Sarah Paine

They thought they'd get it back later.

So Russia gets all this stuff, does exactly nothing because we know about the treaty port system and the British and French got all of it and Russia got this stuff too.

Once Russia gets this stuff, that's why they want the railway because they want to integrate it in there.

So the Trans-Siberian Railway is the blue thing, but understand that the blue part that's above the green part

That wasn't built until World War I. Russia builds the green part, which is the Chinese Eastern Railway, the name of it, in order to stake out its plans for empire.

And also notice it wants the warm water port, that's the orange part going down to Port Arthur, because Vladivostok, prior to the age of icebreakers, is frozen solid several months of the year.

So Russia's buildings, railways, save on construction costs is more direct going straight across Manchuria, contain Japan, stake out its claim to Manchuria.

The Japanese get it, right?

Well, that was earlier in this lecture.

They see this coming and they don't like it.

And then...

In addition, what's going on, the Chinese don't particularly like all the imperialists messing with their country.

And so the Boxers is another rebellion.

And these folks want all Westerners out of China and they want to kill any stragglers.

And they go into, they're all over China.

They go into Manchuria and the Russians send 100,000 troops, far more than any of the European powers or even Japan sends a lot.

to the rest of China to defeat the Boxers, which they do.

And then the other Westerners in Japan remove their troops.

Russia doesn't.

And this is the thing that gets Japan's attention because Russia's got 100,000 troops in Manchuria that won't leave.