Lord Salisbury had famously pursued a policy of 'splendid isolation' during his time as Foreign Secretary, but in 1900, this Prime Minister handed over the post to Lord Lansdowne. Both Britain and Japan were uneasy at Russian expansionism, and the Japanese minister in London, Hayashi Tadasu, opened negotiations with Lansdowne over the possibility of an Anglo-Japanese alliance to add to their extant 1894 commercial treaty. The treaty showed mutual opposition to the Russian invasion of Manchuria, aided British trade interests in China, and was a major source of national pride for Japan: this was the first treaty signed between a European and a non-Western power against another Western one. Although it was not due for renewal until 1907, …

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Citation: Editors, Litencyc. "Anglo-Japanese alliance renewed for ten years". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 30 August 2013 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=11785, accessed 23 November 2024.]