Conflict	Russo-Japanese War
Date	8 February 1904 – 5 September 1905
Place	Manchuria, Yellow Sea
Result	Japanese victory; Treaty of Portsmouth
Combatant1
Combatant2
Commander1	Tsar Nicholas II Aleksey Kuropatkin Stepan Makarov Zinovy Rozhestvensky
Commander2	Emperor Meiji Ōyama Iwao Nogi Maresuke Tōgō Heihachirō
Strength1	500,000
Strength2	300,000
Casualties1	34,000 – 52,623 killed and died of wounds 9,300 – 18,830 died of disease146,032 wounded74,369 captured50,688 deadweight loss
Casualties2	47,400 – 47,152 killed 11,424 – 11,500 died of wounds21,802 – 27,200 died of disease
Примечание	}}

The Russo-Japanese War (; Romaji: ''Nichi-Ro Sensō''; ''Russko-yaponskaya voyna''; , 8 February 1904 – 5 September 1905) was "the first great war of the 20th century" which grew out of the rival imperial ambitions of the Russian Empire and Japanese Empire over Manchuria and Korea. The major theatres of operations were Southern Manchuria, specifically the area around the Liaodong Peninsula and Mukden, the seas around Korea, Japan, and the Yellow Sea.

The Russians sought a warm water port on the Pacific Ocean, for their navy as well as for maritime trade. Vladivostok was only operational during the summer season, but Port Arthur would be operational all year. From the end of the First Sino-Japanese War and 1903, negotiations between Russia and Japan had proved impractical. Japan chose war to maintain dominance in Korea.

The resulting campaigns, in which the Japanese military attained victory over the Russian forces arrayed against them, were unexpected by world observers. As time transpired, these victories would transform the balance of power in East Asia, resulting in a reassessment of Japan's recent entry onto the world stage.

Origins of the Russo-Japanese war

After the Meiji Restoration in 1868, the Meiji government embarked on an endeavor to assimilate Western ideas, technological advances and customs. By the late 19th century, Japan had emerged from isolation and transformed itself into a modernized industrial state in less than half a century. The Japanese wished to preserve their sovereignty and to be recognized as an equal with the Western powers.

Russia, a major Imperial power, had ambitions in the East. By the 1890s it had extended its realm across Central Asia to Afghanistan, absorbing local states in the process. The Russian Empire stretched from Poland in the west to the Kamchatka peninsula in the East. With its construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway to the port of Vladivostok, Russia hoped to further consolidate its influence and presence in the region. This was precisely what Japan feared, as they regarded Korea (and to a lesser extent Manchuria) as a protective buffer.

Sino-Japanese War (1894–1895)

The Japanese government regarded Korea, which was close to Japan, as an essential part of its national security; Japan's population explosion and economic needs were also factored into Japanese foreign policy. At the very least, the Japanese wanted to keep Korea independent, if not under Japanese influence. Japan's subsequent victory over China during the First Sino-Japanese War led to the Treaty of Shimonoseki under which China abandoned its own suzerainty over Korea and ceded Taiwan, Pescadores and the Liaodong Peninsula (Port Arthur) to Japan.

However, the Russians, having their own ambitions in the region persuaded Germany and France to apply pressure on Japan. Through the Triple Intervention, Japan relinquished its claim on the Liaodong Peninsula for an increased financial indemnity.

Russian encroachment

In December 1897, a Russian fleet appeared off Port Arthur. After three months, in 1898, a convention was agreed between China and Russia by which Russia was leased Port Arthur, Talienwan and the surrounding waters. It was further agreed that the convention could be extended by mutual agreement. The Russians clearly believed that would be the case for they lost no time in occupation and in fortifying Port Arthur, their sole warm-water port on the Pacific coast, and of great strategic value. A year later, in order to consolidate their position, the Russians began a new railway from Harbin through Mukden to Port Arthur. The development of the railway was a contributory factor to the Boxer Rebellion and the railway stations at Tiehling and Lioyang were burned. The Russians also began to make inroads into Korea. By 1898 they had acquired mining and forestry concessions near Yalu and Tumen rivers, causing the Japanese much anxiety. Japan decided to strike before the Trans-Siberian Railway was complete.

The Boxer Rebellion

The Russians and the Japanese were both part of the eight member international force which was sent in 1900 to quell the Boxer Rebellion and to relieve the international legations under siege in the Chinese capital. As with other member nations, the Russians sent troops into Beijing. Russia had already sent 177,000 soldiers to Manchuria, nominally to protect its railways under construction. The troops of the Qing empire and the participants of the Boxer Rebellion could do nothing against this massive army. As a result, the Qing troops were ejected from Manchuria and the Russian troops settled in. Russia assured the other powers that it would vacate the area after the crisis. However, by 1903, the Russians had not yet established any timetable for withdrawal and had actually strengthened their position in Manchuria.

Pre-war negotiations

The Japanese statesman, Itō Hirobumi, started to negotiate with the Russians. He believed that Japan was too weak to evict Russia militarily, so he proposed giving Russia control over Manchuria in exchange for Japanese control of northern Korea. Meanwhile, Japan and Britain had signed the Anglo-Japanese Alliance in 1902, the British seeking to restrict naval competition by keeping the Russian Pacific seaports of Vladivostok and Port Arthur from their full use. The alliance with the British meant, in part, that if any nation allied itself with Russia during any war with Japan, then Britain would enter the war on Japan's side. Russia could no longer count on receiving help from either Germany or France without there being a danger of the British involvement with the war. With such an alliance, Japan felt free to commence hostilities, if necessary.

On 28 July 1903, the Japanese Minister in St. Petersburg was instructed to present his country's view opposing Russia's consolidation plans in Manchuria. On August 12, the Japanese minister handed on the following document to serve as the basis for further negotiations:

"1. Mutual engagement to respect the independence and territorial integrity of the Chinese and Korean Empires and to maintain the principle of equal opportunity for the commerce and industry of all nations in those countries.

2. Reciprocal recognition of Japan's preponderating interests in Korea and Russia's special interests in railway enterprises in Manchuria, and of the right of Japan to take in Korea and of Russia to take in Manchuria such measures as may be necessary for the protection of their respective interests as above defined, subject, however, to the provisions of Article I of this Agreement.

3. Reciprocal undertaking on the part of Russia and Japan not to impede development of those industrial and commercial activities respectively of Japan in Korea and of Russia in Manchuria, which are not inconsistent with the stipulations of Article I of this Agreement. Additional engagement on the part of Russia not to impede the eventual extension of the Korean railway into southern Manchuria so as to connect with the East China and Shan-hai-kwan-Newchwang lines.

4. Reciprocal engagement that in case it is found necessary to send troops by Japan to Korea, or by Russia to Manchuria, for the purpose either of protecting the interests mentioned in Article II of this Agreement, or of suppressing insurrection or disorder calculated to create international complications, the troops so sent are in no case to exceed the actual number required and are to be forthwith recalled as soon as their missions are accomplished.

5. Recognition on the part of Russia of the exclusive right of Japan to give advice and assistance in the interest of reform and good government in Korea, including necessary military assistance.

6. This Agreement to supplant all previous arrangements between Japan and Russia respecting Korea".

On October 3, the Russian Minister to Japan, Roman Rosen, presented to Japanese government the Russian counter-proposal as the basis of negotiations, as follows:

"1. Mutual engagement to respect the independence and territorial integrity of the Korean Empire.

2. Recognition by Russia of Japan's preponderating interests in Korea and of the right of Japan to give advice and assistance to Korea tending to improve the civil administration of the Empire without infringing the stipulations of Article I.

3. Engagement on the part of Russia not to impede the commercial and industrial undertakings of Japan in Korea, nor to oppose any measures taken for the purpose of protecting them so long as such measures do not infringe the stipulations of Article I.

4. Recognition of the right of Japan to send for the same purpose troops to Korea, with the knowledge of Russia, but their number not to exceed that actually required, and with the engagement on the part of Japan to recall such troops as soon as their mission is accomplished.

5. Mutual engagement not to use any part of the territory of Korea for strategical purposes nor to undertake on the coasts of Korea any military works capable of menacing the freedom of navigation in the Straits of Korea.

6. Mutual engagement to consider that part of the territory of Korea lying to the north of the 39th parallel as a neutral zone into which neither of the Contracting Parties shall introduce troops.

7. Recognition by Japan of Manchuria and its littoral as in all respects outside her sphere of interest.

8. This agreement to supplant all previous Agreements between Russia and Japan respecting Korea".

Negotiations followed and, on 13 January 1904, Japan proposed a formula by which Manchuria would be outside the Japanese sphere of influence and, reciprocally, Korea outside Russia's. By 4 February 1904, no formal reply had been received and on 6 February Kurino Shinichiro, the Japanese Minister, called on the Russian Foreign Minister, Count Lambsdorff, to take his leave. Japan severed diplomatic relations with Russia on 6 February 1904.

This situation arose from the determination of Tsar Nicholas II to use the war against Japan as a spark for the revival of Russian patriotism. His advisors did not support the war, foreseeing problems in transporting troops and supplies from European Russia to the East. This attitude by the Tsar led to repeated delays in negotiations with the Japanese government. The Japanese understanding of this can be seen from a telegram dated December 1, 1903 from Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Komura to the Minister to Russia, in which he stated:

"the Japanese Government have at all times during the progress of the negotiations made it a special point to give prompt answers to all propositions of the Russian Government. The negotiations have now been pending for no less than four months, and they have not yet reached a stage where the final issue can with certainty be predicted. In these circumstances the Japanese government cannot but regard with grave concern the situation for which the delays in negotiations are largely responsible".

The assertion that the Tsar intentionally dragged Japan into war in hopes of reviving Russian nationalism it is, however, disputed by Tsar Nicholas II's comment that "there will be no war because I do not wish it". This does not reject the claim that Russia played an aggressive role in the East, which it did, rather that Russia unwisely predicted that Japan would not go to war due to Russia's far larger and seemingly superior navy and army. Evidence of Russia's false sense of security and superiority to the Japanese is seen by their reference to the latter as an "infantile monkey".

Declaration of war

Japan issued a declaration of war on 8 February 1904. However, three hours before Japan's declaration of war was received by the Russian Government, the Imperial Japanese Navy attacked the Russian Far East Fleet at Port Arthur. Tsar Nicholas II was stunned by news of the attack. He could not believe that Japan would commit an act of war without a formal declaration, and had been assured by his ministers that the Japanese would not fight. Russia declared war on Japan eight days later. Japan shrewdly made reference to the Russian attack on Sweden in 1809 without declaration of war, and the requirement to declare war before commencing hostilities was not made international law until after the war had ended, in October 1907, effective from 26 January 1910. Montenegro also declared war against Japan as a gesture of moral support for Russia out of gratitude for Russian support in Montenegro's struggles against the Ottoman Empire. However, for reasons of logistics and distance, Montenegro's contribution to the war effort was limited to the presence of Montenegrins serving in the Russian armed forces. The Qing empire favoured the Japanese position and even offered military aid, but Japan declined it. However, Yuan Shikai sent envoys to Japanese generals several times to deliver foodstuffs and alcoholic drinks. Native Manchurians joined the war on both sides as hired troops.

Campaign of 1904

Port Arthur, on the Liaodong Peninsula in the south of Manchuria, had been fortified into a major naval base by the Imperial Russian Army. Since it needed to control the sea in order to fight a war on the Asian mainland, Japan's first military objective was to neutralize the Russian fleet at Port Arthur.

Battle of Port Arthur

On the night of 8 February 1904, the Japanese fleet under Admiral Togo Heihachiro opened the war with a surprise torpedo boat destroyer attack on the Russian ships at Port Arthur. The attack badly damaged the ''Tsesarevich'' and ''Retvizan,'' the heaviest battleships in Russia's far Eastern theater, and the 6,600 ton cruiser ''Pallada''. These attacks developed into the Battle of Port Arthur the next morning. A series of indecisive naval engagements followed, in which Admiral Togo was unable to attack the Russian fleet successfully as it was protected by the shore batteries of the harbor, and the Russians were reluctant to leave the harbor for the open seas, especially after the death of Admiral Stepan Osipovich Makarov on 13 April 1904.

However, these engagements provided cover for a Japanese landing near Incheon in Korea. From Incheon the Japanese occupied Seoul and then the rest of Korea. By the end of April, the Imperial Japanese Army under Kuroki Itei was ready to cross the Yalu river into Russian-occupied Manchuria.

Battle of Yalu River

In contrast to the Japanese strategy of rapidly gaining ground to control Manchuria, Russian strategy focused on fighting delaying actions to gain time for reinforcements to arrive via the long Trans-Siberian railway which was at the time incomplete near Irkutsk. On 1 May 1904, the Battle of Yalu River became the first major land battle of the war; Japanese troops stormed a Russian position after crossing the river. The defeat of the Russian Eastern Detachment removed the perception that the Japanese would be an easy enemy, that the war would be short, and that Russia would be the overwhelming victor. Japanese troops proceeded to land at several points on the Manchurian coast, and in a series of engagements drove the Russians back towards Port Arthur. The subsequent battles, including the Battle of Nanshan on 25 May 1904, were marked by heavy Japanese losses largely from attacking entrenched Russian positions.

Blockade of Port Arthur

The Japanese attempted to deny the Russians use of Port Arthur. During the night of 13 February – 14 February, the Japanese attempted to block the entrance to Port Arthur by sinking several cement-filled steamers in the deep water channel to the port, but they sank too deep to be effective. A similar attempt to block the harbor entrance during the night of 3–4 May also failed. In March, the charismatic Vice Admiral Makarov had taken command of the First Russian Pacific Squadron with the intention of breaking out of the Port Arthur blockade.

On 12 April 1904, two Russian pre-dreadnought battleships, the flagship ''Petropavlovsk'' and the ''Pobeda'' slipped out of port but struck Japanese mines off Port Arthur. The ''Petropavlovsk'' sank almost immediately, while the ''Pobeda'' had to be towed back to port for extensive repairs. Admiral Makarov, the single most effective Russian naval strategist of the war, perished on the battleship ''Petropavlovsk''.

On 15 April 1904, the Russian government made overtures threatening to seize the British war correspondents who were taking the ship ''Haimun'' into warzones to report for the London-based ''Times'' newspaper, citing concerns about the possibility of the British giving away Russian positions to the Japanese fleet.

The Russians learned quickly, and soon employed the Japanese tactic of offensive minelaying. On 15 May 1904, two Japanese battleships, the ''Yashima'' and the ''Hatsuse'', were lured into a recently laid Russian minefield off Port Arthur, each striking at least two mines. The ''Hatsuse'' sank within minutes, taking 450 sailors with her, while the ''Yashima'' sank while under tow towards Korea for repairs. On June 23, 1904, a breakout attempt by the Russian squadron, now under the command of Admiral Wilgelm Vitgeft failed. By the end of the month, Japanese artillery were firing shells into the harbor.

Anglo-Japanese intelligence co-operation

Even before the war, British and Japanese intelligence had co-operated against Russia. Indian Army stations in Malaya and China often intercepted and read wireless and telegraph cable traffic relating to the war, which was shared with the Japanese. In their turn, the Japanese shared information about Russia with the British with one British official writing of the "perfect quality" of Japanese intelligence. In particular, British and Japanese intelligence gathered much evidence that Germany was supporting Russia in the war as part of a bid to disturb the balance of power in Europe, which led to British officials increasingly perceiving that country as a threat to the international order.

Siege of Port Arthur

Japan began a long siege of Port Arthur. On 10 August 1904, the Russian fleet again attempted to break out and proceed to Vladivostok, but upon reaching the open sea were confronted by Admiral Togo's battleship squadron. The situation was critical for the Japanese, for they had only one battleship fleet and had already lost two battleships to Russian mines. Admiral Togo knew that another Russian battleship fleet would soon be sent to the Pacific. The Russian and Japanese battleships exchanged fire, until the Russian flagship, the battleship ''Tsesarevich'', received a direct hit on the bridge, killing the fleet commander, Admiral Vitgeft. At this, the Russian fleet turned around and headed back into Port Arthur. Though no warships were sunk by either side in the battle, the Russians were now back in port and the Japanese navy still had battleships to meet the new Russian fleet when it arrived.

As the siege of Port Arthur continued, Japanese troops tried numerous frontal assaults on the fortified hilltops overlooking the harbor, which were defeated with Japanese casualties in the thousands. Eventually, though, with the aid of several batteries of 11-inch (280 mm) Krupp howitzers, the Japanese were finally able to capture the key hilltop bastion in December 1904. From this vantage point, the long-range artillery was able to shell the Russian fleet, which was unable to retaliate effectively against the land-based artillery and was unable or unwilling to sortie out against the blockading fleet. Four Russian battleships and two cruisers were sunk in succession, with the fifth and last battleship being forced to scuttle a few weeks later. Thus, all capital ships of the Russian fleet in the Pacific were sunk. This is likely the only example in military history when such a scale of devastation was achieved by land-based artillery against major warships.

Meanwhile, attempts to relieve the besieged city by land also failed, and, after the Battle of Liaoyang in late August, the northern Russian force that might have been able to relieve Port Arthur retreated to Mukden (Shenyang). Major General Anatoly Stessel, commander of the Port Arthur garrison, believed that the purpose of defending the city was lost after the fleet had been destroyed. Several large underground mines were exploded in late December, resulting in the costly capture of a few more pieces of the defensive line. Nevertheless, the Russian defenders were effecting disproportionate casualties each time the Japanese attacked. Despite this, Stessel decided to surrender to the surprised Japanese generals on 2 January 1905. He made this decision without consulting the other military staff present, or of the Tsar and military command, who all disagreed with the decision. Stessel was convicted by a court-martial in 1908 and sentenced to death for his incompetent defense and disobeying orders, though he was later pardoned.

Baltic Fleet redeploys

Meanwhile, at sea, the Russians were preparing to reinforce their Far East Fleet by sending the Baltic Fleet, under the command of Admiral Zinovy Rozhestvensky. The squadron sailed half way around the world from the Baltic Sea to the Pacific via the Cape of Good Hope. After a port of call at Madagascar, then Cam Ranh Bay (later part of South Vietnam), Rozhestvensky finally reached the Far East in May 1905. On 21 October 1904, while steaming past Great Britain (an ally of Japan, but neutral, unless provoked by a non-combatant nation), vessels of the Russian fleet nearly induced war with Britain in the Dogger Bank incident by firing on British fishing boats that they mistook for enemy torpedo boats.

Campaign of 1905

With the fall of Port Arthur, the Japanese 3rd army was now able to continue northward and reinforce positions south of Russian-held Mukden. With the onset of the severe Manchurian winter, there had been no major land engagements since the Battle of Shaho the previous year. The two sides camped opposite each other along 60 to of front lines, south of Mukden.

Battle of Sandepu

The Russian Second Army under General Oskar Grippenberg, between January 25–29, attacked the Japanese left flank near the town of Sandepu, almost breaking through. This caught the Japanese by surprise. However, without support from other Russian units the attack stalled, Grippenberg was ordered to halt by Kuropatkin and the battle was inconclusive. The Japanese knew that they needed to destroy the Russian army in Manchuria before Russian reinforcements arrived via the Trans-Siberian railroad.

Battle of Mukden

The Battle of Mukden commenced on 20 February 1905. In the following days Japanese forces proceeded to assault the right and left flanks of Russian forces surrounding Mukden, along a front. Approximately half a million men were involved in the fighting. Both sides were well entrenched and were backed by hundreds of artillery pieces. After days of harsh fighting, added pressure from the flanks forced both ends of the Russian defensive line to curve backwards. Seeing they were about to be encircled, the Russians began a general retreat, fighting a series of fierce rearguard actions, which soon deteriorated in the confusion and collapse of Russian forces. On 10 March 1905 after three weeks of fighting, General Kuropatkin decided to withdraw to the north of Mukden. The Russians lost 90,000 men in the battle.

The retreating Russian Manchurian Army formations disbanded as fighting units, but the Japanese failed to destroy them completely. The Japanese themselves had suffered large casualties and were in no condition to pursue. Although the battle of Mukden was a major defeat for the Russians it was not decisive, and the final victory still depended on the navy.

Battle of Tsushima

The Russian Second Pacific Squadron (the renamed Baltic Fleet) sailed 18,000 nautical miles (33,000 km) to relieve Port Arthur. The demoralizing news that Port Arthur had fallen reached the fleet while at Madagascar. Admiral Rozhestvensky's only hope now was to reach the port of Vladivostok. There were three routes to Vladivostok, with the shortest and most direct passing through Tsushima Straits between Korea and Japan. However, this was also the most dangerous route as it passed very close to the Japanese home islands.

Admiral Togo was aware of Russian progress and understood that with the fall of Port Arthur, the Second and Third Pacific Squadrons would try to reach the only other Russian port in the Far East, Vladivostok. Battle plans were laid down and ships were repaired and refitted to intercept the Russian fleet.

The Japanese Combined Fleet, which had originally consisted of six battleships, was now down to four (two had been lost to mines), but still retained its cruisers, destroyers, and torpedo boats. The Russian Second Pacific Squadron contained eight battleships, including four new battleships of the ''Borodino'' class, as well as cruisers, destroyers and other auxiliaries for a total of 38 ships.

