Treaty of Portsmouth (1905): Ending the Russo-Japanese War

The Treaty of Portsmouth, signed on 5 September 1905, ended the Russo-Japanese War between the Russian Empire and Japan. Negotiated in New England under the mediation of US President Theodore Roosevelt, it confirmed Japan’s victory, gave it control over Korea and a foothold in southern Manchuria, and marked the first time in the modern era that an Asian power had defeated a European great power in a major war.

Background: a war neither side could continue

The Russo-Japanese War began in February 1904, when Japan attacked the Russian Pacific squadron at Port Arthur on the Liaodong Peninsula. The two empires were rivals for influence in Korea and Manchuria, a region of northeast China that Russia had been penetrating with railways and leased territory since the 1890s.

Japan won a series of costly victories on land and sea. Port Arthur fell in January 1905 after a long siege, the Japanese army forced the Russians back at the Battle of Mukden in February and March, and in May 1905 Admiral Togo Heihachiro destroyed Russia’s Baltic Fleet at the Battle of Tsushima.

Yet Japan was exhausted. It had borrowed heavily abroad, its manpower reserves were stretched, and Russia still had large armies in Manchuria that it could reinforce along the Trans-Siberian Railway. Russia, for its part, faced mass strikes, mutinies and peasant unrest at home during the Russian Revolution of 1905. Both governments had good reasons to seek a way out.

Roosevelt’s mediation

After Tsushima, Japan quietly asked Theodore Roosevelt to act as a mediator. Roosevelt wanted to end the war before either side became dominant in East Asia, believing a balance between Russia and Japan served American interests in the Pacific and in China’s “Open Door” for trade. On 8 June 1905 he formally invited both governments to open talks, and both accepted.

Portsmouth, New Hampshire, was chosen partly because its summer climate was cooler than Washington’s. Roosevelt received the two delegations aboard the presidential yacht Mayflower at Oyster Bay, New York, on 5 August 1905, carefully arranging a buffet lunch so that no one could be insulted by the order of seating. The delegates then sailed to Portsmouth, and formal talks began at the navy yard on 9 August.

Roosevelt never attended the sessions himself. He worked behind the scenes by letter, telegram and private envoys, pressing Tokyo to moderate its demands and lobbying Tsar Nicholas II, partly through the German emperor Wilhelm II, to accept a compromise.

The negotiations

Japan’s opening terms included recognition of its control over Korea, the transfer of Russia’s Liaodong lease and Manchurian railway rights, the cession of all of Sakhalin island (which Japanese troops had occupied in July 1905), limits on Russian naval power in the Pacific and a large war indemnity.

Sergei Witte, the former Russian finance minister who led his country’s delegation, accepted most of the points about Korea and Manchuria but refused to pay any indemnity or give up territory on principle. He argued that Russia had not been decisively beaten and could fight on. Witte also proved skilful with the American press, cultivating reporters and presenting Russia as the reasonable party.

The talks nearly collapsed in late August over money and Sakhalin. On 29 August, under instructions from Tokyo, Komura Jutaro abandoned the demand for an indemnity in return for the southern half of Sakhalin. The treaty was signed on the afternoon of 5 September 1905.

Terms of the treaty

The treaty had 15 articles, with additional articles on military withdrawal and railway guards. Its main terms were:

• Russia recognised that Japan had “paramount political, military and economic interests” in Korea and would not interfere with Japanese measures there.
• Russia transferred to Japan its lease of the Kwantung territory on the Liaodong Peninsula, including Port Arthur and Dalny (Dalian), subject to China’s consent.
• Russia handed over the railway line from Changchun south to Port Arthur, which became the core of Japan’s South Manchuria Railway.
• Russia ceded Sakhalin south of the 50th parallel to Japan, and Japan received fishing rights along Russian coasts.
• Both armies were to evacuate Manchuria, except the leased territory, and restore it to Chinese administration.
• No indemnity was paid, although Russia reimbursed Japan for the upkeep of Russian prisoners of war.

China, on whose soil much of the war had been fought, was not a party to the talks. In December 1905 Japan pressed the Qing government to accept the transfer of Russia’s rights in Manchuria.

Key people

Theodore Roosevelt, US president from 1901 to 1909, was the mediator and the driving force behind the conference. Sergei Witte led the Russian side and was rewarded with the title of count, although critics mocked him as “Count Half-Sakhalin”. Roman Rosen, Russia’s ambassador in Washington, was his deputy.

Komura Jutaro, Japan’s foreign minister and a Harvard graduate, led the Japanese delegation. He was supported by Takahira Kogoro, Japan’s minister to the United States. Komura returned home to public fury and had to be protected by police.

Reaction and consequences

In Japan, where the public had expected much larger gains, news of the terms caused outrage. On 5 September 1905 a protest rally in Tokyo’s Hibiya Park turned into riots that lasted several days; police stations and a pro-government newspaper were attacked, 17 people died and the government declared martial law in Tokyo. The Katsura cabinet resigned a few months later.

In Russia, the treaty was seen as a relatively mild peace given the scale of the defeat. Witte’s success helped him become chairman of the Council of Ministers, and he played a central role in drafting the October Manifesto of 1905.

The treaty opened the way for Japan’s absorption of Korea. In November 1905 Japan forced the Korean Empire to accept a protectorate treaty, and five years later came the Japanese annexation of Korea. Japan’s position in southern Manchuria, built on the railway gained at Portsmouth, became a foundation for its later expansion in China.

Relations between Russia and Japan improved quickly. In a series of agreements from 1907 onwards they divided northern and southern Manchuria into spheres of influence. Relations between Japan and the United States, by contrast, grew more wary, partly because many Japanese blamed American pressure for the lack of an indemnity.

Timeline

• 1904, 8-9 February: Japan attacks the Russian squadron at Port Arthur; the Russo-Japanese War begins.
• 1905, 27-28 May: Japan destroys Russia’s Baltic Fleet at the Battle of Tsushima.
• 1905, 8 June: Theodore Roosevelt formally invites Russia and Japan to peace talks.
• 1905, 5 August: Roosevelt receives the delegations aboard the yacht Mayflower at Oyster Bay.
• 1905, 9 August: Formal negotiations open at the Portsmouth Navy Yard.
• 1905, 29 August: Japan drops its indemnity demand in exchange for southern Sakhalin.
• 1905, 5 September: The Treaty of Portsmouth is signed; riots break out in Tokyo.
• 1905, 25 November: Ratifications are exchanged in Washington.
• 1906, 10 December: Roosevelt is awarded the 1906 Nobel Peace Prize.

Legacy

Roosevelt’s Nobel Peace Prize, the first Nobel awarded to an American, made the Portsmouth conference a landmark in the history of American diplomacy. It showed the United States acting as a world power willing to mediate between other empires, well beyond its own hemisphere.

The treaty is also remembered in New Hampshire, which marks 5 September as Portsmouth Peace Treaty Day, and in Japan and Russia through exchanges between the cities involved. The conference table used at the signing is preserved at the Meiji Mura museum in Japan.

Why it matters

The Treaty of Portsmouth confirmed Japan’s rise as a great power and Russia’s humiliation in East Asia. It set Korea on the road to annexation, gave Japan its first foothold in Manchuria and brought the United States into great-power diplomacy, all with consequences that reached into the Second World War.