The two main areas of dispute were Korea and Manchuria. By 1904, the Japanese had decided that the Russians threatened their ambitions in China and Korea. Both Russia and Japan had imperial ambitions over the territories where they fought - Manchuria and Korea. On February 8, Japanese warships devastated the Russian fleet. The Japanese then occupied the Korean peninsula and drove the Russians back into Manchuria. With the Treaty of Portsmouth, signed on September 5, 1905, the concessions all went to the Japanese. Russia acknowledged Japan’s “predominant political, military, and economic interests in Korea” (Japan would annex the kingdom in 1910), and both powers agreed to evacuate Manchuria.
