How did the world powers compete in northeast China after the Russo-Japanese War?

The beautiful and rich northeast makes the world powers, especially Japan and Russia, drool. And the earliest is China's neighbor-Russian. As early as after the Opium War, they extended their talons to the northeast of China and Xinjiang, and tried their best to occupy a large number of territories in China. After Japan's victory in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, it couldn't wait to reach out to the northeast of China. At that time, Russia regarded the northeast as the meat in its bowl. Therefore, the conflict of interests between Japan and Russia in the northeast of China is irreconcilable and must be resolved by fighting a war.

Why did Japan have the confidence to fight against Russia, which was so arrogant in the world at that time, but finally won because of the support of one of the best British empires in the world? At that time, the main body of world competition was Britain and Russia, and other countries could not rely on it. Russia wants to break through the British blockade on the southern edge of Eurasia and open up a breakthrough to the Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean.

British geographer and geographer Mackinder knew all about Russian intentions. On the eve of the Russo-Japanese War, at a meeting of the Royal Geographical Society, he solemnly reminded the British high-level officials that Russia had taken control of the center of Eurasia, occupied the hub of Eurasia, profoundly changed the geopolitical pattern of Eurasia, and was threatening the British colonial chain formed along the southern edge of Eurasia.

At that time, the competition between Britain and Russia from west to east was mainly Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan and Northeast Asia. Russia's most proud idea is to be able to break through Iran and directly enter the Indian Ocean, threatening the strategic security of India, the largest British colony at that time, and at the same time realizing the "will of Peter I". As we all know, India was very important to Britain at that time, so Britain was very worried about the rise of Russia.

Nevertheless, Britain has not been idle, and has begun to infiltrate into China and Tibet. The invasion plan is being stepped up, and Russian forces have already extended to Xinjiang. Russia tried to infiltrate Tibet, while Britain tried to continue to expand into Xinjiang to ensure India's security. In this case, in order to protect their respective interests, Britain and Russia conspired to reach an agreement through negotiations, that is, while ensuring that both sides recognized each other's interests, Russia gave up its infiltration in Tibet and Britain stopped its expansion in Xinjiang, so as to live in peace. In particular, let Britain no longer worry about the security of India.

At that time, Britain was worried that the strong rise of Germany would have a serious impact on the balance of the European continent, and had no time to take care of the northeast of China, so it had to support Japan's long-coveted penetration into the northeast of China and set obstacles for Russian forces to go south. Thus, Britain and Japan formed an alliance to deal with and contain Russia. Britain provided a large amount of loans to Japan to support Japan's attack on Russia. Japan really lived up to Britain's expectations, defeated Russia in the Russo-Japanese War, and curbed the momentum of Russia going south through the northeast. After the war, under the mediation of the United States, Japan seized the Northeast from Russia and wanted to completely turn it into a new colony. At that time, the Qing government was too weak to stop it, so there was a scene in which China and North Korea fought on land, while the Japanese government declared neutrality.

Although Russia was defeated in the Russo-Japanese War, it still cannot be underestimated in maintaining the balance of power in Europe. At that time, Germany had risen strongly in the European continent. In the face of huge military pressure from Germany, France had no confidence to fight against Germany independently. Therefore, in order to deal with the attack from Germany, France must unite with Russia to attack Germany, so that Germany will fall into the unfavorable situation of fighting on the east and west lines and eventually defeat Germany. For Britain, if Germany beats France, it will become an absolute power on the European continent, and the balance of power policy pursued by Britain will fail. So Britain and France were undoubtedly allies against Germany at that time.

At the same time, as the United States won the Spanish-American War with Spain, its expansion in the Pacific was fettered by Japan. In addition, at that time, the United States did not have enough power to directly participate in the affairs of the Northeast, so it always adhered to the open door policy and asked the Qing government to open ports in the Northeast to ensure that it also benefited from it. Therefore, the United States also prevents Japan from monopolizing the Northeast.

After the Russo-Japanese War, Russia first asked France to stand with itself, pressured Britain to change its East Asia policy of supporting Japan, and * * * pressured Japan to give up its occupation of Northeast China. At this time, Britain was not without worries. It was also worried that the Japanese occupation of northeast China would cause the balance in East Asia, thus threatening its own interests in China.

In the end, Britain, France and the United States intervened together for their own interests, which made Japan give up the idea of monopolizing the Northeast. At this point, a temporary balance was reached among the powers, and then Britain, France, Russia, Germany and the United States were very active in plundering the resources in northeast China, trying to profit from them.

After the Russo-Japanese War, Japan and Russia respectively accelerated their immigration to the south and north of northeast China. Germany and the United States want to obtain the right to develop some mineral resources in the northeast on the condition of providing loans to the Qing government to develop the northeast.

Japan's victory in the Russo-Japanese War made the powers realize Japan's status as a powerful country in East Asia. Therefore, in East Asia and the Pacific, Britain and Japan are often on the same side, but the United States chooses to support China more often to prevent China from being monopolized by Japan and harming its interests.

This is the basic framework for the United States to adhere to its China policy for nearly half a century, and strive to safeguard China's sovereignty and integrity, so as to contain the Japanese and maintain the balance of power in East Asia. The Washington Disarmament Conference after World War I and the Japanese attitude towards the United States after the September 18th Incident in Northeast China fully demonstrated this strategy of the United States.