TR Wins the Nobel Prize
In the summer of 1905, President Theodore Roosevelt persuaded the parties in the Russo-Japanese War to meet in a peace conference in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, starting on August 5. His persistent and effective mediation led to the signing of the Treaty of Portsmouth on September 5, ending the war. For his efforts, Roosevelt was awarded the 1906 Nobel Peace Prize on December 10, 1906 (107 years ago today).
The war was the product of rival imperial ambitions of the Russian and Japanese Empires over Manchuria and Korea. The Russians wanted a warm water port on the Pacific Ocean for their navy as well as for maritime trade. When negotiations between Russia and Japan broke down, Japan declared war to maintain their dominance in Korea. The Japanese military won some unexpected victories over the Russian forces.
The defeats of the Russian Army and Navy shook Russian confidence. Throughout 1905, the Imperial Russian government was rocked by revolution. The population was opposed to escalation of the war. The poor state of the Russian 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 very unpopular. Tsar Nicholas II elected to negotiate peace so he could concentrate on internal matters
President Theodore Roosevelt offered to mediate the dispute. In June, 1905, Roosevelt asked the two nations to nominate representatives to negotiate on the conditions of peace. In August they met at Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Sergius Witte led the Russian delegation and Baron Komura, a Harvard graduate, led the Japanese Delegation. The Treaty of Portsmouth was signed on September 5, 1905, at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine. Russia recognized Korea as part of the Japanese sphere of influence and agreed to evacuate Manchuria. Japan would annex Korea in 1910. Russia 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.
The Nobel committee decided that President Roosevelt deserved its annual peace prize for bringing the parties together and in turn reaching a resolution to the conflict. Roosevelt was not present at the award ceremony on December 10, 1906. His envoy Herbert H.D. Peirce, the American Ambassador to Norway, accepted the prize on his behalf. Peirce's speech included the reading of a telegram from Roosevelt, which read as follows:
"I am profoundly moved and touched by the signal honor shown me through your body in conferring upon me the Nobel Peace Prize. There is no gift I could appreciate more and I wish it were in my power fully to express my gratitude. I thank you for it, and I thank you on behalf of the United States; for what I did, I was able to accomplish only as the representative of the nation of which, for the time being, I am president.
"After much thought, I have concluded that the best and most fitting way to apply the amount of the prize is by using it as a foundation to establish at Washington a permanent industrial peace committee. The object will be to strive for better and more equitable relations among my countrymen who are engaged, whether as capitalists or as wage workers, in industrial and agricultural pursuits. This will carry out the purpose of the founder of the prize, for in modern life it is as important to work for the cause of just and righteous peace in the industrial world as in the world of nations.
"I again express to you the assurance of my deep and lasting gratitude and appreciation."
Gunnar Knudsen, who presided over the ceremony, then read the telegram in Norwegian, adding the following concluding remarks :
"I am convinced, Gentlemen, that the words expressed here by the President of the United States and the aim for which he proposes to work, with the aid of the Peace Prize just awarded him, will gain worldwide approbation. It is incontrovertible, as President Roosevelt says, that peace in all its aspects, peace among mankind, peace between nations, peace between social classes, peace between individuals - all are equally important. The one cannot, so to speak, be divorced from the other. If we are to promote civilization and the well-being of mankind as a whole, we can do it most effectively by securing world peace, for the entire history of the world teaches us that war and devastation are inseparable. The ravages of war arrest the progress of nations culturally, materially, socially, and politically, perhaps for generations. This is why Alfred Nobel has by his testament erected a memorial that will live forever in the minds of men and that establishes him as one of the greatest benefactors of mankind."
The war was the product of rival imperial ambitions of the Russian and Japanese Empires over Manchuria and Korea. The Russians wanted a warm water port on the Pacific Ocean for their navy as well as for maritime trade. When negotiations between Russia and Japan broke down, Japan declared war to maintain their dominance in Korea. The Japanese military won some unexpected victories over the Russian forces.
The defeats of the Russian Army and Navy shook Russian confidence. Throughout 1905, the Imperial Russian government was rocked by revolution. The population was opposed to escalation of the war. The poor state of the Russian 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 very unpopular. Tsar Nicholas II elected to negotiate peace so he could concentrate on internal matters
President Theodore Roosevelt offered to mediate the dispute. In June, 1905, Roosevelt asked the two nations to nominate representatives to negotiate on the conditions of peace. In August they met at Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Sergius Witte led the Russian delegation and Baron Komura, a Harvard graduate, led the Japanese Delegation. The Treaty of Portsmouth was signed on September 5, 1905, at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine. Russia recognized Korea as part of the Japanese sphere of influence and agreed to evacuate Manchuria. Japan would annex Korea in 1910. Russia 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.
The Nobel committee decided that President Roosevelt deserved its annual peace prize for bringing the parties together and in turn reaching a resolution to the conflict. Roosevelt was not present at the award ceremony on December 10, 1906. His envoy Herbert H.D. Peirce, the American Ambassador to Norway, accepted the prize on his behalf. Peirce's speech included the reading of a telegram from Roosevelt, which read as follows:
"I am profoundly moved and touched by the signal honor shown me through your body in conferring upon me the Nobel Peace Prize. There is no gift I could appreciate more and I wish it were in my power fully to express my gratitude. I thank you for it, and I thank you on behalf of the United States; for what I did, I was able to accomplish only as the representative of the nation of which, for the time being, I am president.
"After much thought, I have concluded that the best and most fitting way to apply the amount of the prize is by using it as a foundation to establish at Washington a permanent industrial peace committee. The object will be to strive for better and more equitable relations among my countrymen who are engaged, whether as capitalists or as wage workers, in industrial and agricultural pursuits. This will carry out the purpose of the founder of the prize, for in modern life it is as important to work for the cause of just and righteous peace in the industrial world as in the world of nations.
"I again express to you the assurance of my deep and lasting gratitude and appreciation."
Gunnar Knudsen, who presided over the ceremony, then read the telegram in Norwegian, adding the following concluding remarks :
"I am convinced, Gentlemen, that the words expressed here by the President of the United States and the aim for which he proposes to work, with the aid of the Peace Prize just awarded him, will gain worldwide approbation. It is incontrovertible, as President Roosevelt says, that peace in all its aspects, peace among mankind, peace between nations, peace between social classes, peace between individuals - all are equally important. The one cannot, so to speak, be divorced from the other. If we are to promote civilization and the well-being of mankind as a whole, we can do it most effectively by securing world peace, for the entire history of the world teaches us that war and devastation are inseparable. The ravages of war arrest the progress of nations culturally, materially, socially, and politically, perhaps for generations. This is why Alfred Nobel has by his testament erected a memorial that will live forever in the minds of men and that establishes him as one of the greatest benefactors of mankind."