Theodore Roosevelt Plays Peace Negotiator During the Age of Empires

In ‘This Week in History,’ European and Asian powers come to America to obtain a peace treaty, resulting in Roosevelt’s Nobel Peace Prize.

From Left: "The Man of the Hour," depicting Roosevelt as warrior in 1898 and peacemaker in 1905, settling war between Russia and Japan. (Right) Roosevelt's Nobel Peace Prize photo, 1906. Public Domain

Theodore Roosevelt was known for bold statements and bold actions. On Dec. 6, 1904, Roosevelt issued his Annual Message to both houses of Congress. In it was a bold and assertive statement that would inevitably require an equal form of action.

“The adherence of the United States to the Monroe Doctrine may force the United States, however reluctantly, in flagrant cases of such wrongdoing or impotence, to the exercise of an international police power.”

The Monroe Doctrine, which was first formulated before Congress by President James Monroe in 1823, was passive in nature. As a nation still growing in strength and in the early stages of westward expansion, the Monroe Doctrine was more of a strongly worded suggestion that European powers no longer attempt to colonize the Western Hemisphere. Over the decades, America’s strength and size grew and, with it, its ability to enforce its will on others, most notably against the Spanish at the end of the 19th century.

Roosevelt’s message, which became known as the Roosevelt Corollary, restricted action to the Western Hemisphere with a focus predominantly on Latin America. In a sense, the Monroe Doctrine was an adherence to George Washington’s 1796 Farewell Address that “it must be unwise in us to implicate ourselves by artificial ties in the ordinary vicissitudes of [Europe’s] politics, or the ordinary combinations and collisions of her friendships or enmities.” The Spanish-American War was a collision with a European power because of its presence in the Western Hemisphere. Roosevelt’s Corollary was both an adherence to the spirit of the Monroe Doctrine and an extension of it.

Engraving by the German Willy Stöwer depicting the blockade of Venezuelan ports in 1902. Public Domain

The reason for adding this 20th-century corollary to the 19th-century doctrine was because of ongoing issues between Latin American and European countries, highlighted during the  Venezuelan Crisis of 1902–1903.

Venezuela had defaulted on payments to its European creditors, leading Britain and Germany to send gunboats in 1902 to blockade it. The three countries ultimately requested Roosevelt to arbitrate the issue. He considered doing so, but finally convinced them to go through the Permanent Court of Arbitration located at The Hague. By February 1903, the crisis was finally resolved, mostly.

The Eastern Hemisphere Crisis

The following February another crisis erupted, but this time on the other side of the world in the Eastern Hemisphere. It involved an empire in decline and a nation on the rise, but would eventually lead to the involvement of the United States and Roosevelt.

The Sino-Japanese War of 1894–1895 demonstrated how quickly the Japanese were rising as an international power by defeating the crumbling Imperial China. The victory allowed the Japanese to seize Korea, which had long been a tributary state of China; the island of Formosa (today’s Taiwan); and the Liaodong Peninsula in southern Manchuria. Along with these concessions, the Treaty of Shimonoseki required that China pay 200 million taels of silver for war reparations, as well as sign unequal trade agreements.

The results of the war came to the attention of three other imperial powers: France, Germany and Russia. The three collaborated to form the Triple Intervention, ultimately forcing Japan to relinquish its gains outside of Korea. Russia, on the other hand, gained land concessions from China without having to go to war. The concessions were in the areas which had briefly belonged to Japan—northern Manchuria and two ports, Dairen and Port Arthur, on the Liaodong Peninsula.

The Japanese government believed the Russian Empire extended too close to its new territory in Korea, and therefore viewed the proximity as a security threat. There was also understandable indignation toward the Europeans for their refusal to accept Japan as an international power. Over the course of the following years, the Japanese attempted to negotiate with the Russians, specifically regarding its interests in Korea and for equal standing in China. The Russians were dismissive of the Japanese.

The Russo-Japanese War

On Feb. 6, 1904, the Japanese severed diplomatic relations with Russia. The following day, Robert McCormick, the U.S. ambassador to Russia, telegrammed Secretary of State John Hay, informing him of the deteriorated Russo-Japanese relations. Although no official reply from Russia had been received by the Japanese, the Russians conveyed they required a “guaranty of Korean integrity, free and unfortified passage through the straits between Korea and Japan, the neutral zone in Korea as already defined, [and] no stipulations concerning Manchuria.” The demands were untenable for Japan. War was in the offing.

On Feb. 8, the Japanese navy, led by Adm. Togo Heihachiro, conducted a sneak attack on Port Arthur, the strategic warm-water port Russia gained from China. Simultaneously, the Japanese landed troops in Korea and marched to the Yalu River—the natural border separating Korea from China. The day following this attack, Japan officially declared war on Russia.

