Question

How did the Russo Japanese war make the US more powerful?

Answer 1

Hint: Russia and Japan have historically been imperialist ambitious nations trying to gain control over Asia, specifically China. The Russo Japanese war in 1904-05 was fought to gain dominance over Manchuria in China and Korea.

Complete answer: Russia, being a geographically cold region, had immense need of acquiring warm water ports for its fleets to be able to sail and for unhindered trade. Port Arthur was the warm water port that both Russia and Japan wanted to occupy. But they could not take control over Manchuria. So the region was handed back to China.

America played the role of mediating the peace treaty between the two countries. This was the first moment when the interests of America in the region of Asia were explicitly seen. The growing unrest in Manchuria and the ability of America to be able to contain this showed the growing power of America.

After the 1905 Russian Revolution started changing the stage of international politics and Japan was involved in Korea. This gave space to America to step in the region and assert its identity. This was helpful even during the World War but became the reason for attack on Pearl harbour by Japan to secure the regional dominance in this area while also protesting for the oil embargos America was placing against them.

Note: In the Russo Japanese war, Japan was the theoretical winner even though they both faced huge losses of their fleets. Even so Japan held the aspiration to dominate the Asian region and the intervention of America was seen as a threat to that aspiration.