A SPY WAS BEHEADING ON THE OUTSKIRTS OF KAIYUAN IN RUSSO JAPANESE WAR

 A spy was beheading on the outskirts of kaiyuan in Russo Japanese war

By the early 17th century, Russia had established its authority over all of Siberia, but its attempts to move southward were consistently blocked by China.

Fully engaged in western Europe and against Turkey during the 18th century, Russia could not press its interests in East Asia.

As the settlement of Siberia developed, however, it realized its need for outlets to the sea, and, because China continued to deny it access to the Amur region, it resorted to force toward the end of the reign of Emperor Nicholas I (1825–55).

In the 1850s, Russian towns and settlements appeared along the left bank of the Amur (Heilong) River.

The Chinese government made repeated protests but, because of its ongoing struggle against Great Britain and France and the internal turmoil of the Taiping Rebellion, was unable to resist Russian pressure.

Finally, by the Treaty of Aigun (1858, confirmed by the Beijing Convention, 1860), 

China ceded to Russia all the territory north of the Amur, together with the maritime region east of the Ussuri (Wusuli) River from the mouth of the Amur to the boundary of Korea.

This included the splendid site where Vladivostok was soon to be founded. Russian expansionist policy was now alarming other European powers,

however, and in 1861 Great Britain thwarted a Russian attempt to establish a naval base on the island of Tsushima, lying between Korea and Japan.

For the next 30 years Russia was content to consolidate its gains.The reign of Emperor Alexander III (1881–94) witnessed a revival of interest in the development of the Asian parts of the Russian Empire.

In 1891 Alexander sent his son, soon to reign as Nicholas II, on a much-publicized tour of East Asia, and at this time work began on the Trans-Siberian Railway.

After the accession of Nicholas II in 1894, Russian expansionist policy became more active and pronounced.

However, the outbreak of the First Sino-Japanese War in that year demonstrated that Japan was an ascendant new power in Asia.