By the end of May the Second Pacific Squadron was on the last leg of its journey to Vladivostok, taking the shorter, riskier route between Korea and Japan, and travelling at night to avoid discovery. Unfortunately for the Russians, while in compliance with the rules of war, the two trailing hospital ships had continued to burn their lights, which were spotted by the Japanese armed merchant cruiser ''Shinano Maru''. Wireless communication was used to inform Togo's headquarters, where the Combined Fleet was immediately ordered to sortie. Still receiving naval intelligence from scouting forces, the Japanese were able to position their fleet so that they would "cross the T" of the Russian fleet. The Japanese engaged battle in the Tsushima Straits on 27–28 May 1905. The Russian fleet was virtually annihilated, losing eight battleships, numerous smaller vessels, and more than 5,000 men, while the Japanese lost three torpedo boats and 116 men. Only three Russian vessels escaped to Vladivostok. After the Battle of Tsushima, the Japanese army occupied the entire chain of the Sakhalin Islands to force the Russians to sue for peace.

Military attachés and observers

Military and civilian observers from every major power closely followed the course of the war. Most were able to report on events from the perspective of "embedded" positions within the land and naval forces of both Russia and Japan. These military attachés and other observers prepared first-hand accounts of the war and analytical papers. In-depth observer narratives of the war and more narrowly focused professional journal articles were written soon after the war; and these post-war reports conclusively illustrated the battlefield destructiveness of this conflict. This was the first time the tactics of entrenched positions for infantry defended with machine guns and artillery became vitally important, and both were dominant factors in World War I. Though entrenched positions were a significant part of both the Franco-Prussian War and the American Civil War due to the advent of breech loading rifles, the lessons learned regarding high casualty counts were not taken into account in World War I. From a 21st century perspective, it is now apparent that tactical lessons which were available to the observer nations were disregarded or not used in the preparations for war in Europe and during the course of World War I.

In 1904–1905, Ian Standish Monteith Hamilton was the military attaché of the British Indian Army serving with the Japanese army in Manchuria. Amongst the several military attachés from Western countries, he was the first to arrive in Japan after the start of the war. As the earliest, he would be recognized as the dean of multi-national attachés and observers in this conflict; but he was out-ranked by a soldier who would become a better known figure, British Field Marshal William Gustavus Nicholson, 1st Baron Nicholson, later to become Chief of the Imperial General Staff.

Peace and aftermath

Treaty of Portsmouth

The defeats of the Russian Army and Navy shook Russian confidence. Throughout 1905, the Imperial Russian government was rocked by revolution. The population was against escalation of the war. The Empire was certainly capable of sending more troops and probably winning the war, but the poor state of the economy, the embarrassing defeats of the Russian army and navy by the Japanese, and the relative unimportance of the disputed land to Russia made the war incredibly unpopular. Tsar Nicholas II elected to negotiate peace so he could concentrate on internal matters after the disaster of Bloody Sunday on January 22, 1905.

American President Theodore Roosevelt offered to mediate, and earned a Nobel Peace Prize for his effort. Sergius Witte led the Russian delegation and Baron Komura, a graduate of Harvard, led the Japanese Delegation. The Treaty of Portsmouth was signed on September 5, 1905, at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine. Witte became Russian Prime Minister the same year.

After courting the Japanese, Roosevelt decided to support the Tsar’s refusal to pay indemnities, a move that policymakers in Tokyo interpreted as signifying that the United States had more than a passing interest in Asian affairs. Russia recognized Korea as part of the Japanese sphere of influence and agreed to evacuate Manchuria. Japan would annex Korea in 1910, with scant protest from other powers.

Russia also signed over its 25-year leasehold rights to Port Arthur, including the naval base and the peninsula around it, and ceded the southern half of Sakhalin Island to Japan (to be regained by the USSR in 1952 under the Treaty of San Francisco following the Second World War, against the wishes of the majority of Japanese politicians).

Casualties

Sources do not agree on a precise number of deaths from the war because of lack of body counts for confirmation. The number of Japanese army dead in combat is put at around 47,000 with around 80,000 if disease is included. Estimates of Russian army dead range from around 40,000 to around 70,000 men. The total number of army dead is generally stated at around 130,000. China suffered 20,000 civilian deaths, and financially the loss amounted to over 69 million taels worth of silver.

During many of the battles at sea, several thousand soldiers being transported by sea drowned after their ships went down. There were no agreed consensus about what to do with transported soldiers at sea, and as a result, many of the ships denied rescuing casualties that were left shipwrecked. This led to the creation of the second Geneva Convention in 1906, which gave protection and care for shipwrecked soldiers in armed conflict.

Political consequences

This was the second major victory in the modern era of an Asian power over a European one after the Siege of Fort Zeelandia. Russia's defeat was met with shock both in the West and across the Far East. Japan's prestige rose greatly as it began to be considered a modern nation. Concurrently, Russia lost virtually its entire Pacific and Baltic fleets, and also much international esteem. This was particularly true in the eyes of Germany and Austria–Hungary before World War I. Russia was France and Serbia's ally, and that loss of prestige had a significant effect on Germany's future when planning for war with France, and Austria–Hungary's war with Serbia. The war caused many nations to underestimate Russian military capabilities in World War I.

In the absence of Russian competition and with the distraction of European nations during World War I, combined with the Great Depression which followed, the Japanese military began its efforts to dominate China and the rest of Asia, which eventually led to the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Pacific War theatres of World War II.

Revolution in Russia

Popular discontent in Russia after the war added more fuel to the already simmering Russian Revolution of 1905, an event Nicholas II of Russia had hoped to avoid entirely by taking intransigent negotiating stances prior to coming to the table at all. Twelve years later, that discontent boiled over into the February Revolution of 1917. In Poland, which Russia partitioned in the late 18th century, and where Russian rule already caused two major uprisings, the population was so restless that an army of 250,000–300,000 – larger than the one facing the Japanese – had to be stationed to put down the unrest. Notably, some political leaders of the Polish insurrection movement (in particular, Józef Piłsudski) sent emissaries to Japan to collaborate on sabotage and intelligence gathering within the Russian Empire and even plan a Japanese-aided uprising.

In Russia, the defeat of 1905 led in the short term to a reform of the Russian military that allowed it to face Germany in World War I. However, the revolts at home following the war planted the seeds that presaged the Russian Revolution of 1917.

Effects on Japan

Although the war had ended in a victory for Japan, Japanese public opinion was shocked by the very restrained peace terms which were negotiated at the war's end. Widespread discontent spread through the populace upon the announcement of the treaty terms. Riots erupted in major cities in Japan. Two specific requirements, expected after such a costly victory, were especially lacking: territorial gains and monetary reparations to Japan. The peace accord led to feelings of distrust, as the Japanese had intended to retain all of Sakhalin Island, but were forced to settle for half of it after being pressured by the U.S.

Assessment of war results

Russia had lost two of its three fleets. Only its Black Sea Fleet remained, and this was the result of an earlier treaty that had prevented the fleet from leaving the Black Sea. Japan became the sixth-most powerful naval force, while the Russian navy declined to one barely stronger than that of Austria–Hungary. The actual costs of the war were large enough to affect the Russian economy and, despite grain exports, the nation developed an external balance of payments deficit. The cost of military re-equipment and re-expansion after 1905 pushed the economy further into deficit, although the size of the deficit was obscured.

A lock of Admiral Nelson's hair was given to the Imperial Japanese Navy by the British Royal Navy after the war to commemorate the victory of the Battle of Tsushima, which was considered on a par with Britain's victory at Trafalgar in 1805. It is still on display at Kyouiku Sankoukan, a public museum maintained by the Japan Self-Defense Force.

The Japanese were on the offensive for most of the war and used massed infantry assaults against defensive positions, which would become the standard of all European armies during World War I. The battles of the Russo-Japanese War in which machine guns and artillery took their toll on Japanese troops were a precursor to the trench warfare of World War I. A German military advisor sent to Japan, Jakob Meckel, had a tremendous impact on the development of the Japanese military training, tactics, strategy and organization. His reforms were credited with Japan's overwhelming victory over China in the First Sino-Japanese War of 1894–1895. However, his over-reliance on the use of infantry in offensive campaigns also led to the large number of Japanese casualties.

Military and economic exhaustion affected both countries. Japanese historians consider this war to be a turning point for Japan, and a key to understanding the reasons why Japan may have failed militarily and politically later on. After the war, acrimony was felt at every level of Japanese society and it became the consensus within Japan that their nation had been treated as the defeated power during the peace conference. As time went on, this feeling, coupled with the sense of "arrogance" at becoming a Great Power, grew and added to growing Japanese hostility towards the West, and fueled Japan's military and imperial ambitions. Only five years after the War, Japan de jure annexed Korea as its colonial empire. In 1931, 21 years later, Japan invaded Manchuria in the Mukden Incident. This culminated in the invasion of East, Southeast and South Asia in World War II in an attempt to create a great Japanese colonial empire, the Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere. As a result, most Chinese historians consider the Russo-Japanese War as a key development of Japanese militarism.

Not only Russia and Japan were affected by the war. As a consequence, the British Admiralty enlarged its docks at Auckland, New Zealand; Bombay, British India; Fremantle, Australia; British Hong Kong; Simon's Town, Cape Colony; Singapore and Sydney, Australia. The 1904–1905 war confirmed the direction of the Admiralty's thinking in tactical terms while undermining its strategic grasp of a changing world. For example, the Admiralty's tactical orthodoxy assumed that a naval battle would imitate the conditions of stationary combat, and that ships would engage in one long line sailing on parallel courses; but in reality, more flexible tactical thinking would be required in the next war. A firing ship and its target would maneuver independently at various ranges and at various speeds and in convergent or divergent courses.

List of battles

1904 Battle of Port Arthur, 8 February: naval battle Inconclusive

1904 Battle of Chemulpo Bay, 9 February: naval battle Japanese victory

1904 Battle of Yalu River, 30 April to 1 May: Japanese victory

1904 Battle of Nanshan, 25 May – 26 May, Japanese victory

1904 Battle of Telissu, 14 June – 15 June , Japanese victory

1904 Battle of Motien Pass, 17 July, Japanese victory

1904 Battle of Ta-shih-chiao, 24 July, Japanese victory

1904 Battle of Hsimucheng, 31 July, Japanese victory

1904 Battle of the Yellow Sea, 10 August: naval battle Japanese victory strategically/tactically inconclusive

1904 Battle off Ulsan, 14 August: naval battle Japanese victory

1904–1905 Siege of Port Arthur, 19 August to 2 January: Japanese victory

1904 Battle of Liaoyang, 25 August to 3 September: Inconclusive

1904 Battle of Shaho, 5 October to 17 October: Inconclusive

1905 Battle of Sandepu, 26 January to 27 January: Inconclusive

1905 Battle of Mukden, 21 February to 10 March: Japanese victory

1905 Battle of Tsushima, 27 May to 28 May naval battle: Japanese victory

Cause of IRN and IJN Warships Sunk During the War 1904-1905

Although submarines, torpedoes, torpedo boats, and steel battleships preceded the Russo-Japanese by many years, since 1866 in the case of the automotive self propelled torpedo for example, and its first successful use in 1877 during the Russo-Turkish War. The Russo-Japanese war was the first conflict to see the first massive deployment of all of those weapon systems. The war would witness the deployment of over a hundred of the newly invented torpedo boats and nearly the same number in torpedo boat destroyers (termed ''destroyers'' by the end of the war), from both sides. The Imperial Russian Navy would become the first navy in history to possess an ''independent operational submarine fleet'' on 1 January 1905. With this submarine fleet making its first combat patrol on 14 February 1905, and its first clash with enemy surface warships on 29 April 1905, all this nearly a decade before World War I even began.

During the course of the war, the IRN and IJN would launch nearly 300 self propelled automotive torpedoes at one another. Dozens of warships would be hit and damaged, but only 1 battleship, 2 armoured cruisers, and 2 destroyers would be permanently sunk (not salvaged). Another 80 plus warships would be destroyed by the traditional gun, mine, or other cause. The Russian battleship ''Oslyabya'' would become naval history's first modern battleship to be sunk by gunfire alone, and Admiral Rozhestvensky's flagship, the battleship ''Knyaz Suvorov'' would become the first modern battleship to be sunk by the new "torpedo" on the high seas.

Vessel type and cause of loss

Battleships lost to naval gunfire-3 (plus 1 Coastal Battleship) IRN

Battleships lost to land/shore batteries-4 IRN

Battleships lost to combination of gunfire & torpedoes-2 IRN

Battleships lost to strictly torpedoes-1 IRN

Battleships lost to mines-2 (plus 1 Coastal Battleship) IJN/1 IRN

Cruisers lost to naval gunfire-5 IRN

Cruisers lost to land/shore batteries-3 IRN

Cruisers lost to mines-1 IRN/4 IJN

Destroyers (DDs, GBs, TBDs, TBs) lost to naval gunfire-6 IRN/3 IJN

Destroyers (DDs, GBs, TBDs, TBs) lost to shore batteries-3 IRN

Destroyers (DDs, GBs, TBDs, TBs) lost to gunfire & torpedoes-1 IJN

Destroyers (DDs, GBs, TBDs, TBs) lost to torpedoes-2 IRN

Destroyers (DDs, GBs, TBDs, TBs) lost to mines-3 IRN/3 IJN

Auxiliary cruisers lost to naval gunfire-1 IRN

Auxiliary Cruisers lost to shore batteries-1 RN

Auxiliary Gunboats lost to mines-1 IJN

Minelayers lost to shore batteries-1 IRN

Minelayers lost to mines-1 IRN

Submarines-3 lost to scuttling & 1 lost by shipwreck IRN (Note: Only IRN submarines were operational during the war)

The above data includes vessels that were sunk and consequently salvaged (raised) and put back into service by either combatant. Data regarding surface vessels either shipwrecked or scuttled was excluded.

Imperial Russian Navy warships sunk, 1904-1905

From 1880 through the end of the war, Russia had prepared a systematic plan to build their navy into a major naval power, able to meet any modern adversary; which during this time period were primarily based in Europe. By 1884 Russia lead the world in numbers of the newly invented torpedo boats and torpedo boat destroyers by possessing 115 such vessels. By 1904, the IRN was a first rate navy, but by the end of 1905, Russia would be reduced to a third rate naval power.

Warship type, name, and date of loss

Battleship ''Navarin'' 28 May 1905

Battleship ''Sissoi Veliky'' 28 May 1905

Battleship (Coastal) ''Admiral Ushakov'' 28 May 1905

Battleship ''Petropavlovsk'' 13 April 1904

Battleship ''Sevastopol'' 2 January 1905

Battleship ''Oslyabya'' 27 May 1905

Battleship ''Borodino'' 27 May 1905

Battleship ''Imperator Alexander III'' 27 May 1905

Battleship ''Knyaz Suvorov'' 27 May 1905

Cruiser ''Vladimir Monomakh'' 28 May 1905

Cruiser ''Dmitri Donskoi'' 28 May 1905

Cruiser ''Admiral Nakhimov'' 28 May 1905

Cruiser ''Rurik'' 14 August 1904

Cruiser ''Svietlana'' 28 May 1905

Gunboat ''Gremyashchi'' 18 August 1904

Gunboat ''Otvajni'' 2 January 1905

Torpedo Boat Destroyer (TBD) ''Steregushchi'' 19 March 1904

TBD ''Strashni'' 13 April 1904

TBD ''Stroini'' 13 November 1904

TBD ''Vnushitelni'' 25 February 1904

TBD ''Vuinoslivi'' 24 August 1904

TBD ''Buini'' 28 May 1905

TBD ''Gromki'' 28 May 1905

TBD ''Glestyashtchi'' 28 May 1905

TBD ''Bezuprechni'' 28 May 1905

Torpedo Boat (TB) ''Tantchikhe'' (#201) 21 August 1904

TB ''Ussuri'' (#204) 30 June 1904

The above list excludes captured, surrendered, or sunken warships that were raised and put back into service by either combatant.

Financing

Jacob Schiff, a Jewish American banker and head of Kuhn, Loeb & Co., extended a critical series of loans to the Empire of Japan, in the amount of $200 million. The funds allowed the purchase of munitions and contributed quite significantly to the Japanese victory.

Arts and literature

Between 1904–05 in Russia, the war was covered by anonymous satirical graphic luboks that were sold at common markets and recorded much of the war for the domestic audience. Around 300 were made before their creation was banned by the Russian government.

The disastrous war was among the reasons that spurred Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov to compose his satirical opera, ''The Golden Cockerel'', which was immediately banned by the government.

The Russo-Japanese War was covered by dozens of foreign journalists who sent back sketches that were turned into lithographs and other reproducible forms. Propaganda images were circulated by both sides and quite a few photographs have been preserved.

Russian novelist Vikenty Veresayev wrote a detailed and scathing memoir of his experiences in the Russo-Japanese War, entitled In the War.

The role of Russian-born British spy Sidney Reilly in providing intelligence that allowed the Japanese surprise attack which started the Siege of Port Arthur is dramatised in Episode 2 of the TV series ''Reilly, Ace of Spies''.

The Siege of Port Arthur is covered in an encompassing historical novel ''Port Arthur'' by Alexander Stepanov (1892–1965), who, at the age of 12, lived in the besieged city and witnessed many key events of the siege. He took a personal role in Port Arthur defense by carrying water to front line trenches; was contused; narrowly evaded amputation of both legs while in the hospital. His father, Nikolay Stepanov, commanded one of Russian onshore batteries protecting the harbor; through him Alexander personally knew many top military commanders of the city – generals Stessels, Belikh, Nikitin, Kondratenko, Admiral Makarov and many others. The novel itself was written in 1932, based on the author's own diaries and notes of his father; although it might be subject to ideological bias, as anything published in the USSR at that time, it was (and still is) generally considered in Russia one of the best historical novels of the Soviet period.

"On the hills of Manchuria" (''Na sopkah Manchzhurii''), a melancholy waltz composed by Ilya Shatrov, a military musician who served in the war, became an evergreen popular song in Russia and in Finland. The original lyrics are about fallen soldiers lying in their graves in Manchuria, but alternative lyrics were written later, especially during Second World War.

The Russo-Japanese War is occasionally alluded to in James Joyce's novel, ''Ulysses''. In the "Eumaeus" chapter, a drunken sailor in a bar proclaims, "But a day of reckoning, he stated crescendo with no uncertain voice—thoroughly monopolizing all the conversation—was in store for mighty England, despite her power of pelf on account of her crimes. There would be a fall and the greatest fall in history. The Germans and the Japs were going to have their little lookin, he affirmed."

The 1969 Japanese film ''Nihonkai daikaisen'' (''Battle in the Sea of Japan'') depicts the naval battles of the war, the attacks on the Port Arthur highlands, and the subterfuge and diplomacy of Japanese agents in Sweden. Admiral Togo is portrayed by Toshirô Mifune.

The Russo-Japanese War is the setting for the naval strategy computer game ''Distant Guns'' developed by Storm Eagle Studios.

The Russo-Japanese War is the setting for the first part of the novel ''The Diamond Vehicle'', in the Erast Fandorin detective series by Boris Akunin.

''The Domination'' series by S.M. Stirling has an alternate Battle of Tsushima where the Japanese use airships to attack the Russian Fleet. This is detailed in the short story "Written by the Wind" by Roland J. Green in the ''Drakas!'' anthology.

See also

Kentaro Kaneko

Baron Rosen

Imperialism in Asia

Liancourt Rocks

List of wars

Russian Imperialism in Asia and the Russo-Japanese War

Sergius Witte

References

Bibliography

First and second editions published in 1907.

Further reading

Corbett, Sir Julian. ''Maritime Operations In The Russo-Japanese War 1904–1905''. (1994) Originally classified, and in two volumnes, ISBN 1-55750-129-7.

Hough, Richard A. ''The Fleet That Had To Die''. Ballantine Books. (1960).

Jentschura, Hansgeorg; Dieter Jung, Peter Mickel. ''Warships of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1869-1945.'' United States Naval Institute, Annapolis, Maryland, 1977. Originally published in German as ''Die Japanischen Kreigschiffe 1869-1945'' in 1970, translated into English by David Brown and Antony Preston. ISBN 0-87021-893-X.

Jukes, Geoffry. ''The Russo-Japanese War 1904–1905''. Osprey Essential Histories. (2002). ISBN 978-1-84176-446-7.

Kowner, Rotem (2006). ''Historical Dictionary of the Russo-Japanese War''. Scarecrow. ISBN 0-8108-4927-5.

Matsumura Masayoshi, Ian Ruxton (trans.), ''Baron Kaneko and the Russo-Japanese War (1904–05)'', Lulu Press 2009 ISBN 978-0557117512

Morris, Edmund (2002). ''Theodore Rex'', Books.Gooble.com. New York: Random House. 10-ISBN 0-8129-6600-7; 13-ISBN 978-0-8129-6600-8

Novikov-Priboy, Aleksei. ''Tsushima''. (An account from a seaman aboard the Battleship ''Orel'' (which was captured at Tsushima). London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd. (1936).

Nish, Ian Hill. (1985). ''The Origins of the Russo-Japanese War''. London: Longman. 10-ISBN 0-582-49114-2; 13-ISBN 978-0-582-49114-4

Okamoto, Shumpei (1970). ''The Japanese Oligarchy and the Russo-Japanese War''. Columbia University Press.

Pleshakov, Constantine. ''The Tsar's Last Armada: The Epic Voyage to the Battle of Tsushima''. ISBN 0-465-05792-6. (2002).

