ABSTRACT
The dominions of the Romanoffs in Europe and Asia grew by expansion in every direction from Moscow. In seeking outlets to the sea, the Russians made no jumps; hence the land over which their flag waved was all contiguous territory. Russian foreign policy ran afoul of Italy and Austria-Hungary in the Balkans, of all the great powers in the Ottoman Empire, of Great Britain in Persia and Afghanistan, of China and Japan in the Far East. Up to the closing decades of the nineteenth century, the efforts of Russia were directed principally against the integrity of the Ottoman Empire. A simple right of way across northern Manchuria, therefore, easily developed into successive demands at Peking for Russian control of all Manchuria, including the Liao-tung peninsula. Russian foreign policy in the Far East led from Vladivostok to Korea and Liao-tung.
