (See
Scramble for China), each taking control of significant local regions. Japan also took note of how the international community allowed the great powers to treat weaker nation states, and continued its remarkable measures to bootstrap itself into a modern industrial state and military power, with great success as it would demonstrate in the
Russo-Japanese War less than a decade later. In Taiwan, pro-Qing officials and elements of the local gentry declared a
Republic of Formosa in 1895, but failed to win international recognition. In China, the Treaty was considered a national humiliation by the bureaucracy and greatly weakened support for the Qing dynasty. The previous decades of the
Self-Strengthening Movement were considered to be a failure, and support grew for more radical changes in China's political and social systems which led to
Hundred Days' Reform in 1898. When the latter movement failed due to resistance from the Manchu nobility, a series of uprisings culminated in the fall of the Qing dynasty itself in 1911. The
Triple Intervention is regarded by many Japanese historians as being a crucial historic turning point in Japanese foreign affairs – from this point on, the nationalist, expansionist, and militant elements began to join ranks and steer Japan from a foreign policy based mainly on economic hegemony toward outright imperialism — a case of
the coerced turning increasingly
to coercion. Both the
Republic of China, now controlling Taiwan, and the
People's Republic of China, now controlling mainland China, consider the transfer of Taiwan to Japan to have been reversed by the
Instrument of Surrender of Japan. Additionally, the Treaty of Shimonoseki is allegedly nullified by the
Treaty of Taipei with the Republic of China. However, pro-independence activist
Ng Chiau-tong argues that the terms subject to nullification should be limited to those not entirely fulfilled yet, to the exclusion of the cession provision. The People's Republic of China does not recognize the Treaty of Taipei.
Prelude to war Russia wasted little time after the Triple Intervention to move men and materials down into the Liaodong to start building a railroad from both ends — Port Arthur and
Harbin, as it already had railway construction in progress across northern Manchuria to shorten the rail route to Russia's principal Pacific Ocean naval base at
Vladivostok, a port closed by ice four months of each year. Russia also improved the port facilities at Port Arthur and founded a commercial town nearby at Dalniy (modern-day
Dalian, which now encompasses Port Arthur as its
Lüshunkou District), before inking the
lease of the territory. When the de facto governance of Port Arthur and the Liaodong peninsula was granted de jure to Russia by China along with an increase in other rights she had obtained in
Manchuria (especially those in
Jilin and
Heilongjiang provinces) the construction of the 550 mile Southern spurline of the
Manchurian Railway was redoubled. Russia finally seemed to have gotten what the
Russian Empire had been wanting in its quest to become a global power since the reign of
Peter the Great. This ice-free natural harbor of Port Arthur/Lüshun would serve to make Russia a great
sea as well as the largest land power. Russia needed this
ice-free port to achieve world power status as it was tired of being blocked by the
balance of power politics in Europe (The Ottoman Empire and its allies had repeatedly frustrated Russian power fruition). However, the omission of the geopolitical reality in ignoring the free hand Japan had been granted by the Treaty (of Shimonoseki) with respect to Korea and Taiwan was short-sighted of Russia with respect to its strategic goals; to get to and maintain a strong point in Port Arthur Russia would have to dominate and control many additional hundreds of miles of Eastern Manchuria (the
Fengtian province of Imperial China, modern Jilin and Heilongjiang) up to Harbin. Japan had long considered the lands paralleling the whole Korean border as part of its strategic
sphere of influence. By leasing
Liaodong and railway concessions, Russia crashed its Sphere of Influence squarely into Japan's. This acted as a further goad to emerging Japanese anger at their disrespectful treatment by all the West. In the immediate fallout of the
Triple Intervention, Japanese popular resentment at Russia's deviousness and the perceived weakness of its own government caving in to foreign pressure led to riots in Tokyo. The disturbance almost brought down the government, as well as a strengthening of imperial and expansionist factions within Japan. The Russian spear into the sphere also brought about the ensuing struggle with Russia for dominance in Korea and Manchuria. These events eventually led to the
Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905 by a renewed and modernized Japanese military, which led to a major defeat for Russia that marked the beginning of the end for the Romanov dynasty. ==See also==