THE NATIONS SINCE 1871 403 cede the Philippines to the western republic. The Filipinos craved for independence, and a long and wearing guerilla war- fare ensued before they submitted to the American The supremacy. The war, however, definitely put an end Philippines, to the theory of a permanent dividing line between the powers of the Old and New Worlds. It was not only the acquisition of the Philippines which gave the United States an interest in the Pacific Ocean. They, as well as the European nations, were intimately concerned with the opening up of the two previously isolated eastern nations Japan and China. Steadily, systematically, and 5. japan scientifically, Japan set herself to learn everything and Cnina - that Europe could teach. Under the guidance of British naval officers, she created a navy j her army was educated by the Germans who had just displayed the extraordinary efficiency of their military methods in the Franco-Prussian war. China, on the other hand, continued to be deaf and blind, to reject, while pretending to adopt, all that the western barbarians had to offer j and it was with this great inert mass that Japan first came in conflict. The quarrel arose over Korea, a country which neither China nor Japan could afford to leave under control of the other The war broke out in 1894. The world was inclined to believe that China must inevitably overwhelm Japan ; the Japanese in fact had matters all their own way, chino- both by land and sea. They had never feared Japanese China ; what they did fear was that Russia would War " dominate China, and that when that happened Japan would be in danger. Their object was to dominate China themselves. But the treaty of Shimonoseki, which concluded the war, was not at all satisfactory to Russia — at that time on warm terms with France. Germany joined them in prohibiting Japan from appropriating the fruits of the contest. The practical outcome was that Russia herself got what the treaty had given to Japan. China had fallen into the clutches of the western powers, which were not satisfied with the recent partition of Africa. The murder of two German missionaries gave Germany The Boxer excuse for demanding and obtaining the ' lease [ of a Rebellion, considerable territory. Russia followed suit by procuring Port