Saaler, Sven und Inaba Chiharu (Hg.). ''Der Russisch-Japanische Krieg 1904/05 im Spiegel deutscher Bilderbogen'', Deutsches Institut für Japanstudien Tokyo, (2005).

Seager, Robert. ''Alfred Thayer Mahan: The Man And His Letters''. (1977) ISBN 0-87021-359-8.

Semenov, Vladimir, Capt. ''The Battle of Tsushima''. E.P. Dutton & Co. (1912).

Semenov, Vladimir, Capt. ''Rasplata (The Reckoning)''. John Murray, (1910).

Tomitch, V. M. ''Warships of the Imperial Russian Navy''. Volume 1, Battleships. (1968).

Warner, Denis & Peggy. ''The Tide at Sunrise, A History of the Russo-Japanese War 1904–1905''. (1975). ISBN 0-7146-5256-3.

Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, ''Correspondence Regarding the Negotiations between Japan and Russia (1903–1904), Presented to the Imperial Diet, March 1904'' (Tokyo, 1904)

External links

RussoJapaneseWar.com, Russo-Japanese War research society.

BFcollection.net, Database of Russian Army Jewish soldiers injured, killed, or missing in action from the war.

BYU.edu, Text of the Treaty of Portsmouth:.

Flot.com, Russian Navy history of war.

Frontiers.loc.gov, Russo-Japanese Relations in the Far East. Meeting of Frontiers (Library of Congress)

CSmonitor.com, Treaty of Portsmouth now seen as global turning point from the ''Christian Science Monitor'', by Robert Marquand, 30 December 2005.

The New Student's Reference Work/Russo-Japanese War

Montenigrina.net, Montenegrins in the Russo-Japanese War (Montenegrin).

Stanford.edu, Lyrics, translation and melody of the song "On the hills of Manchuria" (Na sopkah Manchzhurii).

Category:Conflicts in 1904 Category:Conflicts in 1905 Category:Wars involving Russia Category:Wars involving Montenegro Category:Wars involving Japan Category:History of Korea Category:History of Manchuria Category:1904 in Russia Category:1905 in Russia Category:1904 in Japan Category:1905 in Japan

ar:الحرب الروسية اليابانية az:Rus-Yapon müharibəsi bs:Rusko-japanski rat bg:Руско-японска война ca:Guerra russojaponesa cs:Rusko-japonská válka da:Russisk-japanske krig de:Russisch-Japanischer Krieg es:Guerra Ruso-Japonesa eo:Rusa-japana milito fa:جنگ روسیه و ژاپن (۱۹۰۴ میلادی) fr:Guerre russo-japonaise ga:Cogadh na Rúise agus na Seapáine gl:Guerra ruso-xaponesa ko:러일 전쟁 hi:रूस-जापान युद्ध hr:Rusko-japanski rat id:Perang Rusia-Jepang it:Guerra russo-giapponese he:מלחמת רוסיה-יפן ka:რუსეთ-იაპონიის ომი kk:Орыс-жапон соғысы sw:Vita ya Japani na Urusi ya 1905 lv:Krievijas—Japānas karš lt:Rusijos-Japonijos karas hu:Orosz–japán háború mk:Руско-јапонска војна ms:Perang Rusia-Jepun mn:Орос-Японы дайн nl:Russisch-Japanse Oorlog ja:日露戦争 no:Den russisk-japanske krig pl:Wojna rosyjsko-japońska pt:Guerra Russo-Japonesa ro:Războiul ruso-japonez ru:Русско-японская война simple:Russo-Japanese War sk:Rusko-japonská vojna sl:Rusko-japonska vojna sr:Руско-јапански рат fi:Venäjän–Japanin sota sv:Rysk-japanska kriget th:สงครามรัสเซีย-ญี่ปุ่น tr:Rus-Japon Savaşı uk:Російсько-японська війна vi:Chiến tranh Nga-Nhật yi:רוסישע־יאפאנעזער מלחמה zh:日俄战争

type	monarch
name	Nicholas II
imgw	200px
succession	Emperor and Autocrat of All the Russias
reign	– 15 March 1917 (22 years, 134 days)
coronation
cor-type	Coronation
predecessor	Alexander III
successor	Office abolished''De facto'' :Georgy Lvov (chairman of the provisional government)
spouse	Alix of Hesse
issue	Grand Duchess Olga NikolaevnaGrand Duchess Tatiana NikolaevnaGrand Duchess Maria NikolaevnaGrand Duchess Anastasia NikolaevnaTsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich
full name	Nicholas Alexandrovich Romanov
house	House of Holstein-Gottorp-Romanov
father	Alexander III of Russia
mother	Maria Feodorovna(Dagmar of Denmark)
birth date
birth place	Tsarskoye Selo, Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire, Alexander Palace
death date	May 18, 1868
death place	Yekaterinburg, Russian SFSR
burial date	17 July 1998
burial place	Peter and Paul Cathedral, Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation
signature	Nicholas II Signature.svg
religion	Eastern Orthodox }}

Nicholas II ( ) ( – 17 July 1918) was the last Emperor of Russia, Grand Prince of Finland, and titular King of Poland. His official title was Nicholas II, Emperor and Autocrat of All the Russias and he is known as Saint Nicholas the Passion-Bearer by the Russian Orthodox Church.

Nicholas II ruled from 1894 until his abdication on 15 March 1917. His reign saw Imperial Russia go from being one of the foremost great powers of the world to economic and military collapse. Critics nicknamed him Bloody Nicholas because of the Khodynka Tragedy, Bloody Sunday, the anti-Semitic pogroms, his execution of political opponents, and his pursuit of military campaigns on a hitherto unprecendented scale. Under his rule, Russia was defeated in the Russo-Japanese War, including the almost total annihilation of the Russian fleet at the Battle of Tsushima. As head of state, he approved the Russian mobilization of August 1914, which marked the first fatal step into World War I, a war in which 3.3 million Russians would be killed, thus leading to the demise of the Romanov dynasty less than three years later.

Nicholas II abdicated following the February Revolution of 1917 during which he and his family were imprisoned first in the Alexander Palace at Tsarskoye Selo, then later in the Governor's Mansion in Tobolsk, and finally at the Ipatiev House in Yekaterinburg. Nicholas II, his wife, his son, his four daughters, the family's medical doctor, the Tsar's valet, the Empress' lady-in-waiting, and the family's cook were murdered in the same room by the Bolsheviks on the night of 16/17 July 1918. This led to the canonization of Nicholas II, his wife the Empress and their children as martyrs by various groups tied to the Russian Orthodox Church within Russia and, prominently, outside Russia.

Family background

Nicholas was the son of Emperor Alexander III and Empress Maria Feodorovna of Russia (formerly "Princess Dagmar of Denmark"). His paternal grandparents were Emperor Alexander II and Empress Maria Alexandrovna of Russia, (born "Princess Marie of Hesse"). His maternal grandparents were King Christian IX of Denmark and Princess Louise of Hesse-Kassel.

Nicholas often referred to his father nostalgically in letters after Alexander's death in 1894. However, as a child, he was jealous of his father's physical strength, demonstrated when his father lifted a 27 kilo stone with one hand. He was also very close to his mother, as it is revealed in their published letters to each other. Nicholas had three younger brothers (Alexander [1869–1870], George [1871–1899] and Michael [1878–1918]) and two younger sisters (Xenia [1875-1960] and Olga [1882-1960]).

Maternally, Nicholas was the nephew of several monarchs, including George I of Greece, Frederick VIII of Denmark, Alexandra, Queen consort of the United Kingdom and the Crown Princess of Hanover.

Nicholas, his wife Alexandra, and Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany were all first cousins of King George V of the United Kingdom. thumb|left|upright|alt=Two bearded men of identical height wear military dress uniforms emblazoned with medals and stand side-by-side|King George V (right) with his first cousin Tsar Nicholas II, Berlin, 1913. Note the close physical resemblance between the two monarchs. Nicholas' mother was the sister of British Queen Alexandra, the mother of George V. The Empress Alexandra was the daughter of Princess Alice, herself a daughter of Queen Victoria, thus making Edward VII her uncle, and cousin to the Emperor Wilhelm, on her mother's side; and equally a direct descendant of Queen Victoria. The Emperor Wilhelm was a son of Queen Victoria's eldest daughter, also named Victoria, who married Crown Prince Frederick of Germany. Nicholas and Wilhelm were not each other's first cousin, but they were second cousins, once removed, as each descended from Frederick William III, King of Prussia, as well as third cousins, as they were both great-great-grandsons of Tsar Paul I of Russia.

Tsarevich

On 13 March 1881, following the assassination of his grandfather, Tsar Alexander II, Nicholas became Tsarevich and his father became Tsar Alexander III. Nicholas and other family members witnessed Alexander II's death because they were staying at the Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg where he was brought after being attacked. For security reasons, the new Tsar and his family relocated their primary residence to the Gatchina Palace outside the city.

A long trip for educational purposes became an important part of training for the members of the Russian imperial house. In 1890, Tsar Alexander III decided to establish the Trans-Siberian Railway. His heir, Tsarevich Nicholas, took part in the opening ceremony, and from there he was obliged to make a journey around the world, which became known as the Eastern Journey where he survived an assassination attempt at Otsu in Japan. Although Nicholas attended meetings of the Imperial Council, his obligations were limited until he acceded to the throne, which was not expected for many years, since his father was only 45.

While he was Tsarevich, Nicholas had an affair with the ballet dancer Mathilde Kschessinska. Against his parents' initial wishes, Nicholas was determined to marry Princess Alix of Hesse-Darmstadt, the fourth daughter of Louis IV, Grand Duke of Hesse and Princess Alice of the United Kingdom, second eldest daughter of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. His parents intended a more politically beneficial arrangement with Princess Hélène, daughter of Philippe, comte de Paris, pretender to the French throne, hoping to cement Russia's new alliance with France, but eventually yielded to their son's wishes.

Engagement, accession and marriage

Nicholas became engaged to Alix of Hesse in April 1894. Alix was hesitant to accept the engagement due to the requirement that she convert from Lutheranism to Russian Orthodoxy and renounce her former faith. An exception was made for Alix where she could convert without renouncing her Lutheran faith. Nicholas and Alix became formally engaged on 8 April 1894. Alix converted to Orthodoxy in November 1894 and took the name Alexandra Fedorovna, in an attempt to be more acceptable to the Russian people.

Nicholas took the throne on 1 November 1894 at the age of 26 following Alexander III's unexpected death. Throughout 1894, Alexander's health rapidly declined and at 49, he died of kidney disease.

Nicholas did not have as much political training or imperial experience as might have been desired. It is said that Nicholas felt unprepared for the duties of the crown, asking his cousin Alexander, "What is going to happen to me and all of Russia?" Finance Minister Sergei Witte, however, recognized the need to train Nicholas early, suggesting to Alexander that Nicholas act as chairman of the Siberian Railway Committee. Alexander argued that Nicholas was not mature enough to take on serious responsibilities, to which Witte replied that if he was not introduced to state affairs Nicholas would never be ready to understand them. Nicholas also acted as chairman of the Special Committee on Famine Relief, established after the devastating famines and droughts of 1891–1892, and he served on the Finance Committee and State Military Council before his coronation. Perhaps underprepared and unskilled, Nicholas was not altogether untrained for his duties as Tsar. Throughout his reign, Nicholas chose to maintain the conservative policies favored by his father. While Alexander had concentrated on the formulation of general policy, Nicholas devoted much more attention to the details of administration.

Nicholas and Alix's wedding was originally scheduled for the spring of 1895, but it was moved forward at Nicholas' insistence. Staggering under the weight of his new office, he had no intention of allowing the one person who gave him confidence to leave his side. The wedding took place on 26 November 1894. Alexandra wore the traditional dress of Romanov brides, and Nicholas a hussar's uniform. Nicholas and Alexandra, each holding a lighted candle, faced the palace priest; a few minutes before one in the afternoon, they were married.

Reign

Despite a visit to Great Britain before his accession, where he observed the House of Commons in debate and seemed impressed by the machinery of democracy, Nicholas turned his back on any notion of giving away any power to elected representatives in Russia. Shortly after he came to the throne, a deputation of peasants and workers from various towns' local assemblies (zemstvos) came to the Winter Palace proposing court reforms, such as the adoption of a constitutional monarchy, and reform that would improve the political and social life of the peasantry. Although the addresses they had sent in beforehand were couched in mild and loyal terms, Nicholas was angry and ignored advice from an Imperial Family Council by saying to them: "... it has come to my knowledge that during the last months there have been heard in some assemblies of the zemstvos the voices of those who have indulged in a senseless dream that the zemstvos be called upon to participate in the government of the country. I want everyone to know that I will devote all my strength to maintain, for the good of the whole nation, the principle of absolute autocracy, as firmly and as strongly as did my late lamented father."

On 14 May 1896, Nicholas' formal coronation as Tsar was held in Uspensky Cathedral located within the Kremlin. In celebration on 18 May 1896, a large festival with food, free beer and souvenirs was held in Khodynka Field outside Moscow. Khodynka was chosen as the location as it was believed to be the sacred centre of the Russian Empire and would therefore demonstrate Nicholas' legitimacy as Tsar and ties to the old autocracy. Khodynka was also used as a military training ground and the field was uneven with trenches. When food and drink were handed out, the crowd rushed to get their share and individuals were tripped and trampled. Of the approximate 100,000 in attendance, it is estimated that 1,389 individuals died and roughly 1,300 were injured. The Khodynka Tragedy was seen as a bad omen and in addition to his conservative policies, Nicholas found gaining popular trust difficult from the beginning of his reign.

The first years of his reign saw little more than continuation and development of the policy pursued by Alexander III. Nicholas allotted money for the All-Russia exhibition of 1896. In 1897 restoration of gold standard by Sergei Witte, Minister of Finance, completed the series of financial reforms, initiated fifteen years earlier. By 1902, the Trans-Siberian Railway was nearly completed; this helped the Russians trade in the Far East but the railway still required huge amounts of work. In foreign relations, Nicholas followed policies of his father, strengthening the Franco-Russian Alliance and pursuing a policy of general European pacification, which culminated in the famous Hague peace conference. This conference, suggested and promoted by Nicholas II, was convened with the view of terminating the arms race, and setting up machinery for the peaceful settlement of international disputes. The results of the conference were less than expected, because of the mutual distrust existing between great powers. Still, the Hague conventions were among the first formal statements of the laws of war.

He was Colonel in Chief of the Royal Scots Greys from 1894 until his death. On becoming Colonel in Chief he presented the Regiment with a white bearskin, now worn by the bass drummer of the Pipes and Drums of the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards. The Imperial Russian anthem is still played at dinner nights in the Officers' Mess, where there is still a portrait of the Tsar in Scots Greys uniform. Since his murder the Regiment has worn a black backing behind its capbadge to mourn his death.

Russo-Japanese War

A clash between Russia and Japan was almost inevitable by the turn of the 20th century. Russia had expanded in the East, and the growth of her settlement and territorial ambitions, as her southward path to the Balkans was frustrated, conflicted with Japan's own territorial ambitions on the Chinese and Asian mainland. War began in 1904 with a surprise Japanese attack on the Russian fleet in Port Arthur, without formal declaration of war. The Russian Baltic fleet traversed the world to balance power in the East, but after many misadventures on the way, was almost annihilated by the Japanese in the Battle of the Tsushima Strait. On land the Russian army experienced logistical problems. While commands and supplies came from St. Petersburg, combat took place in east Asian ports with only the Trans-Siberian Railway for transport of supplies as well as troops both ways. The track between St. Petersburg and Port Arthur was one-way, with no track around Lake Baikal, allowing only gradual build-up of the forces on the front. Besieged Port Arthur fell to the Japanese, after nine months of resistance. In mid-1905, Nicholas II accepted American mediation, appointing Sergei Witte chief plenipotentiary for the peace talks. War was ended by the Treaty of Portsmouth.

Nicholas's stance on the war was something that baffled many. Nicholas approached the war with confidence and saw it as an opportunity to raise Russian morale and patriotism, paying little attention to the finances of a long-distance war. Shortly before the Japanese attack on Port Arthur, Nicholas held strong to the belief that there would be no war. Despite the onset of the war and the many defeats Russia suffered, Nicholas still believed in, and expected, a final victory. Many people took the Tsar's confidence and stubbornness for indifference; believing him to be completely impervious. As Russia continued to face defeat by the Japanese, the call for peace grew. Nicholas's own mother, as well as his cousin, Kaiser Wilhelm, urged Nicholas to open peace negotiations. Despite the efforts for peace, Nicholas remained evasive. It was not until 27–28 March and the annihilation of the Russian fleet by the Japanese, that Nicholas finally decided to pursue peace.

Anti-Jewish pogroms of 1903–1906

The Kishinev newspaper ''Bessarabets'', which published anti-Jewish materials, received funds from Viacheslav Plehve, Minister of the Interior. These publications served to fuel the Kishinev pogrom.

1905 Revolution

With the defeat of Russia by a non-Western power, the prestige and power of the government and the authority of the autocratic empire was brought down significantly. Defeat was a severe blow and the Imperial government collapsed, with the ensuing revolutionary outbreaks of 1905–1906. In hope to frighten any further contradiction many demonstrators were shot in front of the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg; the Emperor's Uncle, Grand Duke Sergei, was killed by a revolutionary's bomb in Moscow as he left the Kremlin. The Black Sea Fleet mutinied, and a railway strike developed into a general strike which paralyzed the country. Tsar Nicholas II, who was taken by surprise by the events, mixed his anger with bewilderment. He wrote to his mother after months of disorder:

''"It makes me sick to read the news! Nothing but strikes in schools and factories, murdered policemen, Cossacks and soldiers, riots, disorder, mutinies. But the ministers, instead of acting with quick decision, only assemble in council like a lot of frightened hens and cackle about providing united ministerial action... ominous quiet days began, quiet indeed because there was complete order in the streets, but at the same time everybody knew that something was going to happen — the troops were waiting for the signal, but the other side would not begin. One had the same feeling, as before a thunderstorm in summer! Everybody was on edge and extremely nervous and of course, that sort of strain could not go on for long.... We are in the midst of a revolution with an administrative apparatus entirely disorganized, and in this lies the main danger."''

Bloody Sunday

A few days prior to the Bloody Sunday (9 (22) January 1905), the leader of the initiative himself, a priest named George Gapon, informed the government of the forthcoming procession to the Winter Palace to hand a petition to the Tsar. On the evening before, on Saturday, 8 (21), the ministers convened to consider the situation. There was never any thought that the Tsar, who had left the capital for Tsarskoye Selo on the advice of the ministers would actually be asked to meet Gapon; the suggestion that some other member of the Imperial family receive the petition was rejected. Finally informed by the Prefect of Police that he lacked the men to pluck Gapon from among his followers and place him under arrest, the newly appointed Minister of the Interior, Prince Sviatopolk-Mirsky, and his colleagues decided to bring additional troops into the city for control. That evening Nicholas wrote in his diary, "Troops have been brought from the outskirts to reinforce the garrison. Up to now the workers have been calm. Their number is estimated at 120,000. At the head of their union is a kind of socialist priest named Gapon. Mirsky came this evening to present his report on the measures taken."

On Sunday, 9 (22) January 1905, Gapon began his march. Locking arms, the workers marched peacefully through the streets. Some carried religious icons and banners, as well as national flags and portraits of the Tsar. As they walked they sang religious hymns and the Imperial anthem, 'God Save The Tsar'. At 2PM all of the converging processions were scheduled to arrive at the Winter Palace. There was no single confrontation with the troops. Throughout the city, at bridges on strategic boulevards, the marchers found their way blocked by lines of infantry, backed by Cossacks and Hussars; and the soldiers opened fire on the crowd. The official number of victims was 92 dead and several hundred wounded. Gapon vanished and the other leaders of the march were seized. Expelled from the capital, they circulated through the empire, increasing the casualties. As bullets riddled their icons, their banners and their portraits of Nicholas, the people shrieked, "The Tsar will not help us!" Outside Russia, the future British Labour Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald attacked the Tsar, calling him a "blood-stained creature and a common murderer".

That evening Nicholas wrote in his diary: {{Bquote|«Bad day! In St. Petersburg there were serious disturbances due to the desire of workers to get to the Winter Palace. The troops had to shoot in different places of the city, there were many dead and wounded. Oh, how painful and hard! »}}

In Russian: {{Bquote|«Тяжёлый день! В Петербурге произошли серьёзные беспорядки вследствие желания рабочих дойти до Зимнего дворца. Войска должны были стрелять в разных местах города, было много убитых и раненых. Господи, как больно и тяжело!» }}

Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna (Nicholas's sister) wrote afterwards:

From his hiding place, Gapon issued a letter. He stated, "Nicholas Romanov, formerly Tsar and at present soul-murderer of the Russian empire. The innocent blood of workers, their wives and children lies forever between you and the Russian people ... May all the blood which must be spilled fall upon you, you Hangman. I call upon all the socialist parties of Russia to come to an immediate agreement among themselves and bring an armed uprising against Tsarism."

