Port Arthur town of Knights of Round Table

and to seize control of the whole

Liaodong Peninsula as spoils of war. As part of the terms of the

1895 Treaty of Shimonoseki

concluding the war,

Japan was granted the

Liaodong Peninsula but had to cede back the territory when threatened jointly with

war by

France, Germany and Russia in what is called

the Triple Intervention of 1895.

This was seen as a great humiliation in Japan.

Two years later,

Russia

coerced a lease of the Liaodong from China

and gained

railroad right-of-way to join the

Liaodong Peninsula to the Chinese Eastern Railway with a line running

from

Port Arthur and nearby Dalny (Dalian)

to the Chinese city of

Harbin (see Kwantung Leased Territory),

and systematically began to fortify the town and harbor at

Port Arthur.

[Railway

Port Arthur + Dalny (Dalian)

to

Harbin

as Russian building railway was]

This railway

from

Port Arthur to Harbin

became

a southern branch of the

Chinese Eastern Railway

(^not to be confused with the

South Manchurian Railway,

the name of a company that undertook its management during the later Japanese period after 1905).

Tsar Nicholas II

believed this acquisition of a Pacific port would

enhance Russian security,

and extend its economic influence.

Tsar Nicholas II

was also falsely informed that the

British were considering seizing the port.

All this was an additional goad to an already seething Japan. It was a hard lesson in international geopolitics Japan would not soon forget.

The Russian town of

Dalny (Dalien/Dalian) was undeveloped in this era

prior to 1898

when the

Russian Tsar Nicholas II

founded the town of Dalny (sometimes Dalney).

In 1902,

the Russian viceroy

de-emphasized

Dalny

(building

a palace

and cultural edifices

instead at Port Arthur),

except as a commercial port while continuing the development of manufacturing.

Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905)

Ten years later

Port Arthur

again played a central role in war in the Far East.

It is fair to say that at its heart,

the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905)

was an extended battle for the possession of

Port Arthur

and the railway to it, the Southern Manchurian Railway.

After the Boxer Rebellion (1900-01)

had been extinguished by

an international coalition of troops,

Russia

refused to withdraw its reinforcements from Manchuria and instead began to fortify and garrison the entire route along the Southern Manchurian Railway.

With this development,

Japan

proposed the two powers meet and discuss their respective roles in eastern Manchuria,

as the area was considered a portion of their respective spheres of influence.

Talks were conducted between 1902 and 1904.

While numerous proposals and agreement papers were generated between the two powers,

Russia

continued the

de facto

annexation of territory through fortification and garrison,

if not

de jure

while employing stalling tactics in its negotiations.

In the end, with over two years of intensive bilateral negotiations having gotten nowhere in clarifying each country's rights, prerogatives, and interests in inner Manchuria,

Japan

declared war on Russia

in February 1904." (from Wikipedia)

The Battle of Port Arthur

"The Battle of Port Arthur,

the opening battle of the Russo-Japanese War,

was fought in the heavily fortified harbor of the town of

Port Arthur/L"ushun [Lyushun, Lushun. Loushun]

on 9 February 1904

when the

Japanese attacked at night with torpedoes,

followed by a brief daylight skirmish by major surface combatants.

By the end of July 1904,

the Japanese army had pushed down the

Liaodong peninsula

and was at the outer defenses of

Port Arthur.

The fact that Japanese forces

had closed to within artillery range of the harbor

in early August 1904

led directly to the

naval Battle of the Yellow Sea

which solidified Japan's command of the sea,

where her fleets continued to blockade the harbor.

Virtually all the battles of

the war

until July 1904

were strategic battles for territorial gain or position leading to the investment and siege of the port city.

The port

Port Arthur

eventually fell 2 January 1905

after a long train of battles on land and sea during which the Japanese occupied the whole of the Korean Peninsula, split the Russian Army, devastated the Russian Fleet, and cut off the source of supplies on the railway from Harbin, culminating

in the bloody battle