1905 - Political Events

Political Events

Russian forces at Port Arthur surrender to Japanese infantry January 2 (see 1904) as St. Petersburg verges on revolution. The Japanese have lost 57,780 men in assaults on the fortified heights, the Russians 28,200. Gen. Kuropatkin receives reinforcements, as does Field Marshal Oyama, and the two sides resume fighting January 26 and 27 at the villages of Sandepu and Heikoutai 36 miles southwest of Mukden, Manchuria, with 300,000 Russians facing 220,000 Japanese. The encounter ends in a stalemate after the Russians have lost 20,000 men, the Japanese 9,000, but Kuropatkin has failed to regain the strategic initiative and the heavy losses leave his army demoralized.

A Russian revolution begins as news of the loss of Port Arthur and of "Bloody Sunday" incites the nation. A young priest, Father George Gapon, has led a peaceful workers' demonstration in front of the Winter Palace at St. Petersburg January 9 demanding freedom of expression and political reforms. Guards machine-gunned the demonstrators on orders from the czar (who was out of town). Revolutionary terrorists at Moscow murder the Grand Duke Serge, uncle of the czar, February 4, and peasants seize their landlords' land, crops, and livestock. Russian sailors aboard the armored cruiser Potemkin mutiny in July at Odessa, a general strike is called in October, and Nicholas II is obliged October 17 to placate the people by granting a constitution, establishing the nation's first representative assembly (the Duma), and acceding to civil liberties (see Stolypin, 1906).

The Battle of Mukden from February 21 to March 10 pits about 276,000 Russians with 1,200 guns and 54 machine guns against about 207,000 Japanese with 1,000 guns and 254 machine guns. Political intrigue, inefficiency, and the uncertainties of supply at the end of the Trans-Siberian Railway handicap Gen. Kuropatkin, and his casualties total anywhere from 59,800 to 156,000, many if not most of them taken as prisoners of war. Five Japanese armies under the command of Field Marshal Oyama capture 60 to 70 Russian guns and large quantities of war materiél, sustaining anywhere from 53,500 to 70,000 casualties, almost all of them killed or wounded, but winning the battle as the Russians withdraw north to Tieling and Harbin.

The Battle of Tsushima Strait May 27 between Kyushu and Korea ends in victory for Admiral Togo, who arrays his ships 7,000 yards in front of a Russian fleet sent around the Cape of Good Hope to relieve Port Arthur. "Crossing the T" and bringing his guns to bear on one after the other; Togo orders his big guns to fire into the eight Russian battleships, 12 cruisers, and nine destroyers, most of which explode, capsize, or stop inside of 45 minutes (only two of the 33 Russian ships survive). This and other Japanese victories challenge the prevailing world notion that whites are somehow superior to other races.

President Roosevelt mediates the dispute between Russia and Japan, and a treaty of peace is signed September 5 at Portsmouth, N.H., after a month of deliberations in which Foreign Minister Jutaro Komura, 49, a Harvard Law School graduate, has represented Japan. Both nations agree to evacuate Manchuria; Russia cedes the southern half of Sakhalin Island, recognizes Japan's paramount interest in Korea, and transfers to Japan the lease of the Liaotung Peninsula and the railroad to Ch'angchun; but rioters at Tokyo protest the failure of Japanese diplomats to obtain an indemnity. Foreign minister Komura negotiates a new Anglo-Japanese alliance.

V. I. Lenin returns from exile and hails the workers' first Soviet (council) at St. Petersburg, which is headed by Leon Trotsky, but the czar withdraws his concessions one by one. The revolt begun December 9 under the leadership of the Moscow Soviet is violently repressed by Christmas, and the Duma will be suspended by June 1906 (see 1917; Lenin, 1903; Pravda, 1912). (Dates are Julian calendar dates—13 days behind those in the Gregorian calendar of 1582, which Russia will not use until January 31, 1918).

Norway obtains her independence from Sweden after 91 years of union and nearly 600 years of association with either Denmark or Sweden. A popular plebiscite August 13 ratifies a decision of the Storting, the Swedish Riksdag acquiesces September 24, and a treaty of separation is signed October 26. Denmark's Prince Charles, 33, is elected king of Norway, and he will reign until 1957 as Haakon VII. Arctic explorer Fridtjof Nansen has furthered the cause of independence and will serve as Norway's ambassador to London from 1906 to 1908.

The government of France's Emile Combes falls in the wake of "the affair of the cards of association" ("l'affaire des fiches de délation"). The militantly anticlerical general Louis André has been accused of receiving reports from Masonic groups on suspected reactionary and clerical army officers, the scandal arouses public indignation, and the Act of Separation adopted in December formally separates church and state (see 1902).

Austrian feminist and pacifist Bertha, Baroness von Suttner, receives the fifth Nobel Peace Prize. Now 62, she is the first woman peace Nobelist (there will not be another until 1931); her 1889 book Lay Down Your Arms (Die Waffen nieder) has been translated into many European languages.

Britain's Balfour ministry ends December 4 and the Liberals take over with a cabinet headed by Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, 69, who initiates a policy of self-government for the South African colonies (see 1910).

First Lord of the Admiralty William W. (Waldegrave) Palmer, 45, 2nd earl of Selborne, is appointed high commissioner for South Africa and governor of the Transvaal and Orange River Colony in May. A son-in-law of former prime minister Lord Salisbury, Selborne has headed the Admiralty since 1900 and helped initiate a rebuilding of the Royal Navy (see 1906); he will serve in his new post until 1910.

Maji-Maji warriors in Tanganyika, East Africa, rebel against German garrisons at the instigation of a religious leader who provides his followers with a mixture of water (maji in Swahili), castor oil, and millet seeds that will make them "invulnerable," the warriors attack Mahenge with cap guns, spears, and arrows, two German machine guns cut them down, the tribesmen flee, but a 5,000-man Ngoni army joins the revolt. A German force armed with machine guns marches out of Mahenge and attacks the Ngoni camp October 21, the insurrection will end by next year with great loss of life, but the superstition that magic can overcome superior weaponry will persist (see 1987).

U.S. occupation of the Dominican Republic (DR) ends March 28, but the DR will remain a U.S. protectorate until 1941 (see 1916). Anti-Imperialist League president George S. Boutwell has died at Groton, Conn., February 27 at age 87; former Cuban rebel commander-in-chief Máximo Gómez y Báez dies at Havana June 17 at age 68.

U.S. soldier-diplomat-author Lewis "Lew" Wallace dies at Crawfordville, Ind., February 15 at age 77; Sen. Orville H. Platt at Meriden, Conn., April 21 at age 77; Secretary of State John Hay at Newburg, N.H., July 1 at age 67.

Alberta and Saskatchewan join the Dominion of Canada as new provinces September 1 (see 1869).