ABSTRACT
The first decade of the twentieth century set the pattern, in several respects, for the next forty years. The annexation of the Philippines that resulted from the Spanish-American War of 1898 marked the emergence of the United States as a future world power. It coincided with Japan's protection and extension of its interests on the Asian mainland, beginning with the war with China and the war against Russia and continuing with the annexation of Korea. In the summer of 1899 John Hay and his colleagues prepared the Open Door notes and presented them to the powers. Shortly afterwards the Boxer rebellion, a nationalist movement in reaction to pressures from foreign powers, began in China. When the Russo-Japanese War began the United States took a favourable view of Japan, which was seen as a small power fighting the despotic Tsarist Empire and defending Manchuria from Russian penetration.