Relationship with the Duma

Under pressure from the attempted 1905 Russian Revolution, on 5 August of that year Nicholas II issued a manifesto about the convocation of the State Duma, initially thought to be an advisory organ. Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna, the younger sister of Nicholas II, wrote, "There was such gloom at Tsarskoye Selo. I did not understand anything about politics. I just felt everything was going wrong with the country and all of us. The October Constitution did not seem to satisfy anyone. I went with my mother to the first Duma. I remember the large group of deputies from among peasants and factory people. The peasants looked sullen. But the workmen were worse: they looked as though they hated us. I remember the distress in Alicky's eyes." Minister of the Court Count Fredericks commented, "The Deputies, they give one the impression of a gang of criminals who are only waiting for the signal to throw themselves upon the ministers and cut their throats. I will never again set foot among those people." The Dowager Empress noticed "incomprehensible hatred."

In the October Manifesto, the Tsar pledged to introduce basic civil liberties, provide for broad participation in the State Duma, and endow the Duma with legislative and oversight powers. However, determined to preserve autocracy even in the context of reform, he restricted the Duma's authority in many ways—not least of which was an absence of parliamentary control over the appointment or dismissal of cabinet ministers. Nicholas' relations with the Duma were not good. The First Duma, with a majority of Kadets, almost immediately came into conflict with him. Scarcely had the 524 members sat down at the Tauride Palace when they formulated an 'Address to the Throne'. It demanded universal suffrage, radical land reform, the release of all political prisoners and the dismissal of ministers appointed by the Tsar in favour of ministers acceptable to the Duma. Although Nicholas initially had a good relationship with his prime minister, Sergei Witte, Alexandra distrusted him because he had instigated an investigation of Grigori Rasputin, and as the political situation deteriorated, Nicholas dissolved the Duma. The Duma was populated with radicals, many of whom wished to push through legislation that would abolish private property ownership, among other things. Witte, unable to grasp the seemingly insurmountable problems of reforming Russia and the monarchy, wrote to Nicholas on 14 April 1906 resigning his office (however, other accounts have said that Witte was forced to resign by the Emperor). Nicholas was not ungracious to Witte and an Imperial Rescript was published on 22 April creating Witte a Knight of the Order of Saint Alexander Nevsky, with diamonds (the last two words were written in the Emperor's own hand, followed by "I remain unalterably well-disposed to you and sincerely grateful, for ever more Nicholas.").

A second Duma met for the first time in February 1907. The leftist parties—including the Social Democrats and the Social Revolutionaries, who had boycotted the First Duma—had won 200 seats in the Second, more than a third of the membership. Again Nicholas waited impatiently to rid himself of the Duma. In two letters to his mother he let his bitterness flow, "A grotesque deputation is coming from England to see liberal members of the Duma. Uncle Bertie informed us that they were very sorry but were unable to take action to stop their coming. Their famous 'liberty', of course. How angry they would be if a deputation went from us to the Irish to wish them success in their struggle against their government." A little while later Nicholas wrote, "All would be well if everything said in the Duma remained within its walls. Every word spoken, however, comes out in the next day's papers which are avidly read by everyone. In many places the populace is getting restive again. They begin to talk about land once more and are waiting to see what the Duma is going to say on the question. I am getting telegrams from everywhere, petitioning me to order a dissolution, but it is too early for that. One has to let them do something manifestly stupid or mean and then — slap! And they are gone!"

After the Second Duma resulted in similar problems, the new prime minister Pyotr Stolypin (whom Witte described as 'reactionary') unilaterally dissolved it, and changed the electoral laws to allow for future Dumas to have a more conservative content, and to be dominated by the liberal-conservative Octobrist Party of Alexander Guchkov. Stolypin, a skillful politician, had ambitious plans for reform. These included making loans available to the lower classes to enable them to buy land, with the intent of forming a farming class loyal to the crown. Nevertheless, when the Duma remained hostile, Stolypin had no qualms about invoking Article 87 of the Fundamental Laws, which empowered the Tsar to issue 'urgent and extraordinary' emergency decrees 'during the recess of the State Duma'. Stolypin's most famous legislative act, the change in peasant land tenure, was promulgated under Article 87.

The third Duma remained an independent body. This time the members proceeded cautiously. Instead of hurling themselves at the government, opposing parties within the Duma worked to develop the body as a whole. In the classic manner of the British Parliament, the Duma reached for power grasping for the national purse strings. The Duma had the right to question ministers behind closed doors as to their proposed expenditures. These sessions, endorsed by Stolypin, were educational for both sides, and, in time, mutual antagonism was replaced by mutual respect. Even the sensitive area of military expenditure, where the October Manifesto clearly had reserved decisions to the throne, a Duma commission began to operate. Composed of aggressive patriots no less anxious than Nicholas to restore the fallen honour of Russian arms, the Duma commission frequently recommended expenditures even larger than those proposed.

With the passage of time, Nicholas also began to have confidence in the Duma. "This Duma cannot be reproached with an attempt to seize power and there is no need at all to quarrel with it," he said to Stolypin in 1909. Unfortunately, Stolypin's plans were undercut by conservatives at court. Reactionaries such as Prince Vladimir Orlov never tired of telling the Tsar that the very existence of the Duma was a blot on the autocracy, which Tsaritsa Alexandra had always believed anyway. Stolypin, they whispered, was a traitor and secret revolutionary who was conniving with the Duma to steal the prerogatives assigned the Tsar by God. Witte also engaged in constant intrigue against Stolypin. Although Stolypin had had nothing to do with Witte's fall, Witte blamed him. Stolypin had unwittingly angered the Tsaritsa. He had ordered an investigation into Rasputin and presented it to the Tsar, who read it but did nothing. Stolypin, on his own authority, ordered Rasputin to leave St. Petersburg. Alexandra protested vehemently but Nicholas refused to overrule his Prime Minister, who had more influence with the Emperor.

By the time of Stolypin's assassination by Dmitry Bogrov, a student (and police informant) in a theatre in Kiev on 18 September 1911, Stolypin had grown weary of the burdens of office. For a man who preferred clear decisive action, working with a sovereign who believed in fatalism and mysticism was frustrating. As an example, Nicholas once returned a document unsigned with the note: "Despite most convincing arguments in favour of adopting a positive decision in this matter, an inner voice keeps on insisting more and more that I do not accept responsibility for it. So far my conscience has not deceived me. Therefore I intend in this case to follow its dictates. I know that you, too, believe that 'a Tsar's heart is in God's hands.' Let it be so. For all laws established by me I bear a great responsibility before God, and I am ready to answer for my decision at any time." Alexandra, believing that Stolypin had severed the bonds that her son depended on for life, hated the Prime Minister. In March 1911, in a fit of anger stating that he no longer commanded the imperial confidence, Stolypin asked to be relieved of his office. Two years earlier when Stolypin had casually mentioned resigning to Nicholas he was informed:

''"This is not a question of confidence or lack of it. It is my will. Remember that we live in Russia, not abroad...and therefore I shall not consider the possibility of any resignation."''

It never got that far. On 18 September 1911, in a procession where Stolypin's car was unprotected, Rasputin had coincidentally returned from his exile. As Stolypin's car passed him, Rasputin cried out in a loud voice, ''"Death is after him! Death is driving behind him!"'' Bogrov assassinated Stolypin in the Kiev theatre that night.

In 1912, a fourth Duma was elected with almost the same membership as the third. "The Duma started too fast. Now it is slower, but better, and more lasting," stated Nicholas to Sir Bernard Pares.

The First World War was a complete and utter disaster for Russia. By late 1916, among the Romanov family desperation reached the point of which Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich, younger brother of Alexander III and the Tsar's only surviving uncle, was deputed to beg Nicholas to grant a constitution and a government responsible to the Duma. Nicholas sternly refused, reproaching his uncle for asking him to break his coronation oath to maintain autocratic power intact for his successors. In the Duma on 2 December 1916, Vladimir Purishkevich, a fervent patriot, monarchist and war worker, denounced the dark forces which surrounded the throne in a thunderous two hour speech which was tumultuously applauded. "Revolution threatens--" he warned-- "and an obscure peasant shall govern Russia no longer!"

Tsarevich Alexei's illness & Rasputin

Further complicating domestic matters was the matter of the succession. Alexandra bore Nicholas four daughters, the Grand Duchess Olga in 1895, the Grand Duchess Tatiana in 1897, Grand Duchess Maria in 1899, and Grand Duchess Anastasia in 1901, before their son Alexei was born on 12 August 1904. The young heir was afflicted with hemophilia B, a hereditary disease that prevents blood from clotting properly, which at that time was untreatable and usually led to an untimely death. As a granddaughter of Queen Victoria, Alexandra carried the same gene mutation that afflicted several of the major European royal houses, such as Prussia and Spain. Hemophilia therefore became known as "the royal disease". Alexandra had passed it on to her son. As all of Nicholas and Alexandra's daughters perished with their parents and brother in Yekaterinburg in 1918, it is not known whether any of them inherited the gene as carriers.

Because of the fragility of the autocracy at this time, Nicholas and Alexandra chose not to divulge Alexei's condition to anyone outside the royal household. In fact, there were many in the Imperial household who were unaware of the exact nature of the Tsarevich's illness. At first Alexandra turned to Russian doctors and medics to treat Alexei; however, their treatments generally failed, and Alexandra increasingly turned to mystics and holy men (or ''starets'' as they were called in Russian). One of these starets, an illiterate Siberian, Grigori Rasputin, appeared to have some success. Rasputin's influence over Empress Alexandra, and consequently the Tsar, had grown stronger ever since 1912, when the Tsarevich nearly died from an injury while the family was on vacation at the hunting lodges at Bialowieza and Spala (now part of Poland). The bleeding grew steadily worse until it was assumed that the Tsarevich would not survive, and the Last Sacrament was administered on 10 October 1912. Desperate, Alexandra called Rasputin as a last resort, and the reply came, "God has seen your tears and heard your prayers. Do not grieve. The Little One will not die. Do not allow the doctors to bother him too much." The hemorrhage stopped the next day and the boy began to recover. Alexandra took this as a sign that Rasputin was a ''starets'' and that God was with him; for the rest of her life she would defend him and turn her wrath against anyone who dared to question him.

World War I

On 28 June 1914, Archduke Francis Ferdinand was assassinated by Gavrilo Princip, a member of the Serbian nationalist association known as the Black Hand, in Sarajevo. Nicholas vacillated as to Russia's course of action. The outbreak of war was not inevitable, but leaders, diplomats and nineteenth-century alliances created a climate for large-scale conflict. The concept of Pan-Slavism and ethnicity allied Russia and Serbia in a treaty of protection, and Germany and Austria were similarly allied. Territorial conflict created rivalries between Germany and France and between Austria and Serbia, and as a consequence alliance networks developed across Europe. The Triple Entente and Triple Alliance networks were set before the war. The assassination of Ferdinand tripped these alliance networks bringing each country into conflict with one another as each independently declared war. Nicholas wanted neither to abandon Serbia to the ultimatum of Austria-Hungary, nor to provoke a general war. In a series of letters exchanged with Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany (the so-called "Willy and Nicky correspondence") the two proclaimed their desire for peace, and each attempted to get the other to back down. Nicholas took stern measures in this regard, demanding that Russia's mobilization be only against the Austrian border, in the hopes of preventing war with the German Empire. The Russians had no contingency plans for a partial mobilization, and on 31 July 1914 Nicholas took the fateful step of confirming the order for a general mobilization. Nicholas was strongly counselled against mobilization of the Russian forces but chose to ignore such advice. Nicholas put the Russian army on "alert" on July 25. Although this was not mobilization, it threatened the German and Austrian borders and looked like a military declaration of war.

On 28 July, Austria formally declared war against Serbia, bringing Germany into conflict with Russia and with France and Britain as Russia's allies. Count Witte told the French Ambassador Paleologue that from Russia's point of view the war was madness, Slav solidarity was simply nonsense and Russia could hope for nothing from the war. On 31 July Russia completed its mobilization, but still maintained that it would not attack if peace talks were to begin. Germany then replied that Russia must demobilize within the next twelve hours. In Saint Petersburg, at 7pm, with the ultimatum to Russia expired, the German ambassador to Russia met with the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Sazonov, asked three times if Russia would not reconsider and then with shaking hands delivered the note accepting Russia's war challenge and declaring war.

The outbreak of war on 1 August 1914 found Russia grossly unprepared. Russia and her allies placed their faith in her army, the famous 'Russian steamroller'. Its pre-war regular strength was 1,400,000; mobilization added 3,100,000 reserves and millions more stood ready behind them. In every other respect, however, Russia was unprepared for war. Germany had ten times as much railway track per square mile and whereas Russian soldiers travelled an average of to reach the front, German soldiers traveled less than a quarter of that distance. Russian heavy industry was still too small to equip the massive armies the Tsar could raise and her reserves of munitions were pitifully small. With the Baltic Sea barred by German U-boats and the Dardanelles by the guns of Germany's ally, Turkey, Russia initially could receive help only via Archangel which was frozen solid in winter, or via Vladivostok, which was over from the front line. By 1915 a rail line was built north from Petrozavodsk to the Kola Gulf and this connection laid the foundation of the ice-free port of eventually was called Murmansk. The Russian High Command was moreover greatly weakened by the mutual contempt between Vladimir Sukhomlinov, the Minister of War, and the redoubtable warrior giant Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolayevich who commanded the armies in the field. In spite of all of this, an immediate attack was ordered against the German province of East Prussia. The Germans mobilized there with great efficiency and completely defeated the two Russian armies which had invaded. The Battle of Tannenberg where an entire Russian army was annihilated cast an ominous shadow over the empire's future. The loyal officers lost were the very ones needed to protect the dynasty. The Russian armies later had moderate success against both the Austro-Hungarian armies and against the forces of the Ottoman Empire. They never succeeded against the might of the German Army.

Gradually a war of attrition set in on the vast Eastern Front, where the Russians were facing the combined forces of the German and Austro-Hungarian Empires, and they suffered staggering losses. General Denikin, retreating from Galicia wrote, "The German heavy artillery swept away whole lines of trenches, and their defenders with them. We hardly replied. There was nothing with which we could reply. Our regiments, although completely exhausted, were beating off one attack after another by bayonet… Blood flowed unendingly, the ranks became thinner and thinner and thinner. The number of graves multiplied. Total losses for the spring and summer of 1915 amounted to 1,400,000 killed or wounded, while 976,000 had been taken prisoner. On 5 August with the army in retreat, Warsaw fell. Defeat at the front bred disorder at home. At first the targets were German and for three days in June shops, bakeries, factories, private houses and country estates belonging to people with German names were looted and burned. Then the inflamed mobs turned on the government declaring the Empress should be shut up in a convent, the Tsar deposed and Rasputin hanged. Nicholas was by no means deaf to these discontents. An emergency session of the Duma was summoned and a Special Defense Council established, its members drawn from the Duma and the Tsar's ministers.

In July 1915, King Christian X of Denmark, first cousin of the Tsar, sent Hans Niels Andersen to Tsarskoye Selo with an offer to act as a mediator. He made several trips between London, Berlin and Petrograd and in July saw the Dowager Empress Maria Fyodorovna. Andersen told her they should conclude peace. Nicholas chose to turn down King Christian's offer of mediation.

The energetic and efficient General Alexei Polivanov replaced Sukhomlinov as Minister of War, which failed to improve the strategic situation. In the aftermath of The Great Retreat and the loss of the Kingdom of Poland, Nicholas assumed the role of commander-in-chief after dismissing his cousin, Nikolay Nikolayevich, in September 1915. This was a mistake, as he came to be personally associated with the continuing losses at the front. He was also away at the remote HQ at Mogilev, far from the direct governance of the empire, and when revolution broke out in Petrograd he was unable to halt it. In reality the move was largely symbolic, since all important military decisions were made by his chief-of-staff General Michael Alexeiev, and Nicholas did little more than review troops, inspect field hospitals, and preside over military luncheons.

The Duma was still calling for political reforms and political unrest continued throughout the war. Cut off from public opinion, Nicholas could not see that the dynasty was in decline. With Nicholas at the front, domestic issues and control of the capital were left with his wife Alexandra. However, Alexandra's relationship with Grigori Rasputin, and her German background, further discredited the dynasty's authority. Nicholas had been repeatedly warned about the destructive influence of Grigori Rasputin but had failed to remove him. Rumours and accusations about Alexandra and Rasputin appeared one after another. Alexandra was even brought under allegations of treason and undermining the government due to her German roots. On August 18 (31), 1914 by the order of Nicholas II the capital was renamed Petrograd (Slavic for 'Petersburg'), in response to increasing war-time Germanophobia. Anger at Nicholas's failure to act and the extreme damage that Rasputin's influence was doing to Russia's war effort and to the monarchy led to his (Rasputin's) murder by a group of nobles, led by Prince Felix Yusupov and Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich, a cousin of the Tsar, on 16 December 1916.

The collapse of his reign

As the government failed to produce supplies, there was mounting hardship creating massive riots and rebellions. With Nicholas away at the front in 1915, authority appeared to collapse (Empress Alexandra ran the government from Petrograd from 1915), and the capital was left in the hands of strikers and mutineering conscript soldiers. Despite efforts by the British Ambassador Sir George Buchanan to warn the Tsar that he should grant constitutional reforms to fend off revolution, Nicholas continued to bury himself away at the Staff HQ (Stavka) away at Moghilev, leaving his capital and court open to intrigues and insurrection. By early 1917, Russia was on the verge of total collapse. The army had taken 15 million men from the farms and food prices had soared. An egg cost four times what it had in 1914, butter five times as much. The severe winter dealt the railways, overburdened by emergency shipments of coal and supplies, the final blow. Russia began the war with 20,000 locomotives; by 1917 9,000 were in service, while the number of serviceable railway wagons had dwindled from half a million to 170,000. In February 1917, 1,200 locomotives burst their boilers and nearly 60,000 wagons were immobilised. In Petrograd supplies of flour and fuel all but disappeared. War-time prohibition of alcohol was enacted by Nicholas in order to boost patriotism and productivity, but instead damaged the treasury and funding of the war due to the treasury now being deprived of alcohol taxes.

On 23 February 1917 in Petrograd a combination of very severe cold weather allied with acute food shortages caused people to start to break shop windows to get bread and other necessaries. In the streets, red banners appeared and the crowds chanted "Down with the German woman! Down with Protopopov! Down with the war!" Police started to shoot at the populace from rooftops which incited riots. The troops in the capital were poorly motivated and their officers had no reason to be loyal to the regime. They were angry and full of revolutionary fervor and sided with the populace. The Tsar's Cabinet begged Nicholas to return to the capital and offered to resign completely. Five hundred miles away the Tsar, misinformed by Protopopov that the situation was under control, ordered that firm steps be taken against the demonstrators. For this task the Petrograd garrison was quite unsuitable. The cream of the old regular army lay in their graves in Poland and Galicia. In Petrograd 170,000 recruits, country boys or older men from the working-class suburbs of the capital itself, remained to keep control under the command of wounded officers invalided from the front, and cadets from the military academies. Many units, lacking both officers and rifles, had never undergone formal training. General Khabalov attempted to put the Tsar's instructions into effect on the morning of Sunday, 11 March 1917. Despite huge posters ordering people to keep off the streets, vast crowds gathered and were only dispersed after some 200 had been shot dead, though a company of the Volinsky Regiment fired into the air rather than into the mob, and a company of the Pavlovsky Life Guards shot the officer who gave the command to open fire. Nicholas, informed of the situation by Rodzianko, ordered reinforcements to the capital and suspended the Duma. It was all too late.

On 12 March the Volinsky Regiment mutinied and was quickly followed by the Semenovsky, the Ismailovsky, the Litovsky and even the legendary Preobrazhensky Regiment of Guard, the oldest and staunchest regiment founded by Peter the Great. The arsenal was pillaged, the Ministry of the Interior, Military Government building, police headquarters, the Law Courts and a score of police buildings were put to the torch. By noon the fortress of Peter and Paul with its heavy artillery was in the hands of the insurgents. By nightfall 60,000 soldiers had joined the revolution. Order broke down and members of the Parliament (Duma) formed a Provisional Government to try to restore order but it was impossible to turn the tide of revolutionary change. Already the Duma and the Soviet had formed the nucleus of a Provisional Government and decided that Nicholas must abdicate. Faced with this demand, which was echoed by his generals, deprived of loyal troops, with his family firmly in the hands of the Provisional Government and fearful of unleashing civil war and opening the way for German conquest, Nicholas had no choice but to submit. At the end of the "February Revolution" of 1917 (February in the Old Russian Calendar), on 2 March (Julian Calendar)/ 15 March (Gregorian Calendar) 1917, Nicholas II chose to abdicate. He firstly abdicated in favour of Tsarevich Alexei, but swiftly changed his mind after advice from doctors that the heir would not live long apart from his parents who would be forced into exile. Nicholas drew up a new manifesto naming his brother, Grand Duke Michael, as the next Emperor of all the Russias. He issued the following statement (which was suppressed by the Provisional Government):

''"In the days of the great struggle against the foreign enemies, who for nearly three years have tried to enslave our fatherland, the Lord God has been pleased to send down on Russia a new heavy trial. Internal popular disturbances threaten to have a disastrous effect on the future conduct of this persistent war. The destiny of Russia, the honor of our heroic army, the welfare of the people and the whole future of our dear fatherland demand that the war should be brought to a victorious conclusion whatever the cost. The cruel enemy is making his last efforts, and already the hour approaches when our glorious army together with our gallant allies will crush him. In these decisive days in the life of Russia, We thought it Our duty of conscience to facilitate for Our people the closest union possible and a consolidation of all national forces for the speedy attainment of victory. In agreement with the Imperial Duma We have thought it well to renounce the Throne of the Russian Empire and to lay down the supreme power. As We do not wish to part from Our beloved son, We transmit the succession to Our brother, the Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich, and give Him Our blessing to mount the Throne of the Russian Empire. We direct Our brother to conduct the affairs of state in full and inviolable union with the representatives of the people in the legislative bodies on those principles which will be established by them, and on which He will take an inviolable oath. In the name of Our dearly beloved homeland, We call on Our faithful sons of the fatherland to fulfill their sacred duty to the fatherland, to obey the Tsar in the heavy moment of national trials, and to help Him, together with the representatives of the people, to guide the Russian Empire on the road to victory, welfare, and glory. May the Lord God help Russia!"''