Bombardment during the siege of Port Arthur. Public Domain

On Feb. 11, President Roosevelt issued a proclamation stating America’s neutrality in the conflict, noting that “the United States are on terms of friendship and amity with both the contending powers.” This “friendship and amity” would prove beneficial but not until the Russo-Japanese War continued for more than a year.

The Japanese secured a string of victories, demonstrating its meteoric rise as a new international power and as the seemingly incontrovertible power in Asia. Russia, on the other hand, appeared to be an empire on the decline, as it suffered defeat after defeat, none more debilitating than at the naval battle of Tsushima, which witnessed the destruction of its Russian Baltic Fleet in late May 1905.

In Steps Roosevelt

President Roosevelt, who was a strong proponent of naval power, was torn about the Japanese successes. He was “thoroughly well pleased with the Japanese victory” at Port Arthur which humbled the Russians. A year later, however, he was worried the Japanese empire would expand its sphere of influence into its own national interests, specifically the Philippines, a territory America had obtained after the Spanish-American War. Luckily for the Americans, the Japanese, despite the triumphs, were exhausting their resources beyond their limits.

The Japanese requested Roosevelt mediate a peace conference between the two belligerents. In August, Roosevelt hosted diplomats from both countries in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Aside from the opening ceremonial lunch, Roosevelt was rarely present during the peace negotiations. The Japanese and Russian representatives, mediated by the Americans, centered on two facets: a war indemnity and territory. Japan, as victor, believed Russia should pay the war cost, and that the Sakhalin Island, as well as ports and areas in Manchuria and Korea, should belong to them. The Russians refused to pay any sort of indemnity and wanted to maintain control of the strategic island.

Negotiating the Treaty of Portsmouth (1905). The Russians are at the far side of the table and the Japanese at the near side. The large conference table is today preserved at the Museum Meiji-mura in Inuyama, Aichi Prefecture, Japan. Public Domain

Roosevelt suggested a compromise that Russia “buy back” the northern section of Sakhalin Island. This would enable Russia to maintain its presence in the region and Japan would receive what would ultimately be an indemnity. The Russians refused.

While Roosevelt praised the Japanese, he fumed over the Russians. “No human beings, black, yellow or white could be quite as untruthful, as insincere, as arrogant—in short, as untrustworthy in every way—as the Russians.”

As both countries had exhausted their resources and were practically incapable of continuing the war, the two reached a compromise on Sept. 5, 1905, by signing the Treaty of Portsmouth. The treaty split Sakhalin Island with the Russians taking the north and the Japanese the south. Russia did not have to pay war costs and Japan retained its hold on Korea as well as southern Manchuria, including Port Arthur.

“This is magnificent,” Roosevelt stated regarding the compromise. “It’s a mighty good thing for Russia, and a mighty good thing for Japan. And a mighty good thing for me, too.”

Directions of Three Separate Empires

The Russians and the Japanese had their complaints about the conclusion—the Russians concerning losing half of Sakhalin Island and the Japanese concerning not receiving an indemnity. The war had come to an end, and Roosevelt appeared to be a significant reason for its resolution. It was during this week in history, on Dec. 10, 1906, that Roosevelt was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize “for his role in bringing to an end the bloody war recently waged between two of the world’s great powers, Japan and Russia.” He was the first American to be awarded a Nobel Prize of any kind.

Newspaper clipping of a cartoon showing the Norwegian Parliament dressed as Santa Claus delivering the Nobel Peace Prize in a Christmas stocking to Theodore Roosevelt in a child's body; with "big stick," sword, and rifle in the background. Library of Congress. Public Domain

Over the course of the following decade, the Russian Empire continued its decline while Japan continued its rise. By the end of World War I, Imperial Russia had fallen into revolution, which forced it out of the war. Consumed by bloodshed and internal strife, Russia witnessed the murder of the Tsar family and the rise of the Bolsheviks. Japan, on the other hand, as a member of the Allied Powers, found itself a beneficiary of the conflict, where it retained its territorial possessions and gained others. America became a leading global power by the end of WWI, though it quickly retracted into a form of isolationism, preferring a position closer to Washington’s Farewell Address. That position would hold until Japan conducted a familiar move: a sneak attack. Also during this week in history, Imperial Japan thrust America into World War II when it attacked the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor (interestingly during another Roosevelt’s presidency).

The results of WWII witnessed Japan’s loss of its territories, including Korea, which was split in half along the 38th parallel. America’s defeat of Japan was total, and the American military occupied Japan from 1945 until 1952. The Russians labeled themselves Soviets, and though allies of the Americans during WWII, the division between democracy and communism gave way to a near 50-year conflict between the two empires called the Cold War.

America’s intervention now reached far beyond the Western Hemisphere as it became the leading power in the world and ultimately took on the role of Roosevelt’s bold description of an “international police power.”

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