Teddy Roosevelt and the Treaty of Portsmouth

E:\Kenny\School Files\political science\Rise and Fall of Great Powers

Kenneth Weinberger Prof. Taliaferro

12/1/2005 Final Paper

Teddy Roosevelt and the Treaty of Portsmouth

Japan and Russia were both exhausted from the Russo-Japanese War in June 1905 when the two nations separately asked the United States to host peace negotiations. The United States and President Theodore Roosevelt agreed and the Treaty of Portsmouth officially ended hostilities between the two nations. During the Portsmouth peace negotiations, President Roosevelt intervened against Japan, who had technically won the war. During the war, Japan conquered all of Korea and made good progress into Manchuria. Japan hoped that they would be able to keep all the territory that they conquered. They also hoped to receive indemnity in the form of monetary reparations from Russia in order to offset some of the war costs incurred by Japan domestically. To Japan’s dismay, the peace negotiations began with the elimination of the possibility for any Japanese territory in Manchuria. Further into the negotiations, Roosevelt made sure that Japan would not receive any monetary indemnity from Russia either.[1] This biased intervention was puzzling based on the US’s history of non-involvement in peace agreements among distant great powers.[2] It was also puzzling because, at the start of the war, the United States had unofficially sided with Japan. Why did the United States alter their desired outcome for the war? Answering this question will help to determine why this puzzling intervention occurred at all.

Several competing realist theories may offer good explanations for this puzzling behavior. Offensive realist theory would suggest that Roosevelt’s actions had underlying power maximization goals. This would have been an opportune time for the US to increase influence and gain economic opportunities in the region. Instead, I argue that balance of power...