Grand Duke Mikhail declined to accept the throne until the people were allowed to vote through a Constituent Assembly for the continuance of the monarchy or a republic. The abdication of Nicholas II and the subsequent Bolshevik revolution brought three centuries of the Romanov dynasty's rule to an end. The fall of autocratic Tsardom brought joy to Liberals and Socialists in Britain and France and made it possible for the United States of America, the first foreign government to recognise the Provisional government, to enter the war early in April fighting in an alliance of democracies against an alliance of empires. In Russia, the announcement of the Tsar's abdication was greeted with many emotions. These included delight, relief, fear, anger and confusion.

Final months and murder

Nicholas desperately wanted to go into exile in the United Kingdom following his abdication. The British government initially offered him asylum in England, but this was overruled by King George V who, acting on the advice of his secretary Lord Stamfordham, was worried that Nicholas' presence in the UK might provoke an uprising.

In August 1917, the Kerensky government evacuated the Romanovs to Tobolsk in the Urals, allegedly to protect them from the rising tide of revolution. There they lived in the former Governor's Mansion in considerable comfort. In October 1917, however, the Bolsheviks seized power from Kerensky's Provisional Government; Nicholas followed the events in October with interest but as yet no alarm. He continued to underestimate Lenin's importance but already began to feel that his abdication had done Russia more harm than good. In the meantime he and his family occupied themselves with keeping warm. Conditions of imprisonment became more strict, and talk of putting Nicholas on trial grew more frequent. The Tsar was forbidden to wear epaulettes.

On 1 March 1918, the family was placed on soldier's rations, which meant parting with ten devoted servants and giving up butter and coffee as luxuries. What kept the family's spirits up was the belief that help was at hand. The Romanovs believed that various plots were underway to break them out of captivity and smuggle them to safety. But on 30 April 1918 they were transferred to their final destination: the town of Yekaterinburg, where they were imprisoned in the two-story Ipatiev House, the home of the military engineer Nikolay Nikolayevich Ipatiev, which ominously became referred to as the 'house of special purpose'.

In May 1918, central Russia was invaded by Czech Legion ("White Czechs"). On May 26 they captured Chelyabinsk, executing all members of the local Soviet; on May 31 at Petropavlovsk they shot all 20 members of the local Soviet. The Komuch government formed on June 8 in Samara after the Czechs occupied the city. More than 5000 people in the Volga region fell the victims of this regime through the autumn of 1918.

On the night of 16/17 July 1918, the royal family was awakened around 2:00 am, told to dress, and led down into a half-basement room at the back of the Ipatiev house; the pretext for this move was the family's safety—that anti-Bolshevik forces were approaching Yekaterinburg, and the house might be fired upon. There are also unsubstantiated claims that the family was led to the basement under the pretense that family photographs would be made. Present with Nicholas, Alexandra and their children were their doctor and three of their servants, who had voluntarily chosen to remain with the family—the Tsar's personal physician Eugene Botkin, his wife's maid Anna Demidova, and the family's chef, Ivan Kharitonov, and footman, Alexei Trupp. A firing squad had been assembled and was waiting in an adjoining room, composed of seven Communist soldiers from Central Europe, and three local Bolsheviks, all under the command of Bolshevik officer Yakov Yurovsky (the soldiers are often described as Hungarians; in his account, Yurovsky described them as "Latvians"). Nicholas was carrying his son; when the family arrived in the basement, the former empress complained that there were no chairs for them to sit in. Yurovsky ordered chairs brought in, and when the empress and the heir were seated, the executioners filed into the room. Yurovsky announced to them that they had been condemned to death by the Ural Soviet of Workers' Deputies. A stunned Nicholas asked, "What? What?" and turned toward his family. Accounts differ on whether Yurovsky quickly repeated the order or whether he simply shot the former emperor outright. One witness among the several who later wrote accounts of Nicholas's last moments reported that the Tsar said, "You know not what you do," paraphrasing Jesus's words on the cross.

The executioners drew revolvers and the shooting began. Nicholas was the first to die; Yurovsky shot him multiple times in the chest (sometimes incorrectly said the head, since his skull bore no bullet wounds when it was discovered in 1991). Anastasia, Tatiana, Olga, and Maria survived the first hail of bullets; the sisters were wearing over 1.3 kilograms of diamonds and precious gems sewn into their clothing, which provided some initial protection from the bullets and bayonets. They were stabbed with bayonets and then shot at close range in the head.

An announcement from the Presidium of the Ural Regional Soviet of the Workers' and Peasants' Government emphasized that conspiracies had been exposed to free the ex-tsar, as well as how counter-revolutionary forces were pressing in on Soviet Russian territory, and that the ex-tsar was guilty of unforgivable crimes against the nation.

"In view of the enemy's proximity to Yekaterinburg and the exposure by the Cheka of a serious White Guard plot with the goal of abducting the former Tsar and his family...In light of the approach of counterrevolutionary bands toward the Red capital of the Urals and the possibility of the crowned executioner escaping trial by the people (a plot among the White Guards to try to abduct him and his family was exposed and the compromising documents will be published), the Presidum of the Ural Regional Soviet, fulfilling the will of the Revolution, resolved to shoot the former Tsar, Nikolai Romanov, who is guilty of countless, bloody, violent acts against the Russian people."

Identification

In 1979, the bodies of Tsar Nicholas II, Tsarina Alexandra, three of their daughters, and those of four non-family members killed with them, were discovered near Sverdlovsk by amateur archaeologist Alexander Avdonin. In January 1998, the remains excavated from underneath the dirt road near Yekaterinburg were officially identified as those of Nicholas II and his family (excluding one of the sisters, and Alexei). The identifications by separate Russian, British and American scientists using DNA analysis concur and were found to be conclusive. After the testing, the remains were finally interred at St. Peter and Paul Cathedral in Saint Petersburg on 17 July 1998, eighty years after they were executed.

In July 2007, 46-year-old builder Sergei Pogorelov (part of a team from an amateur history group who spent free summer weekends looking for the lost Romanovs) said that after stumbling on a small burned area of ground covered with nettles near Yekaterinburg he had discovered bones that belonged to "a boy and a young woman roughly the ages of Nicholas’ 13-year-old hemophiliac son, Alexei, and a daughter whose remains also never have been found."

On 23 August 2007, acting on standard procedures, prosecutors reopened the investigation surrounding the deaths of the Imperial Family.

On 30 April 2008, DNA tests performed by a US laboratory proved that bone fragments exhumed in the Ural Mountains belonged to two children of Nicholas II, son Alexei (b. 1904) and daughter Maria (b. 1899), according to Russian news agencies. That same day it was announced by Russian authorities that the remains of the entire family had been identified.

On 1 October 2008, Russia's Supreme Court ruled that Nicholas II and his family were victims of political repression and should be rehabilitated. In March 2009, results of the DNA testing were published, confirming that the two bodies discovered in 2007 were those of Alexei and his sister Maria.

Nicholas belonged to the paternal haplogroup R1b; based upon Y-STR DNA test results on his remains, which have also been validated with results from a living relative. The Tsar belonged to the maternal haplogroup T based upon mitochondrial DNA mutations: 16126C, 16169Y, 16294T, 16296T, 73G, 263G, and 315.1C.

Sainthood

Name	Tsar Nicholas II of Russia
Birth date	May 18, 1868
Death date	July 17, 1918
Feast day	17 July
Venerated in	Eastern Orthodoxy
Birth place	Tsarskoye Selo,St. Petersburg Russia
Death place	Yekaterinburg, Russian SFSR
Titles	Tsar-Martyr Nicholas II of Russia Royal Passion-Bearer Tsar Nicholas II of Russia
Canonized date	1981 and 2000
Canonized place	Russia
Canonized by	Russian Orthodox Church Abroad and the Russian Orthodox Church
Major shrine	Church on Blood, Ekaterinburg, Russia
Issues	}}

In 1981, Nicholas and his immediate family were recognised as martyred saints by the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia. On 14 August 2000, they were recognised by the synod of the Russian Orthodox Church. This time they were not named as martyrs, since their deaths did not result immediately from their Christian faith; instead, they were canonized as passion bearers. According to a statement by the Moscow synod, they were glorified as saints for the following reasons:

''"In the last Orthodox Russian monarch and members of his family we see people who sincerely strove to incarnate in their lives the commands of the Gospel. In the suffering borne by the Royal Family in prison with humility, patience, and meekness, and in their martyrs deaths in Yekaterinburg in the night of 17 July 1918 was revealed the light of the faith of Christ that conquers evil."''

However, Nicholas's canonization was controversial. The Russian Orthodox Church Abroad was split on the issue back in 1981, some members suggesting that the emperor was a weak ruler and had failed to prevent the outbreak of Communism in Russia. It was pointed out by one priest that martyrdom in the Russian Orthodox Church has nothing to do with the martyr's personal actions but is instead related to why he or she was killed. The Russian Orthodox Church inside Russia rejected the family's classification as martyrs because they were not killed because of their religious faith. Religious leaders in both churches also had objections to canonizing the Tsar's family because they perceived him as a weak emperor whose incompetence led to the revolution and the suffering of his people and made him at least partially responsible for his own murder and those of his wife and children. For these opponents, the fact that the Tsar was, in private life, a kind man and a good husband and father did not override his poor governance of Russia.

Despite the original opposition, the Russian Orthodox Church inside Russia ultimately recognised the family as "passion bearers," or people who met their deaths with Christian humility. The Church does not, however, recognize the remains interred at Peter and Paul Cathedral as being those of the Imperial Family.

Assessment

Nicholas is generally considered to have been incompetent at the colossal task of ruling the enormous Russian Empire. Historian Barbara Tuchman gives a damning evaluation of his reign:

[The Russian Empire] was ruled from the top by a sovereign who had but one idea of government—to preserve intact the absolute monarchy bequeathed to him by his father—and who, lacking the intellect, energy or training for his job, fell back on personal favorites, whim, simple mulishness, and other devices of the empty-headed autocrat. His father, Alexander III, who deliberately intended to keep his son uneducated in statecraft until the age of thirty, unfortunately miscalculated his own life expectancy, and died when Nicholas was twenty-six. The new Tsar had learned nothing in the interval, and the impression of imperturbability he conveyed was in reality apathy—the indifference of a mind so shallow as to be all surface. When a telegram was brought to him announcing the annihilation of the Russian fleet at Tsushima, he read it, stuffed it in his pocket, and went on playing tennis.

In Russia, Nicholas II faced widespread criticism after the victory of the Revolution. Pavel Bykov, who in Russia wrote the first full account about the downfall of the Tsar, denounced Nicholas as a "tyrant, who paid with his life for the age-old repression and arbitrary rule of his ancestors over the Russian people, over the impoverished and blood-soaked country". Soviet-era historians noted that Nicholas II was not fit to be a statesman. It has been argued that he had a weak will and was manipulated by adventurist forces. His regime was condemned for extensive use of the army, police, and courts to destroy the revolutionary movement. He was criticized for fanning nationalism and chauvinism. With the punitive expeditions and courts-martial during the 1905 Revolution, the monarch became known as "Nicholas the Bloody". Nicholas' reign was seen as a time of suffering for Russians.

Robert K. Massie provides a more sympathetic view of the Tsar:

...there still are those who for political or other reasons continue to insist that Nicholas was "Bloody Nicholas." Most commonly, he is described as shallow, weak, stupid—a one-dimensional figure presiding feebly over the last days of a corrupt and crumbling system. This, certainly, is the prevailing public image of the last Tsar. Historians admit that Nicholas was a "good man"--the historical evidence of personal charm, gentleness, love of family, deep religious faith and strong Russian patriotism is too overwhelming to be denied-—but they argue that personal factors are irrelevant; what matters is that Nicholas was a bad tsar....Essentially, the tragedy of Nicholas II was that he appeared in the wrong place in history.

Ancestors

Patrilineal descent

Nicholas's patriline is the line from which he is descended father to son.

Patrilineal descent is the principle behind membership in royal houses, as it can be traced back through the generations — which means that if Nicholas II were to have chosen an historically accurate house name it would have been Oldenburg, as all his male-line ancestors were of that house. See also Tsars of Russia family tree.

House of Oldenburg: # Egilmar I of Lerigau, death date unknown # Egilmar II of Lerigau, d. 1141 # Christian I of Oldenburg, d. 1167 # Moritz of Oldenburg, d. 1209 # Christian II of Oldenburg, d. 1233 # John I, Count of Oldenburg, d. 1275 # Christian III, Count of Oldenburg, d. 1285 # John II, Count of Oldenburg, d. 1314 # Conrad I, Count of Oldenburg, 1300–1347 # Christian V, Count of Oldenburg, 1340–1423 # Dietrich, Count of Oldenburg, 1398–1440 # Christian I of Denmark, 1426–1481 # Frederick I of Denmark, 1471–1533 # Adolf, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp, 1526–1586 # John Adolf, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp, 1575–1616 # Frederick III, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp, 1597–1659 # Christian Albert, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp, 1641–1695 # Frederick IV, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp, 1671–1702 # Charles Frederick, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp, 1700–1739 # Peter III of Russia, 1728–1762, putative father of # Paul I of Russia, 1754–1801 # Nicholas I of Russia, 1796–1855 # Alexander II of Russia, 1818–1881 # Alexander III of Russia, 1845–1894 # Nicholas II of Russia, 1868–1918

Descent from Rurik

Nicholas's family, the Romanovs, were originally in-laws of the Rurikids, with no Rurikid blood in them until the Grand Duchess Anna Petrovna of Russia married Charles Frederick, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp, who descends from the Grand Dukes of Kiev and the legendary Viking ruler of Russia, Rurik. See also Rurikid Dynasty.

# Rurik # Igor of Kiev # Sviatoslav I of Kiev # Vladimir the Great # Yaroslav I the Wise # Vladimir II Monomakh # Mstislav I of Kiev # Ingeborg of Kiev # Valdemar I of Denmark # Valdemar II of Denmark # Erik IV of Denmark # Sofia of Denmark # Ingeborg Valdemarsdotter of Sweden # Gerhard IV, Count of Holstein-Itzehoe-Plön # Ingeborg of Holstein # Christian V, Count of Oldenburg # Dietrich, Count of Oldenburg # Christian I of Denmark # Frederic I of Denmark # Adolf, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp # John Adolf, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp # Frederick III, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp # Christian Albert, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp # Frederick IV, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp # Charles Frederick, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp # Peter III of Russia # Paul I of Russia # Nicholas I of Russia # Alexander II of Russia # Alexander III of Russia # Nicholas II of Russia

Children

The children of Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra are as follows: Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna of Russia

!Image!!Name!!Birth!!Death!!Notes
align=center	90px	Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna||		17 July 1918	Shot at Yekaterinburg by the Bolsheviks.
align=center	90px	Grand Duchess Tatiana Nikolaevna of Russia>Grand Duchess Tatiana Nikolaevna
align=center	90px	Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna of Russia (1899–1918)>Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna
align=center	90px	Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia>Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna
align=center	90px	Alexei Nikolaevich, Tsarevich of Russia>Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich

Titles and styles

''His Imperial Highness'' Grand Duke Nikolay Alexandrovich of Russia (1868–1881)

''His Imperial Highness'' The Tsarevitch of Russia (1881–1894)

''His Imperial Majesty'' The Emperor and Autocrat of All the Russias (1894–1917)

Citizen Nicholas Alexandroviсh Romanov (1917–1918)

Titles of the Imperial Crown of Russia

The full title of Russian emperors started with "by the Grace of God, Emperor and Autocrat of All the Russias, of Moscow, Kiev, Vladimir, Novgorod, Tsar of Kazan, Tsar of Astrakhan, Tsar of Poland, Tsar of Siberia, Tsar of Tauric Chersonesos, Tsar of Georgia, Lord of Pskov, and Grand Duke of Smolensk, Lithuania, Volhynia, Podolia, and Finland, Prince of Estonia, Livonia, Courland and Semigalia, Samogitia, Belostok, Karelia, Tver, Yugra, Perm, Vyatka, Bulgaria and other territories; Lord and Grand Duke of Nizhni Novgorod, Sovereign of Chernigov, Ryazan, Polotsk, Rostov, Yaroslavl, Beloozero, Udoria, Obdoria, Kondia, Vitebsk, Mstislavl, and all northern territories; Sovereign of Iveria, Kartalinia, and the Kabardinian lands and Armenian territories - hereditary Lord and Ruler of the Circassians and Mountain Princes and others; Lord of Turkestan, Heir of Norway, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein, Stormarn, Dithmarschen, Oldenburg," and continued through so long a list of ancillary titles that even Massie did not bother to list them all in ''Nicholas and Alexandra.''

Depictions in literature and popular culture

Ralph Morgan in ''Rasputin and the Empress'' (1933)

Michael Jayston in ''Nicholas and Alexandra'' (1971)

Charles Kay in the BBC production ''Fall of Eagles'' (1973)

Omar Sharif in NBC's ''Anastasia: The Mystery of Anna'' (1986)

Ian McKellen in ''Rasputin: Dark Servant of Destiny'' (1996)

Ivan Marevich in the BBC production ''The Lost Prince'' (2003)

A great-great-grandfather of a character in The Last Wizard of the Century, the 3rd Movie of the Case Closed series.

Ted Neeley in the rock opera Rasputin – Miracles Lie in the Eye of the Beholder

Fictional lover of Mathilde-Marie Felixovna Kschessinska in ''The True Memoirs of Little K'', novel by Adrienne Sharp (2010)

References

Further reading

The Sokolov Report, in Victor Alexandrov, "The End of The Romanovs", London: 1966

Boris Antonov, ''Russian Czars'', St. Petersburg, Ivan Fiodorov Art Publishers (ISBN 5-93893-109-6)

Michael M. Baden, ''Chapter III: Time of Death and Changes after Death. Part 4: Exhumation'', In: Spitz, W.U. & Spitz, D.J. (eds): ''Spitz and Fisher’s Medicolegal Investigation of Death. Guideline for the Application of Pathology to Crime Investigations (Fourth edition).'' Charles C. Thomas, pp.: 174-183, Springfield, Illinois: 2006

Paul Grabbe, "The Private World of the Last Czar" New York: 1985

Ferro, Marc, ''Nicholas II: Last of the Czars''. New York: Oxford University Press (US), 1993 (hardcover, ISBN 0-19-508192-7); 1995 (paperback, ISBN 0-19-509382-8)

Genrikh Ioffe, ''Revoliutsiia i sud'ba Romanovykh'' Moscow: Respublika, 1992

Coryne Hall & John Van der Kiste, ''Once A Grand Duchess : Xenia, Sister of Nicholas II'', Phoenix Mill, Sutton Publishing Ltd., 2002 (hardcover, ISBN 0-7509-2749-6)

Greg King, ''The Court of the Last Czar: Pomp, Power and Pageantry in the Reign of Nicholas II'' 2006

Greg King and Penny Wilson, "The Fate of the Romanovs" 2003

Dominic Lieven, ''Nicholas II: Emperor of All the Russias''. 1993.

Andrei Maylunas and Sergei Mironenko, ''A Lifelong Passion: Nicholas & Alexandra'' 1999

Marvin Lyons, ''Nicholas II The Last Czar'', London, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1974 (hardcover, ISBN 0710078021)

Shay McNeal, "The Secret Plot to Save the Czar" 2001

Robert K. Massie, ''Nicholas and Alexandra'' 1967

Robert K. Massie, ''The Romanovs. The Final Chapter'' 1995, ISBN 0394580486

Bernard Pares, "The Fall of the Russian Monarchy" London: 1939, reprint London: 1988

John Curtis Perry and Konstantin Pleshakov, ''The Flight of the Romanovs''. 1999.

Edvard Radzinsky, '' The Last Tsar: The Life and Death of Nicholas II '' (1992) ISBN 0-385-42371-3.

Samten, Jampa. (2010). "Notes on the Thirteenth Dalai Lama's Confidential Letter to the Tsar of Russia." In: ''The Tibet Journal'', Special issue. Autumn 2009 vol XXXIV n. 3-Summer 2010 vol XXXV n. 2. "The Earth Ox Papers", edited by Roberto Vitali, pp. 357–370.

Mark D. Steinberg and Vladimir M. Khrustalev, ''The Fall of the Romanovs: Political Dreams and Personal Struggles in a Time of Revolution'', New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995.

Anthony Summers and Tom Mangold,'' The File on the Czar''. 1976.

