Triple Intervention

[1] Per the terms of the Treaty of Shimonoseki, Japan was awarded the Liaodong Peninsula including the harbor city of Port Arthur, which it had conquered from China.

Russia persuaded France and Germany to apply diplomatic pressure on Japan for the return of the territory to China in exchange for a larger indemnity.

The construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway and the acquisition of a warm-water port would enable Russia to consolidate its presence in the region and further expand into Asia and the Pacific.

[citation needed] The Japanese government reluctantly acceded to the intervention, as British and American diplomatic intercession was not forthcoming, and Japan was in no position to militarily resist three major European powers simultaneously.

France and even Great Britain took advantage of a weakened China to seize the port cities of Guangzhouwan and Weihaiwei, respectively, on various pretexts and to expand their spheres of influence.

For modern Japan, this ideology meant an increase in heavy industry and the strength of the armed forces, especially the navy, at the expense of individual wants and needs.

It led directly to the Anglo-Japanese Alliance of 1902 which was explicitly intended to shield Japan from interference from other European great powers, and from Russia in particular.