Root-Takahira Agreement

The nihongo|Root-Takahira Agreement|高平・ルート協定|Takahira-Rūto Kyōtei was an agreement between the United States of America and the Empire of Japan negotiated between U.S. Secretary of State Elihu Root and Japanese ambassador Takahira Kogoro.

Signed on 30 November 1908, the agreement consisted of an official recognition of the territorial status quo as of November 1908, affirmation of the independence and territorial integrity of China (i.e. the “Open Door Policy" as proposed by John Hay), maintenance of free trade and equal commercial opportunities, Japanese recognition of the American annexation of the Kingdom of Hawaii and the Philippines and American recognition of Japan's position in northeast China. Implicit in the agreement was American acknowledgement of Japan's right to annex Korea and dominance over southern Manchuria, and Japan's acquisence to limitations on Japanese immigration to California. [ Gould, The Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt, pp.268]

With the conclusion of the Spanish-American War, the United States had become a major power in East Asia. The American occupation of Hawaii and the Philippines, combined with aggressive economic policies in China were increasingly perceived as a threat by the Japanese government. The American government, on the other hand, was increasingly concerned by Japanese ambitions towards territorial gain at the expense of China, and with Japan's increasingly modern and powerful navy in the aftermath of the Russo-Japanese War.

The Agreement was credited at the time with averting mounting tensions between the United States and Japan. However, with Japan's reapprochment to Russia after 1907, and increasingeconomic investment into Manchuria, the Agreement resulted in a weakened American influence over further Japanese hegemony over China. [Jiang, The United States and China, pp43]

References

*cite book
last = Gould
first = Lewis L.
year = 1992
title = The Presidency of Theordore Roosevelt
publisher = University Press of Kansas
location =
id = ISBN 0700605657 .
*cite book
last = Jansen
first = Marius B.
year = 2000
title = The Making of Modern Japan
publisher = Belknap Press
location =
id = ISBN 0674009916
*cite book
last = Jiang
first = Arnold Xiangje
year = 1988
title = The United States and China
publisher = University of Chicago Press
location =
id = ISBN 0226399478

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