Richard Tames, ''Last of the Czars'', London, Pan Books Ltd, 1972

Andrew M. Verner, ''The Crisis of the Russian Autocracy: Nicholas II and the 1905 Revolution'' 1990

Ian Vorres, ''The Last Grand Duchess'', London, Finedawn Publishers, 1985 (hardcover)

Richard Wortman, ''Scenarios of Power: Myth and Ceremony in Russian Monarchy'', vol. 2 2000

Prince Felix Yussupov, Lost Splendour

Elisabeth Heresch, "Nikolaus II. Feigheit, Lüge und Verrat". F.A.Herbig Verlagsbuchhandlung, München, 1992

''The Complete Wartime Correspondence of Czar Nicholas II and the Empress Alexandra, April 1914 – March 1917''. Edited by Joseph T. Furhmann Fuhrmann. Westport, Conn. and London: 1999

''Letters of Czar Nicholas and Empress Marie'' Ed. Edward J. Bing. London: 1937

''Letters of the Czar to the Czaritsa, 1914–1917'' Trans. from Russian translations from the original English. E. L. Hynes. London and New York: 1929

''Nicky-Sunny Letters: correspondence of the Czar and Czaritsa, 1914–1917''. Hattiesburg, Miss: 1970.

''The Secret Letters of the Last Czar: Being the Confidential Correspondence between Nicholas II and his Mother, Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna''. Ed. Edward J. Bing. New York and Toronto: 1938

''Willy-Nicky Correspondence: Being the Secret and Intimate Telegrams Exchanged Between the Kaiser and the Czar''. Ed. Herman Bernstein. New York: 1917.

Paul Benckendorff, ''Last Days at Czarskoe Selo''. London: 1927

Sophie Buxhoeveden, ''The Life and Tragedy of Alexandra Fedorovna, Empress of Russia: A Biography'' London: 1928

Pierre Gilliard, Thirteen Years at the Russian Court New York: 1921

A. A. Mossolov (Mosolov), At the Court of the Last Czar London: 1935

Anna Vyrubova, ''Memories of the Russian Court'' London: 1923

A.Yarmolinsky, editor, "The Memoirs of Count Witte" New York & Toronto: 1921

Sir George Buchanan (British Ambassador) My Mission to Russia & Other Diplomatic Memories (2 vols, Cassell, 1923)

Meriel Buchanan, Dissolution of an Empire, Cassell, 1932

Gleb Botkin, ''The Real Romanovs'', Fleming H. Revell Co, 1931

Mark D. Steinberg and Vladimir M. Khrustalev, ''The Fall of the Romanovs: Political Dreams and Personal Struggles in a Time of Revolution''. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995

External links

A short biography on Nicholas II

The Execution of Czar Nicholas II, 1918, EyeWitness to History.

Brief Summary of Czar

Abdication Proclamation, 2 March 1917 (the signature was put in pencil) (translation included)

Alexander Palace Time Machine

Nicholas and Alexandra Exhibition

Frozentears.org A Media Library to Nicholas II and his Family.

Scientists Reopen Czar Mystery

Ipatiev House — Romanov Memorial detailed site on the historical context, circumstances and drama surrounding the Romanov's execution

The Murder of Russia's Imperial Family, Nicolay Sokolov. Investigation of execution of the Romanov Imperial Family in 1918. Nikolay II — Life and Death, Edvard Radzinski. Later published in English as ''The Last Czar: the Life and Death of Nicholas II''.

New Russian Martyrs. Czar Nicholas and His Family. A story of life, canonization. Photoalbum.

Russian History Magazine Articles about the Romanovs from Atlantis magazine.

Russia's Last Czar Declared Victim of Repression - October 2008 (''TIME'' magazine)

Resurrecting the Czar - November 2010 (''Smithsonian'' magazine)

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af:Nikolaas II van Rusland am:ዳግማዊ ኒኮላይ ar:نيقولا الثاني an:Nicolau II de Rusia ast:Nicolás II az:II Nikolay bn:রাশিয়ার দ্বিতীয় নিকোলাস be:Мікалай II, імператар расійскі be-x-old:Мікалай II bs:Nikola II, car Rusije bg:Николай II (Русия) ca:Nicolau II de Rússia cs:Mikuláš II. Alexandrovič cy:Niclas II, tsar Rwsia da:Nikolaj 2. af Rusland de:Nikolaus II. (Russland) et:Nikolai II el:Νικόλαος Β' της Ρωσίας es:Nicolás II de Rusia eo:Nikolao la 2-a (Rusio) eu:Nikolas II.a Errusiakoa fa:نیکلای دوم fr:Nicolas II de Russie ga:Nioclás II na Rúise gl:Nicolao II de Rusia kk:Николай ІI ko:니콜라이 2세 hr:Nikola II., ruski car io:Nikolai 2ma id:Nikolai II dari Rusia os:Николай II is:Nikulás 2. it:Nicola II di Russia he:ניקולאי השני, קיסר רוסיה jv:Nikolai II saking Rusia ka:ნიკოლოზ II (რუსეთი) la:Nicolaus II (imperator Russiae) lv:Nikolajs II Romanovs lt:Nikolajus II hu:II. Miklós orosz cár mk:Николај II (Русија) mr:निकोलाय दुसरा, रशिया arz:نيكولاى التانى ms:Nicholas II dari Rusia nl:Nicolaas II van Rusland ja:ニコライ2世 no:Nikolaj II av Russland nn:Nikolaj II av Russland pnb:نکولس II pl:Mikołaj II Romanow pt:Nicolau II da Rússia ro:Nicolae al II-lea al Rusiei ru:Николай II sq:Nikolla II simple:Nicholas II of Russia sk:Mikuláš II. (Rusko) sl:Nikolaj II. Ruski sr:Николај II Александрович sh:Nikola II., ruski car fi:Nikolai II sv:Nikolaj II av Ryssland tl:Nicholas II ng Rusya ta:ரஷ்யாவின் இரண்டாம் நிக்கலாஸ் tt:Николай II th:ซาร์นิโคลัสที่ 2 แห่งรัสเซีย tr:II. Nikolay (Rusya) uk:Микола II (російський імператор) vi:Nikolai II của Nga zh:尼古拉二世 (俄罗斯)

Name	Theodore Roosevelt
Office	26th President of the United States
Vicepresident	Charles Fairbanks
Term start	September 14, 1901
Term end	March 4, 1909
Predecessor	William McKinley
Successor	William Howard Taft
Office2	25th Vice President of the United States
President2	William McKinley
Term start2	March 4, 1901
Term end2	September 14, 1901
Predecessor2	Garret Hobart
Successor2	Charles Fairbanks
Order3	33rd Governor of New York
Lieutenant3	Timothy Woodruff
Term start3	January 1, 1899
Term end3	December 31, 1900
Predecessor3	Frank Black
Successor3	Benjamin Odell
Office4	Assistant Secretary of the Navy
President4	William McKinley
Term start4	April 19, 1897
Term end4	May 10, 1898
Predecessor4	William McAdoo
Successor4	Charles Allen
Birth date	October 27, 1858
Birth place	New York City, New York, U.S.
Death date	January 06, 1919
Death place	Oyster Bay, New York, U.S.
Party	Progressive Party (1912–1916)
Otherparty	Republican Party (Before 1912)
Spouse	Alice Lee (1880–1884)Edith Carrow (1886–1919)
Children	AliceTheodoreKermitEthelArchieQuentin
Alma mater	Harvard UniversityColumbia University
Profession	AuthorHistorianExplorerConservationistCivil servant
Religion	Presbyterianism
Signature	Theodore Roosevelt Signature-2.svg
Signature alt	Cursive signature in ink
Branch	United States Army
Serviceyears	1898
Rank
Commands	1st United States Volunteer Cavalry
Battles	Spanish-American WarBattle of Las GuasimasBattle of San Juan Hill
Awards	Nobel Peace Prize (1906)Medal of Honor (Posthumously; 2001) }}

Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt ( ; October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919) was the 26th President of the United States (1901–1909). He is noted for his exuberant personality, range of interests and achievements, and his leadership of the Progressive Movement, as well as his "cowboy" persona and robust masculinity. He was a leader of the Republican Party and founder of the short-lived Progressive ("Bull Moose") Party of 1912. Before becoming President, he held offices at the city, state, and federal levels. Roosevelt's achievements as a naturalist, explorer, hunter, author, and soldier are as much a part of his fame as any office he held as a politician.

Born into a wealthy family, Roosevelt was a sickly child who suffered from asthma and stayed at home studying natural history. To compensate for his physical weakness, he embraced a strenuous life. Home-schooled, he became an eager student of nature. He attended Harvard University, where he boxed and developed an interest in naval affairs. In 1881, one year out of Harvard, he was elected to the New York State Assembly as its youngest member. Roosevelt's first historical book, ''The Naval War of 1812'' (1882), established his professional reputation as a serious historian. After a few years of operating a cattle ranch in the Dakotas, Roosevelt returned to New York City and gained fame fighting police corruption. The Spanish–American War broke out while Roosevelt was, effectively, running the Department of the Navy. He promptly resigned and led a small regiment in Cuba known as the Rough Riders, earning a nomination for the Medal of Honor, which was received posthumously on his behalf on January 16, 2001. After the war, he returned to New York and was elected Governor in a close-fought election. Within two years, he was elected Vice President of the United States.

In 1901, President William McKinley was assassinated and Roosevelt became President at the age of 42, taking office at the youngest age of any U.S. President in history. Roosevelt attempted to move the Republican Party toward Progressivism, including trust busting and increased regulation of businesses. Roosevelt coined the phrase "Square Deal" to describe his domestic agenda, emphasizing that the average citizen would get a fair share under his policies. As an outdoorsman and naturalist, he promoted the conservation movement. On the world stage, Roosevelt's policies were characterized by his slogan, "Speak softly and carry a big stick". Roosevelt was the force behind the completion of the Panama Canal, sent the Great White Fleet on a world tour to demonstrate American power, and negotiated an end to the Russo-Japanese War, for which he won the Nobel Peace Prize. Roosevelt was the first American to win the Nobel Prize in any field.

Roosevelt declined to run for re-election in 1908. After leaving office, he embarked on a safari to Africa and a tour of Europe. On his return to the U.S., a bitter rift developed between Roosevelt and his anointed successor as president, William Howard Taft. In 1912, Roosevelt attempted to wrest the Republican nomination from Taft, and when he failed, he launched the Bull Moose Party. In the ensuing election, Roosevelt became the only third-party candidate to come in second place, beating Taft but losing to Woodrow Wilson. After the election, Roosevelt embarked on a major expedition to South America; the river on which he traveled now bears his name. He contracted malaria on the trip, which damaged his health, and he died a few years later at the age of 60. Roosevelt has consistently been ranked by scholars as one of the greatest U.S. Presidents.

Family

Genealogy

Roosevelt often described his ancestry as "half Irish and half Dutch." The Roosevelt family, colonists of Dutch origin, had been in New York since the mid-17th century. Roosevelt was born into considerable wealth, for the family by the 19th century had grown in wealth, power, and influence from the profits of several businesses, including hardware and plate-glass importing. The family was strongly Democratic in its political affiliation until the mid-1850s, then joined the new Republican Party. Theodore's father, known in the family as "Thee", was a New York City philanthropist, merchant, and partner in the family glass-importing firm Roosevelt and Son. "Father," as the children called him, was an ardent Unionist, a prominent supporter of Abraham Lincoln and the Union effort during the American Civil War. His mother Martha "Mittie" Bulloch was a Southern belle from a slave-owning family in Roswell, Georgia, and she maintained Confederate sympathies. Mittie's brother, Theodore's uncle, James Dunwoody Bulloch, was a United States Navy officer who became a Confederate admiral and naval procurement officer and secret agent in Britain. Another uncle, Irvine Bulloch, was a midshipman on the Confederate raider ; both remained in England after the war.

Theodore Roosevelt was distantly related by birth to the 32nd president of the United States, Franklin Delano Roosevelt (they were fifth cousins), and he was the uncle of Franklin D. Roosevelt's wife, Eleanor Roosevelt.

Childhood

Theodore Roosevelt was born on October 27, 1858, in a four-story brownstone at 28 East 20th Street, in the modern-day Gramercy section of New York City, the second of four children of Theodore Roosevelt, Sr. (1831–1878) and Martha "Mittie" Bulloch (1835–1884). He had an older sister, Anna, and two younger siblings: his brother Elliott (the father of future First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt) and his sister Corinne.

Sickly and asthmatic as a child, Roosevelt had to sleep propped up in bed or slouching in a chair during much of his early years, and had frequent ailments. Despite his illnesses, he was hyperactive and often mischievous. His lifelong interest in zoology was formed at age seven upon seeing a dead seal at a local market. After obtaining the seal's head, the young Roosevelt and two of his cousins formed what they called the "Roosevelt Museum of Natural History". Learning the rudiments of taxidermy, he filled his makeshift museum with animals that he killed or caught, studied, and prepared for display. At age nine, he codified his observation of insects with a paper titled "The Natural History of Insects".

Encouraged by his father, the boy began exercising and boxing to combat his poor physical condition. Two trips abroad had a lasting impact: family tours of Europe in 1869 and 1870, and Egypt 1872 to 1873.

Theodore, Sr. had a tremendous influence on his son, of whom Roosevelt wrote, "My father, Theodore Roosevelt, was the best man I ever knew. He combined strength and courage with gentleness, tenderness, and great unselfishness. He would not tolerate in us children selfishness or cruelty, idleness, cowardice, or untruthfulness."

Education

Young "Teedie", as he was nicknamed as a child, was mostly home schooled by tutors and his parents. A leading biographer says: "The most obvious drawback to the home schooling Roosevelt received was uneven coverage of the various areas of human knowledge." He was solid in geography (thanks to his careful observations on all his travels) and well-read in history, strong in biology, French, and German, but deficient in mathematics, Latin and Greek.

He matriculated at Harvard College in 1876. His father's death in 1878 was a tremendous blow, but Roosevelt redoubled his activities. He did well in science, philosophy and rhetoric courses but fared poorly in Latin and Greek. He studied biology with considerable interest and was already an accomplished naturalist and published ornithologist. He had a photographic memory and developed a life-long habit of devouring books, memorizing every detail. He was an eloquent conversationalist who, throughout his life, sought out the company of the smartest people. He could multitask in impressive fashion, dictating letters to one secretary and memoranda to another, while browsing through a new book. While at Harvard, Roosevelt was active in rowing, boxing, the Alpha Delta Phi literary society, the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity, and was a member of the Porcellian Club. He also edited a student magazine. He was runner-up in the Harvard boxing championship.

Upon graduating, Roosevelt underwent a physical examination, and his doctor advised him that because of serious heart problems, he should find a desk job and avoid strenuous activity. He chose to embrace strenuous life instead. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa (22nd of 177) from Harvard with an A.B. ''magna cum laude'' in 1880 and entered Columbia Law School. When offered a chance to run for New York Assemblyman in 1881, he dropped out of law school to pursue his new goal of entering public life.

First marriage

In 1880, Roosevelt married Alice Hathaway Lee (July 29, 1861 – February 14, 1884) of Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. She died young of an undiagnosed case of kidney failure (in those days called Bright's disease) two days after their infant Alice was born. Her pregnancy had masked the illness. Theodore Roosevelt's mother Mittie died of typhoid fever on the same day, at 3 am, some eleven hours earlier, in the same house. After the nearly simultaneous deaths of his mother and wife, Roosevelt left his daughter in the care of his sister, Anna "Bamie/Bye" in New York City. In his diary, he wrote a large 'X' on the page and then, "The light has gone out of my life." (See diary photo).

For the rest of his life, Roosevelt never spoke of his wife Alice publicly or privately and did not write about her in his autobiography. As late as 1919, when Roosevelt was working with Joseph Bucklin Bishop on a biography that included a collection of his letters, Roosevelt made no mention of either his first or second marriage, which took place in London.

Early political career

''The Naval War of 1812''

While at Harvard, Roosevelt began a systematic study of the role played by the nascent US Navy in the War of 1812, largely completing two chapters of a book he would publish after graduation. Helped in part by his two uncles, he did his own research using original source materials and official US Navy records. Roosevelt's carefully-researched book was comparable to modern doctoral dissertations, complete with drawings of individual and combined ship maneuvers, charts depicting the differences in iron throw weights of cannon shot between American and British forces, and analyses of the differences between British and American leadership down to the ship-to-ship level. Published after Roosevelt's graduation from college, ''The Naval War of 1812'' was praised for its scholarship and style. This book established Roosevelt's reputation as a serious historian. One modern naval historian wrote: "Roosevelt’s study of the War of 1812 influenced all subsequent scholarship on the naval aspects of the War of 1812 and continues to be reprinted. More than a classic, it remains, after 120 years, a standard study of the war."

State Assemblyman

Roosevelt was a Republican activist during his years in the Assembly, writing more bills than any other New York state legislator did. Already a leading player in state politics, he attended the Republican National Convention in 1884 and fought alongside the Mugwump reformers; they lost to the Stalwart faction that nominated James G. Blaine. Refusing to join other Mugwumps in supporting Grover Cleveland, the Democratic nominee, he debated with his friend Henry Cabot Lodge the pros and cons of staying loyal. When asked by a reporter whether he would support Blaine, he replied, "That question I decline to answer. It is a subject I do not care to talk about." Upon leaving the convention, he complained "off the record" to a reporter about Blaine's nomination. In a crucial moment of his budding political career, he resisted the instinct to bolt from the Party that would overwhelm his political sense in 1912. In an account of the convention, another reporter quoted Roosevelt as saying that he would give "hearty support to any decent Democrat." He would later take great (and to some historical critics such as Henry Pringle, disingenuous) pains to distance himself from his earlier comment, indicating that while he made it, it had not been made "for publication." Leaving the convention with his idealism disillusioned by party politics, Roosevelt said he had no further aspiration but to retire to his ranch in the Badlands of the Dakota Territory, which he had purchased the previous year while on a buffalo hunting expedition.

Cowboy in Dakota

Roosevelt built a second ranch, which he named Elk Horn, thirty-five miles (56 km) north of the boomtown of Medora, North Dakota. On the banks of the Little Missouri, Roosevelt learned to ride western style, rope, and hunt. He rebuilt his life and began writing about frontier life for Eastern magazines. As a deputy sheriff, Roosevelt hunted down three outlaws who stole his river boat and were escaping north with it up the Little Missouri. Capturing them, he decided against hanging them (apparently yielding to established law procedures in place of vigilante justice), and sending his foreman back by boat, he took the thieves back overland for trial in Dickinson, guarding them forty hours without sleep and reading Tolstoy to keep himself awake. When he ran out of his own books, he read a dime store western that one of the thieves was carrying." While searching for a group of relentless horse thieves, Roosevelt met Seth Bullock, the famous sheriff of Deadwood, South Dakota. The two would remain friends for life.

Return to New York

After the uniquely-severe U.S. winter of 1886-1887 wiped out his herd of cattle (together with those of his competitors) and his $60,000 investment, Roosevelt returned to the East. In 1885, he had built Sagamore Hill in Oyster Bay, New York on Long Island, which was his home and estate until his death. In 1886, Roosevelt ran as the Republican candidate for mayor of New York City, portraying himself as "The Cowboy of the Dakotas"; he came in third.

Second marriage

Following the election, he went to London in 1886 and married his childhood sweetheart, Edith Kermit Carow. They honeymooned in Europe, and Roosevelt led a group to the summit of Mont Blanc, an achievement that resulted in his induction into the British Royal Society. They had five children: Theodore Jr., Kermit, Ethel Carow, Archibald Bulloch "Archie", and Quentin.

Reentering public life

Civil Service Commission

In the 1888 presidential election, Roosevelt campaigned in the Midwest for Benjamin Harrison. President Harrison appointed Roosevelt to the United States Civil Service Commission, where he served until 1895. In his term, Roosevelt vigorously fought the spoilsmen and demanded enforcement of civil service laws. His close associate, friend and biographer, Joseph Bucklin Bishop, described Roosevelt's assault on the spoils system:

The very citadel of spoils politics, the hitherto impregnable fortress that had existed unshaken since it was erected on the foundation laid by Andrew Jackson, was tottering to its fall under the assaults of this audacious and irrepressible young man.... Whatever may have been the feelings of the (fellow Republican party) President (Harrison) — and there is little doubt that he had no idea when he appointed Roosevelt that he would prove to be so veritable a bull in a china shop—he refused to remove him and stood by him firmly till the end of his term.

During this time, the ''New York Sun'' described Roosevelt as "irrepressible, belligerent, and enthusiastic"

Despite Roosevelt's support for Harrison's reelection bid in the presidential election of 1892, the eventual winner, Grover Cleveland (a Bourbon Democrat), reappointed him to the same post.

New York City Police Commissioner

Roosevelt became president of the board of New York City Police Commissioners in 1895. During his two years in this post, Roosevelt radically reformed the police department. The police force was reputed as one of the most corrupt in America. The NYPD's history division records that Roosevelt was "an iron-willed leader of unimpeachable honesty, (who) brought a reforming zeal to the New York City Police Commission in 1895." Roosevelt and his fellow commissioners established new disciplinary rules, created a bicycle squad enforce New York's traffic laws, and standardized the use of pistols by officers. Roosevelt implemented regular inspections of firearms and annual physical exams, appointed 1,600 new recruits based on their physical and mental qualifications and not on political affiliation, established meritorious service medals, and closed corrupt police hostelries. During his tenure, a Municipal Lodging House was established by the Board of Charities, and Roosevelt required officers to register with the Board. He also had telephones installed in station houses.

In 1894, Roosevelt met Jacob Riis, the muckraking ''Evening Sun'' newspaper journalist who was opening the eyes of New York's rich to the terrible conditions of the city's millions of poor immigrants with such books as, ''How the Other Half Lives.'' In Riis' autobiography, he described the effect of his book on the new police commissioner:

Roosevelt made a habit of walking officers' beats late at night and early in the morning to make sure they were on duty. As Governor of New York State before becoming Vice President in March 1901, Roosevelt signed an act replacing the Police Commissioners with a single Police Commissioner.

Emergence as a national figure

Assistant Secretary of the Navy

Roosevelt had always been fascinated by naval history. Urged by Roosevelt's close friend, Congressman Henry Cabot Lodge, President William McKinley appointed a Roosevelt to the post of Assistant Secretary of the Navy in 1897. Because of the inactivity of Secretary of the Navy John D. Long, this gave Roosevelt control over the department. Ten days after the battleship ''Maine'' exploded in the harbor of Havana, Cuba, the Secretary left for a massage, and Roosevelt became Acting Secretary for four hours. Roosevelt told the Navy worldwide to prepare for war, ordered ammunition and supplies, brought in experts, and went to Congress asking authority to recruit as many sailors as he wanted, thus moving the nation toward war. Roosevelt was instrumental in preparing the Navy for the Spanish-American War and was an enthusiastic supporter of testing the U.S. military in combat, at one point saying, "I should welcome almost any war, for I think this country needs one".

War in Cuba

Upon the 1898 Declaration of War launching the Spanish-American War, Roosevelt resigned from the Navy Department. With the aid of U.S. Army Colonel Leonard Wood, Roosevelt found volunteers from cowboys from the Western territories to Ivy League friends from New York, forming the First U.S. Volunteer Cavalry Regiment. The newspapers called them the "Rough Riders."

Originally, Roosevelt held the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and served under Colonel Wood. In Roosevelt's own account, ''The Rough Riders'', "after General Young was struck down with the fever, Wood took charge of the brigade. This left me in command of the regiment, of which I was very glad, for such experience as we had had is a quick teacher." Accordingly, Wood was promoted to Brigadier General of Volunteer Forces, and Roosevelt was promoted to Colonel and given command of the Regiment.

Under his leadership, the Rough Riders became famous for dual charges up Kettle Hill and San Juan Hill on July 1, 1898 (the battle was named after the latter "hill," which was the shoulder of a ridge known as San Juan Heights). Out of all the Rough Riders, Roosevelt was the only one with a horse, as the troopers' horses had been left behind because transport ships were scarce. He rode back and forth between rifle pits at the forefront of the advance up Kettle Hill, an advance that he urged in absence of any orders from superiors. He was forced to walk up the last part of Kettle Hill on foot, because of barbed wire entanglement and after his horse, Little Texas, tired.

For his actions, Roosevelt was nominated for the Medal of Honor, which was later disapproved. As historian John Gable wrote, "In later years Roosevelt would describe the Battle of San Juan Hill on July 1, 1898, as 'the great day of my life' and 'my crowded hour.'.... (but) Malaria and other diseases now killed more troops than had died in battle. In August, Roosevelt and other officers demanded that the soldiers be returned home. The famous 'round robin letter', and a stronger letter by Roosevelt – now acting brigade commander – were leaked to the press by the commanding general, enraging Secretary of War, Russell Alger and President McKinley. Roosevelt believed that it was this incident that cost him the Medal of Honor."

In September 1997, Congressman Rick Lazio, representing the 2nd District of New York, sent two award recommendations to the U.S. Army Military Awards Branch. These recommendations, addressed to Brigadier General Earl Simms, the Army's Adjutant General, and Master Sergeant Gary Soots, Chief of Authorizations, were successful in garnering the award. In 2001, Roosevelt was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions. The medal is displayed in the Roosevelt Room of the White House. He was the first and, thus far, the only President of the United States to be awarded America's highest military honor, and the only person in history to receive both his nation's highest honor for military valor and the world's foremost prize for peace. His oldest son, Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., would also be awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously, for his actions at Normandy on June 6, 1944.

After return to civilian life, Roosevelt preferred to be known as "Colonel Roosevelt" or "The Colonel." As a moniker, "Teddy" remained much more popular with the public, despite the fact he found it vulgar and called it "an outrageous impertinence." Political friends and others working closely with Roosevelt customarily addressed him by his rank.

Governor and Vice-President

On leaving the Army, Roosevelt was elected governor of New York in 1898 as a Republican. He made such an effort to root out corruption and "machine politics" that Republican boss Thomas Collier Platt forced him on McKinley as a running mate in the 1900 election, against the wishes of McKinley's manager, Senator Mark Hanna. Roosevelt was a powerful campaign asset for the Republican ticket, which defeated William Jennings Bryan in a landslide based on restoration of prosperity at home and a successful war and new prestige abroad. Bryan stumped for Free Silver again, but McKinley's promise of prosperity through the gold standard, high tariffs, and the restoration of business confidence enlarged his margin of victory. Bryan had strongly supported the war against Spain, but denounced the annexation of the Philippines as imperialism that would spoil America's innocence. Roosevelt countered with many speeches that argued it was best for the Filipinos to have stability, and the Americans to have a proud place in the world. Roosevelt's six months as Vice President (March to September 1901) were uneventful. On September 2, 1901, at the Minnesota State Fair, Roosevelt first used in a public speech a saying that would later be universally associated with him: "Speak softly and carry a big stick, and you will go far."

Presidency 1901–1909

On September 6, President McKinley was shot while at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. Initial reports in the succeeding days suggested his condition was improving, so Roosevelt embarked on a vacation at Mount Marcy in northeastern New York. He was returning from a climb to the summit on September 13 when a park ranger brought him a telegram informing him that McKinley's condition had deteriorated, and he was near death.

Roosevelt and his family immediately departed for Buffalo. When they reached the nearest train station at North Creek, at 5:22 am on September 14, he received another telegram informing him that McKinley had died a few hours earlier. Roosevelt arrived in Buffalo that afternoon, and was sworn in there as President at 3:30 pm by U.S. District Judge John R. Hazel.

Roosevelt kept McKinley's cabinet and promised to continue McKinley's policies. One of his first notable acts as president was to deliver a 20,000-word address to Congress asking it to curb the power of large corporations (called "trusts"). For his aggressive attacks on trusts over his two terms, he has been called a "trust-buster."

In the 1904 presidential election, Roosevelt won the presidency in his own right in a landslide victory. His vice president was Charles Fairbanks.

Roosevelt also dealt with union workers. In May 1902, United Mine Workers went on strike to get higher pay wages and shorter workdays. He set up a fact-finding commission that stopped the strike, and resulted in the workers getting more pay for fewer hours.

In August 1902, Roosevelt was the first president to be seen riding in an automobile in public. This took place in Hartford, CT. The car was a Columbia Electric Victoria Phaeton, manufactured in Hartford. The police squad rode bicycles alongside the car. (The reference includes a photo of the event.)

In 1905, he issued a corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, which allows the United States to "exercise international policy power" so they can intervene and keep smaller countries on their feet.

Roosevelt helped the wellbeing of people by passing laws such as The Meat Inspection Act of 1906 and The Pure Food and Drug Act. The Meat Inspection Act of 1906 banned misleading labels and preservatives that contained harmful chemicals. The Pure Food and Drug Act banned food and drugs that are impure or falsely labeled from being made, sold, and shipped.

The Gentlemen's Agreement with Japan came into play in 1907, banning all school segregation of Japanese, yet controlling Japanese immigration in California. That year, Roosevelt signed the proclamation establishing Oklahoma as the 46th state of the Union.

Building on McKinley's effective use of the press, Roosevelt made the White House the center of news every day, providing interviews and photo opportunities. After noticing the White House reporters huddled outside in the rain one day, he gave them their own room inside, effectively inventing the presidential press briefing. The grateful press, with unprecedented access to the White House, rewarded Roosevelt with ample coverage.

He chose not to run for another term in 1908, and supported William Taft for the presidency, instead of Fairbanks. Fairbanks withdrew from the race, and would later support Taft for re-election against Roosevelt in the 1912 election.

Roosevelt appointed a record 75 federal judges. Roosevelt appointed three Justices to the Supreme Court of the United States: Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1902), William Rufus Day (1903), William Henry Moody (1906). In addition to these three, Roosevelt appointed 19 judges to the United States Courts of Appeals, and 53 judges to the United States district courts.

Post-presidency

African safari

In March 1909, shortly after the end of his presidency, Roosevelt left New York for a safari in east and central Africa. Roosevelt's party landed in Mombasa, British East Africa (now Kenya), traveled to the Belgian Congo (now Democratic Republic of the Congo) before following the Nile to Khartoum in modern Sudan. Financed by Andrew Carnegie and by his own proposed writings, Roosevelt's party hunted for specimens for the Smithsonian Institution and for the American Museum of Natural History in New York. The group, led by the legendary hunter-tracker R. J. Cunninghame, included scientists from the Smithsonian and was joined from time to time by Frederick Selous, the famous big game hunter and explorer. Among other items, Roosevelt brought with him four tons of salt for preserving animal hides, a lucky rabbit's foot given to him by boxer John L. Sullivan, an elephant-rifle donated by a group of 56 admiring Britons, and the famous Pigskin Library, a collection of classics bound in pig leather and transported in a single reinforced trunk.

Roosevelt and his companions killed or trapped more than 11,397 animals, from insects and moles to hippopotamuses and elephants. These included 512 big game animals, including six rare white rhinos. The expedition consumed 262 of the animals. Tons of salted animals and their skins were shipped to Washington; the quantity was so large that it took years to mount them all, and the Smithsonian shared many duplicate animals with other museums. Regarding the large number of animals taken, Roosevelt said, "I can be condemned only if the existence of the National Museum, the American Museum of Natural History, and all similar zoological institutions are to be condemned."

Although the safari was ostensibly conducted in the name of science, it was as much a political and social event as it was a hunting excursion; Roosevelt interacted with renowned professional hunters and land-owning families, and made contact with many native peoples and local leaders. Roosevelt became a Life Member of the National Rifle Association, while President, in 1907 after paying a $25 fee. He later wrote a detailed account in the book ''African Game Trails'', where he describes the excitement of the chase, the people he met, and the flora and fauna he collected in the name of science.

Republican Party schism

Roosevelt certified William Howard Taft to be a genuine "progressive" in 1908, when Roosevelt pushed through the nomination of his Secretary of War for the Presidency. Taft easily defeated three-time candidate William Jennings Bryan. Taft promoted a different progressivism, one that stressed the rule of law and preferred that judges rather than administrators or politicians make the basic decisions about fairness. Taft usually proved a less adroit politician than Roosevelt and lacked the energy and personal magnetism, not to mention the publicity devices, the dedicated supporters, and the broad base of public support that made Roosevelt so formidable. When Roosevelt realized that lowering the tariff would risk severe tensions inside the Republican Party—pitting producers (manufacturers and farmers) against merchants and consumers—he stopped talking about the issue. Taft ignored the risks and tackled the tariff boldly, on the one hand encouraging reformers to fight for lower rates, and then cutting deals with conservative leaders that kept overall rates high. The resulting Payne-Aldrich tariff of 1909 was too high for most reformers, but instead of blaming this on Senator Nelson Aldrich and big business, Taft took credit, calling it the best tariff ever. He again had managed to alienate all sides. While the crisis was building inside the Party, Roosevelt was touring Africa and Europe, to allow Taft to be his own man.

Unlike Roosevelt, Taft never attacked business or businessmen in his rhetoric. However, he was attentive to the law, so he launched 90 antitrust suits, including one against the largest corporation, U.S. Steel, for an acquisition that Roosevelt had personally approved. Consequently, Taft lost the support of antitrust reformers (who disliked his conservative rhetoric), of big business (which disliked his actions), and of Roosevelt, who felt humiliated by his protégé. The left wing of the Republican Party began agitating against Taft. Senator Robert LaFollette of Wisconsin created the National Progressive Republican League (precursor to the Progressive Party (United States, 1924)) to defeat the power of political bossism at the state level and to replace Taft at the national level. More trouble came when Taft fired Gifford Pinchot, a leading conservationist and close ally of Roosevelt. Pinchot alleged that Taft's Secretary of Interior Richard Ballinger was in league with big timber interests. Conservationists sided with Pinchot, and Taft alienated yet another vocal constituency.

Roosevelt, back from Europe, unexpectedly launched an attack on the courts. His famous speech at Osawatomie, Kansas, in August 1910 was the most radical of his career and openly marked his break with the Taft administration and the conservative Republicans. Osawatomie was well known as the base used by John Brown when he launched his bloody attacks on slavery. Taft was deeply upset. Roosevelt was attacking both the judiciary and the deep faith Republicans had in their judges (most of whom had been appointed by McKinley, Roosevelt or Taft.) In the 1910 Congressional elections, Democrats swept to power, and Taft's reelection in 1912 was increasingly in doubt. In 1911, Taft responded with a vigorous stumping tour that allowed him to sign up most of the party leaders long before Roosevelt announced.

Election of 1912

Republican primaries

Late in 1911, Roosevelt finally broke with Taft and LaFollette and announced himself as a candidate for the Republican nomination. Roosevelt, however, had delayed too long, and Taft had already won the support of most party leaders in the country. Because of LaFollette's nervous breakdown on the campaign trail before Roosevelt's entry, most of LaFollette's supporters went over to Roosevelt, the new progressive Republican candidate.

Roosevelt, stepping up his attack on judges, carried nine of the states that held preferential primaries, LaFollette took two, and Taft only one. The 1912 primaries represented the first extensive use of the presidential primary, a reform achievement of the progressive movement. However, these primary elections, while demonstrating Roosevelt's continuing popularity with the electorate, were not nearly as pivotal as primaries became later in the century. There were fewer states where a common voter had an opportunity to express a recorded preference. Many more states selected convention delegates at state party conventions, or in caucuses, which were not as open as they later became. While Roosevelt was popular with the public, most Republican politicians and party leaders supported Taft, and their support proved difficult to counter in states without primaries.

Formation of the Bull Moose Party

At the Republican Convention in Chicago, despite being the incumbent, Taft's victory was not immediately assured. After two weeks, Roosevelt, realizing he would not win the nomination outright, asked his followers to leave the convention hall. They moved to the Auditorium Theatre, and then Roosevelt, along with key allies such as Pinchot and Albert Beveridge created the Progressive Party, structuring it as a permanent organization that would field complete tickets at the presidential and state level. It was popularly known as the "Bull Moose Party", which got its name after Roosevelt told reporters, "I'm as fit as a bull moose." At the convention Roosevelt cried out, "We stand at Armageddon and we battle for the Lord." Roosevelt's platform echoed his 1907–08 proposals, calling for vigorous government intervention to protect the people from the selfish interests.

{{bquote|To destroy this invisible Government, to dissolve the unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics is the first task of the statesmanship of the day." – 1912 Progressive Party Platform, attributed to him and quoted again in his autobiography where he continues "'This country belongs to the people. Its resources, its business, its laws, its institutions, should be utilized, maintained, or altered in whatever manner will best promote the general interest.' This assertion is explicit. ... Mr. Wilson must know that every monopoly in the United States opposes the Progressive party. ... I challenge him ... to name the monopoly that did support the Progressive party, whether ... the Sugar Trust, the Steel Trust, the Harvester Trust, the Standard Oil Trust, the Tobacco Trust, or any other. ... Ours was the only programme to which they objected, and they supported either Mr. Wilson or Mr. Taft...}}

Assassination attempt

While Roosevelt was campaigning in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on October 14, 1912, a saloonkeeper named John Schrank shot him, but the bullet lodged in his chest only after penetrating his steel eyeglass case and passing through a thick (50 pages) single-folded copy of the speech he was carrying in his jacket. Roosevelt, as an experienced hunter and anatomist, correctly concluded that since he wasn't coughing blood, the bullet had not completely penetrated the chest wall to his lung, and so declined suggestions he go to the hospital immediately. Instead, he delivered his scheduled speech with blood seeping into his shirt. He spoke for 90 minutes. His opening comments to the gathered crowd were, "Ladies and gentlemen, I don't know whether you fully understand that I have just been shot; but it takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose." Afterwards, probes and x-ray showed that the bullet had traversed three inches (76 mm) of tissue and lodged in Roosevelt's chest muscle but did not penetrate the pleura, and it would be more dangerous to attempt to remove the bullet than to leave it in place. Roosevelt carried it with him for the rest of his life.

Because of the bullet wound, Roosevelt was taken off the campaign trail in the final weeks of the race (which ended election day, November 5). Though the other two campaigners stopped their own campaigns in the week Roosevelt was in the hospital, they resumed it once he was released. The bullet lodged in his chest caused his chronic rheumatoid arthritis- which he had suffered from for years- to get worse and it soon prevented him from doing his daily stint of exercises; Roosevelt would soon become obese as well. Roosevelt, for many reasons, failed to move enough Republicans in his direction. He did win 4.1 million votes (27%), compared to Taft's 3.5 million (23%). However, Wilson's 6.3 million votes (42%) were enough to garner 435 electoral votes. Roosevelt had 88 electoral votes to Taft's 8 electoral votes. This meant that Taft became the only incumbent president to place third in a re-election bid. But Pennsylvania was Roosevelt's only eastern state; in the Midwest, he carried Michigan, Minnesota and South Dakota; in the West, California and Washington; he did not win any southern states.

1913–1914 South American Expedition

Roosevelt's popular book ''Through the Brazilian Wilderness'' describes his expedition into the Brazilian jungle in 1913 as a member of the Roosevelt-Rondon Scientific Expedition, co-named after its leader, Brazilian explorer Cândido Rondon. The book describes the scientific discovery, scenic tropical vistas, and exotic flora and fauna experienced during the adventure. A friend, Father John Augustine Zahm, had searched for new adventures and found them in the forests of South America. After a briefing of several of his own expeditions, he persuaded Roosevelt to commit to such an expedition in 1912. To finance the expedition Roosevelt received support from the American Museum of Natural History, promising to bring back many new animal specimens.

Once in South America, a new far more ambitious goal was added: to find the headwaters of the Rio da Duvida, the River of Doubt, and trace it north to the Madeira and thence to the Amazon River. It was later renamed Roosevelt River in honor of the former President. Roosevelt's crew consisted of his 24-year-old son Kermit, Colonel Rondon, a naturalist, George K. Cherrie, sent by the American Museum of Natural History, Brazilian Lieutenant Joao Lyra, team physician Dr. José Antonio Cajazeira, and 16 skilled paddlers and porters (called camaradas in Portuguese). The initial expedition started, probably unwisely, on December 9, 1913, at the height of the rainy season. The trip down the River of Doubt started on February 27, 1914.

During the trip down the river, Roosevelt suffered a minor leg wound after he jumped into the river to try to prevent two of his crew's canoes from smashing against the rocks. The flesh wound he absorbed, however, soon gave him tropical fever that resembled the malaria he contracted while in Cuba fifteen years before. Because the bullet he absorbed in his chest during his failed assassination attempt in 1912 was never removed, his health worsened from the infection. This weakened Roosevelt so greatly that six weeks into the adventure, he had to be attended day and night by the expedition's physician and his son, Kermit. By then he could not walk because of both the infection in his injured leg and an infirmity in his other from a traffic accident a decade earlier. Roosevelt was riddled with chest pains, fighting a fever that soared to 103 °F (39 °C), and at times so delirious that he would repeat endlessly the opening line from Coleridge's poem Kubla Khan. Regarding his condition as a threat to the survival of the others, Roosevelt insisted he be left behind to allow the by then poorly-provisioned expedition to proceed as rapidly as it could. Only an appeal by his son convinced him to continue.

Despite his continued decline and loss of over 50 pounds (20 kg) of his original 220, Commander Rondon had been repeatedly slowing down the pace of the expedition in dedication to his commission's mapmaking and other geographical goals that demanded regular stops to fix the expedition's position by sun-based survey.

Upon Roosevelt's return to New York, friends and family were startled by his physical appearance and fatigue. Roosevelt wrote to a friend that the trip had cut his life short by ten years. He might not have known just how accurate that analysis would prove. For the rest of his few remaining years he would be plagued by flare-ups of malaria and leg inflammations so severe that they would require surgery.

Before Roosevelt had even completed his sea voyage home, doubts were raised over his claims of exploring and navigating a completely uncharted river over 625 miles (1,000 km) long. When he had recovered sufficiently he addressed a standing-room-only convention organized in Washington, D.C. by the National Geographic Society and satisfactorily defended his claims. The River of Doubt later was named the Rio Roosevelt.

World War I

When World War I began in 1914, Roosevelt strongly supported the Allies and demanded a harsher policy against Germany, especially regarding submarine warfare. Roosevelt angrily denounced the foreign policy of President Wilson, calling it a failure regarding the atrocities in Belgium and the violations of American rights. In 1916, he campaigned energetically for Charles Evans Hughes and repeatedly denounced Irish-Americans and German-Americans who Roosevelt said were unpatriotic because they put the interest of Ireland and Germany ahead of America's by supporting neutrality. He insisted one had to be 100% American, not a "hyphenated American" who juggled multiple loyalties. When the U.S. entered the war in 1917, Roosevelt sought to raise a volunteer infantry division, but Wilson refused.

Roosevelt's attacks on Wilson helped the Republicans win control of Congress in the off-year elections of 1918. Roosevelt was popular enough to seriously contest the 1920 Republican nomination, but his health was broken by 1918, because of the lingering malaria. His family and supporters threw their support to Roosevelt's old military companion, General Leonard Wood, who was ultimately defeated by Warren G. Harding.

His son Quentin, a daring pilot with the American forces in France, was shot down behind German lines in 1918. Quentin was his youngest son and probably his favorite. It is said the death of his son distressed him so much that Roosevelt never recovered from his loss.

Death

Despite his rapidly declining health, Roosevelt remained active to the end of his life. He was an enthusiastic proponent of the Scouting movement. The Boy Scouts of America gave him the title of Chief Scout Citizen, the only person to hold such title. One early Scout leader said, "The two things that gave Scouting great impetus and made it very popular were the uniform and Teddy Roosevelt's jingoism."

On January 6, 1919, Roosevelt died in his sleep at Oyster Bay of a coronary thrombosis (heart attack), preceded by a 2½-month illness described as inflammatory rheumatism, and was buried in nearby Youngs Memorial Cemetery. Upon receiving word of his death, his son Archie telegraphed his siblings simply, "The old lion is dead."

Political positions and speeches

Theodore Roosevelt introduced the phrase "Square Deal" to describe his progressive views in a speech delivered after leaving the office of the Presidency in August 1910. In his broad outline, he stressed equality of opportunity for all citizens and emphasized the importance of fair government regulations of corporate 'special interests'.

Roosevelt was one of the first Presidents to make conservation a national issue. In a speech that Roosevelt gave at Osawatomie, Kansas, on August 31, 1910, he outlined his views on conservation of the lands of the United States. He favored using America's natural resources, but opposed wasteful consumption. One of his most lasting legacies was his significant role in the creation of 5 national parks, 18 national monuments, and 150 National Forests, among other works of conservation. Roosevelt was instrumental in conserving about of American soil among various parks and other federal projects.

In the Eighth Annual Message to Congress (1908), Roosevelt mentioned the need for federal government to regulate interstate corporations using the Interstate Commerce Clause, also mentioning how these corporations fought federal control by appealing to states' rights.

Positions on immigration, minorities, and civil rights

In an 1894 article on immigration, Roosevelt said, "We must Americanize in every way, in speech, in political ideas and principles, and in their way of looking at relations between church and state. We welcome the German and the Irishman who becomes an American. We have no use for the German or Irishman who remains such... He must revere only our flag, not only must it come first, but no other flag should even come second."

Roosevelt was the first president to appoint a representative of the Jewish minority to a cabinet position - Secretary of Commerce and Labor, Oscar S. Straus, 1906–09.

In 1886 he said: "I don't go so far as to think that the only good Indians are dead Indians, but I believe nine out of ten are, and I shouldn't like to inquire too closely into the case of the tenth." He later became much more favorable.

About African Americans, Roosevelt said, "I have not been able to think out any solution of the terrible problem offered by the presence of the Negro on this continent, but of one thing I am sure, and that is that inasmuch as he is here and can neither be killed nor driven away, the only wise and honorable and Christian thing to do is to treat each black man and each white man strictly on his merits as a man, giving him no more and no less than he shows himself worthy to have."

Roosevelt appointed numerous African Americans to federal office, such as Walter L. Cohen of New Orleans, Louisiana, a leader of the Black and Tan Republican faction whom he named register of the federal land office.

Starting in 1907 eugenicists in many States started the forced sterilization of the sick, unemployed, poor, criminals, prostitutes, and the disabled. Roosevelt said in 1914: "I wish very much that the wrong people could be prevented entirely from breeding; and when the evil nature of these people is sufficiently flagrant, this should be done. Criminals should be sterilized and feeble-minded persons forbidden to leave offspring behind them."

Writer

Roosevelt was a prolific author, writing with passion on subjects ranging from foreign policy to the importance of the national park system. Roosevelt was also an avid reader of poetry. American poet, Robert Frost said of TR, "He was our kind. He quoted poetry to me. He knew poetry."

As an editor of ''Outlook'' magazine, he had weekly access to a large, educated national audience. In all, Roosevelt wrote about 18 books (each in several editions), including his ''Autobiography'', ''The Rough Riders'' ''History of the Naval War of 1812'', and others on subjects such as ranching, explorations, and wildlife. His most ambitious book was the four volume narrative ''The Winning of the West'', which connected the origin of a new "race" of Americans (i.e. what he considered the present population of the United States to be) to the frontier conditions their ancestors endured throughout the 17th, 18th, and early 19th centuries.

In 1907, Roosevelt became embroiled in a widely publicized literary debate known as the nature fakers controversy. A few years earlier, naturalist John Burroughs had published an article entitled "Real and Sham Natural History" in the ''Atlantic Monthly'', attacking popular writers of the day such as Ernest Thompson Seton, Charles G. D. Roberts and William J. Long for their fantastical representations of wildlife. Roosevelt agreed with Burroughs' criticisms, and published several essays of his own denouncing the booming genre of "naturalistic" animal stories as "yellow journalism of the woods". It was the President himself who popularized the negative term "nature faker" to describe writers who depicted their animal characters with excessive anthropomorphism.

Character and beliefs

Roosevelt intensely disliked being called "Teddy," and was quick to point out this fact to those who used the nickname, though it would become widely used by newspapers during his political career. He attended church regularly. Of including the motto "In God We Trust" on money, in 1907 he wrote, "It seems to me eminently unwise to cheapen such a motto by use on coins, just as it would be to cheapen it by use on postage stamps, or in advertisements." He was also a member of the Freemasons and Sons of the American Revolution.

Roosevelt had a lifelong interest in pursuing what he called, in an 1899 speech, "the strenuous life". To this end, he exercised regularly and took up boxing, tennis, hiking, rowing, polo, and horseback riding. As governor of New York, he boxed with sparring partners several times a week, a practice he regularly continued as President until one blow detached his left retina, leaving him blind in that eye (a fact not made public until many years later). Thereafter, he practiced judo attaining a third degree brown belt and continued his habit of skinny-dipping in the Potomac River during winter.

He was an enthusiastic singlestick player and, according to ''Harper's Weekly'', in 1905 showed up at a White House reception with his arm bandaged after a bout with General Leonard Wood. Roosevelt was also an avid reader, reading tens of thousands of books, at a rate of several a day in multiple languages. Along with Thomas Jefferson, Roosevelt is often considered the most well read of any American politician.

Legacy

Historians credit Roosevelt for changing the nation's political system by permanently placing the presidency at center stage and making character as important as the issues. His notable accomplishments include trust busting and conservationism. However, he has been criticized for his interventionist and imperialist approach to nations he considered "uncivilized". His friend, historian Henry Adams, proclaimed, "Roosevelt, more than any other living man ....showed the singular primitive quality that belongs to ultimate matter the quality that mediaeval theology assigned to God he was pure act." Historians typically rank Roosevelt among the top five presidents.

Memorials

Roosevelt was included with George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln at the Mount Rushmore Memorial, designed in 1927 with the approval of Republican President Calvin Coolidge.

For his gallantry at San Juan Hill, Roosevelt's commanders recommended him for the Medal of Honor. In the late 1990s, Roosevelt's supporters again took up the flag for him. On January 16, 2001, President Bill Clinton awarded Theodore Roosevelt the Medal of Honor posthumously for his charge up San Juan Hill, Cuba, during the Spanish-American War. Roosevelt's eldest son, Brigadier General Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., received the Medal of Honor for heroism at the Battle of Normandy in 1944. The Roosevelts thus became one of only two father-son pairs to receive this honor (the other pair being Arthur and Douglas MacArthur).

Roosevelt's legacy includes several other important commemorations. The United States Navy named two ships for Roosevelt: the , a submarine that was in commission from 1961 to 1982; and the , an aircraft carrier that has been on active duty in the Atlantic Fleet since 1986.

On November 18, 1956, the United States Postal Service released a 6¢ Liberty Issue postage stamp honoring Roosevelt.

The Roosevelt Memorial Association (later the Theodore Roosevelt Association) or "TRA", was founded in 1920 to preserve Roosevelt's legacy. The Association preserved Roosevelt's birthplace, "Sagamore Hill" home, papers, and video film. In 1941, it published the ''Theodore Roosevelt Cyclopedia'', a compendium of Roosevelt's key writings, sayings and conversations, which is available online.

Among the hundreds of schools and streets named in Roosevelt's honor are Roosevelt High School in Seattle, Washington, the surrounding Roosevelt neighborhood, the district's main arterial, Roosevelt Way N.E., and Roosevelt Middle School in Eugene, Oregon.

The Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in Los Angeles is named after him, as is the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City.

In Chicago, the city renamed 12th Street to Roosevelt Road. In Philadelphia, Roosevelt Boulevard, also known as U.S. 1, was named in his honor in 1918.

In popular culture

Roosevelt's 1901 saying "Speak Softly and Carry a Big Stick" is still quoted by politicians and columnists in different countries—not only in English but also in translation to various other languages.

A quote from Roosevelt's 1912 Progressive Party platform was cited as an epigram by Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks, in his 2006 manifesto: "Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government, owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people. To destroy this invisible government, to dissolve the unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics is the first task of the statesmanship of the day."

Roosevelt's lasting popular legacy, however, is the stuffed toy bears—teddy bears—named after him following an incident on a hunting trip in Mississippi in 1902. Roosevelt famously ordered the mercy killing of a wounded black bear. After the cartoonist Clifford K. Berryman illustrated the President with a bear, a toy maker heard the story and asked Roosevelt if he could use his name on a toy bear. Roosevelt approved, and the teddy bear was born. Bears and later bear cubs became closely associated with Roosevelt in political cartoons thereafter.

On June 26, 2006, Roosevelt, again, made the cover of ''TIME'' magazine with the lead story, "The Making of America—Theodore Roosevelt—The 20th Century Express": "At home and abroad, Theodore Roosevelt was the locomotive President, the man who drew his flourishing nation into the future."

In 1905, Roosevelt, an admirer of various western figures, named Captain Bill McDonald of the Texas Rangers, as his bodyguard and entertained the legendary Texan in the White House. Ironically, in the 1912 campaign, McDonald was Woodrow Wilson's bodyguard. Wilson thereafter named the Democrat McDonald as U.S. Marshal for the Northern district of Texas.

Roosevelt has been portrayed many times in film and on television. The actor Karl Swenson played him in the 1967 western picture ''Brighty of the Grand Canyon'', the story of a real-life burro who guided Roosevelt on a hunting trip to find mountain lions.

Brian Keith portrayed Roosevelt in the 1975 film ''The Wind and the Lion'', a dramatization of the Perdicaris incident of 1904.

In the play Arsenic and Old Lace, and the 1944 film of the same name, the character Teddy Brewster is convinced he's Roosevelt, and is enlisted in this role by his aunts to bury their victims' bodies in the cellar by building "another lock for the canal". When he runs up the stairs brandishing an imaginary sword and yelling "Charge!", his aunt Abby Brewster explains to Officer Brophy, "The stairs are always San Juan Hill".

He was also portrayed by actor Tom Berenger in 1997 for the TNT movie "Rough Riders", a made-for-cable film about his exploits during the Spanish-American War in Cuba.

Frank Albertson played Roosevelt in the episode "Rough and Ready" of the CBS series ''My Friend Flicka."

Robin Williams portrayed Roosevelt in the form of a wax mannequin that comes to life in ''Night at the Museum'' and its sequel ''Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian''.

Roosevelt was portrayed in several episodes of the comic book story ''The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck'': the young Scrooge McDuck first meets Roosevelt in his Badlands years, later in a fictional siege of Fort Duckburg and finally in Panama during the construction of the Panama Canal.

George Burroughs Torrey painted a portrait of him.

Since 2000, Roosevelt has been portrayed by a number of reprisers including historian and Rhodes Scholar, Clay Jenkinson of North Dakota and Joe Wiegand of Tennessee. Wiegand has portrayed Roosevelt in all 50 US states. In 2008, Wiegand portrayed TR in the White House at TR's 150th Birthday.

Theodore Roosevelt is an important character in the alternate history series, Timeline-191, by Harry Turtledove. He was a New Yorker who moved to Montana to become a rancher after Alice Hathaway Lee Roosevelt rejects his marriage proposal. He raises and leads his own volunteer cavalry regiment (nicknamed the Unauthorized Regiment) in the Second Mexican War, fighting alongside George Armstrong Custer to repulse the Anglo-Canadian army led by Charles George Gordon. He later becomes the Democratic 28th president of the United States and leads the United States to victory in the Great War on the side of the Central Powers. He runs for a third term as President, but is defeated by Socialist candidate, Upton Sinclair and dies of a brain hemorrhage in 1924. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery as a final insult to the Confederate States of America and is regarded as one of the most esteemed Presidents in United States (alternate) history.

Media

Theodore Roosevelt was one of the first presidents whose voice was recorded for posterity. Several of his recorded speeches survive. A 4.6-minute voice recording, which preserves Roosevelt's lower timbre ranges particularly well for its time, is among those available from the Michigan State University libraries. (This is the 1912 recording of ''The Right of the People to Rule'', recorded by Edison at Carnegie Hall). In what some consider the best example of Roosevelt's animated oratorical style, an audio clip sponsored by the Authentic History Center includes his defense of the Progressive Party in 1912 wherein he proclaims it the "party of the people" in contrast with the other major parties.

Roosevelt goes for a ride in Arch Hoxsey's plane in October 1910

See also

Electoral history of Theodore Roosevelt

First inauguration of Theodore Roosevelt

Second inauguration of Theodore Roosevelt

List of Medal of Honor recipients for the Spanish–American War

List of Presidents of the United States

List of United States political appointments across party lines

Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace National Historic Site

Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site

US Presidents on US postage stamps

Theodore Roosevelt Association

William Allen White

Indian Head eagle, coin designed by Roosevelt

References

Bibliography

Biographical

Blum, John Morton. (1954). ''The Republican Roosevelt.'' Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Series of essays that examine how TR did politics OCLC 310975

Brands, Henry William. (1997). ''T.R.: The Last Romantic.'' New York: Basic Books. Reprinted 2001, full biography OCLC 36954615

Brinkley, Douglas. (2009). ''The Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America.'' New York: HarperCollins. ; .

Chace, James. ''1912: Wilson, Roosevelt, Taft, and Debs – The Election That Changed the Country.'' (2004). 323 pp.

Cooper, John Milton ''The Warrior and the Priest: Woodrow Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt.'' (1983) a dual scholarly biography

Dalton, Kathleen. ''Theodore Roosevelt: A Strenuous Life.'' (2002), full scholarly biography

DiSilvestro, Roger, ''Theodore Roosevelt in the Badlands: A Young Politician's Quest in the American West'', Walker & Co, 2011.

Dorsey, Leroy G. "The Frontier Myth and Teddy Roosevelt's Fight for Conservation". In ''Myth America: A Historical Anthology, Volume II''. 1997. Gerster, Patrick, and Cords, Nicholas. (editors.) Brandywine Press, St. James, NY. ISBN 1-881-089-97-5

Fehn, Bruce. "Theodore Roosevelt and American Masculinity." ''Magazine of History'' (2005) 19(2): 52–59. Full text online at Ebsco. Provides a lesson plan on TR as the historical figure who most exemplifies the quality of masculinity.

Gluck, Sherwin. "T.R.'s Summer White House, Oyster Bay." (1999) Chronicles the events of TR's presidency during the summers of his two terms.

Goldman, Eric F. ''Rendezvous with Destiny: A History of Modern American Reform.'' (1952) Bancroft Prize, 1953, ISBN 1-56663-369-9

Gould, Lewis L. ''The Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt.'' (1991), standard history of his domestic and foreign policy as president

Harbaugh, William Henry. ''The Life and Times of Theodore Roosevelt.'' (1963), full scholarly biography

Keller, Morton, ed., ''Theodore Roosevelt: A Profile'' (1967) excerpts from TR and from historians.

Kohn, Edward. "Crossing the Rubicon: Theodore Roosevelt, Henry Cabot Lodge, and the 1884 Republican National Convention." ''Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era'' 2006 5(1): 18–45. Issn: 1537-7814 Fulltext: in History Cooperative

Millard, Candice. ''River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey''. (2005)

McCullough, David. ''Mornings on Horseback, The Story of an Extraordinary Family. a Vanished Way of Life, and the Unique Child Who Became Theodore Roosevelt.'' (2001) popular biography to 1884

Morris, Edmund ''The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt'', to 1901 (1979); vol 2: ''Theodore Rex'' 1901–1909. (2001); vol 3: ''Colonel Roosevelt'' (2010); Pulitzer prize for Volume 1.

Mowry, George E. ''Theodore Roosevelt and the Progressive Movement''. (2001) focus on 1912

O'Toole, Patricia. ''When Trumpets Call: Theodore Roosevelt after the White House.'' (2005). 494 pp.

Powell, Jim. ''Bully Boy: The Truth About Theodore Roosevelt's Legacy'' (Crown Forum, 2006). Examines TR policies from conservative/libertarian perspective. ISBN 0-307-23722-2

Pringle, Henry F. ''Theodore Roosevelt'' (1932; 2nd ed. 1956), full scholarly biography

Putnam, Carleton ''Theodore Roosevelt: A Biography, Volume I: The Formative Years'' (1958), only volume published, to age 28.

Renehan, Edward J. ''The Lion's Pride: Theodore Roosevelt and His Family in Peace and War''. (Oxford University Press, 1998), examines TR and his family during the World War I period

Testi, Arnaldo (1995). "The Gender of Reform Politics: Theodore Roosevelt and the Culture of Masculinity," ''Journal of American History'', Vol. 81, No. 4, pp. 1509–1533. in JSTOR

Watts, Sarah. ''Rough Rider in the White House: Theodore Roosevelt and the Politics of Desire.'' 2003. 289 pp.

Foreign policy

Beale Howard K. ''Theodore Roosevelt and the Rise of America to World Power.'' (1956). standard history of his foreign policy

Holmes, James R. ''Theodore Roosevelt and World Order: Police Power in International Relations.'' 2006. 328 pp.

Marks III, Frederick W. ''Velvet on Iron: The Diplomacy of Theodore Roosevelt'' (1979)

McCullough, David. ''The Path between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870–1914'' (1977).

Ricard, Serge. "The Roosevelt Corollary." ''Presidential Studies Quarterly'' 2006 36(1): 17–26. Issn: 0360-4918 Fulltext: in Swetswise and Ingenta

Ricard, Serge. "Theodore Roosevelt: Imperialist or Global Strategist in the New Expansionist Age?" ''Diplomacy and Statecraft,'' Dec 2008, Vol. 19 Issue 4, pp 639–657

Rofe, J. Simon. "'Under the Influence of Mahan': Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt and their Understanding of American National Interest," ''Diplomacy and Statecraft,'' Dec 2008, Vol. 19 Issue 4, pp 732–745

Tilchin, William N. and Neu, Charles E., ed. ''Artists of Power: Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, and Their Enduring Impact on U.S. Foreign Policy.'' (Praeger, 2006). 196 pp.

Tilchin, William N. ''Theodore Roosevelt and the British Empire: A Study in Presidential Statecraft'' (1997)

Primary sources

Auchincloss, Louis, ed. ''Theodore Roosevelt, The Rough Riders and an Autobiography'' (Library of America, 2004) ISBN 978-1-931082-65-5

Auchincloss, Louis, ed. ''Theodore Roosevelt, Letters and Speeches'' (Library of America, 2004) ISBN 978-1-931082-66-2

Brands, H.W. ed. ''The Selected Letters of Theodore Roosevelt.'' (2001)

Harbaugh, William ed. ''The Writings of Theodore Roosevelt'' (1967). A one-volume selection of Roosevelt's speeches and essays.

Hart, Albert Bushnell and Herbert Ronald Ferleger, eds. ''Theodore Roosevelt Cyclopedia'' (1941), Roosevelt's opinions on many issues; online version at TheodoreRoosevelt.org

Morison, Elting E., John Morton Blum, and Alfred D. Chandler, Jr., eds., ''The Letters of Theodore Roosevelt'', 8 vols. (1951–1954). Very large, annotated edition of letters from TR.

Roosevelt, Theodore (1999). ''Theodore Roosevelt: An Autobiography''. online at Bartleby.com.

Roosevelt, Theodore. ''The Works of Theodore Roosevelt'' (National edition, 20 vol. 1926); 18,000 pages containing most of TR's speeches, books and essays, but not his letters; a CD-ROM edition is available; some of TR's books are available online through Project Bartleby

Roosevelt, Theodore, ''The Naval War of 1812 Or the History of the United States Navy during the Last War with Great Britain to Which Is Appended an Account of the Battle of New Orleans'' (1882) (New York: The Modern Library, 1999). ISBN 0-375-75419-9.

External links

Obituary from ''The New York Times''

Theodore Roosevelt's genealogy

Roosevelt family history and genealogy

Detailed biography from the ''Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition'' (1911)

Julian L. Street Papers on Theodore Roosevelt at the Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library, Princeton University

Almanac of Theodore Roosevelt

Theodore Roosevelt Collection at Houghton Library, Harvard University

Hunting in Many Lands: The Book of the Boone and Crockett Club (1895), Roosevelt, Theodore (Editor). Project Gutenberg. (Also contains a chapter written by Theodore Roosevelt.)

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