Treaty of Saint Petersburg (1875)

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For other uses, see Treaty of Saint Petersburg.

The Treaty of Saint Petersburg (樺太・千島交換条約 Karafuto-Chishima Kōkan Jōyaku?) was signed on 7 May 1875 between the Empire of Japan and Empire of Russia. Its terms stipulated that Japan give claims to Sakhalin island in exchange for undisputed sovereignty of all the Kuril islands up to the Kamchatka peninsula.[1][2]

The Treaty of Shimoda of 1855 had defined the border between Japan and Russia to be the strait between Iturup (Etorofu) and Urup (Uruppu) islands in the Kurile chain, but had left the status of Sakhalin (Karafuto) open. Without well-defined borders, incidents between Russian and Japanese settlers began to occur. In order to remedy this situation the Japanese government sent an ambassador, Enomoto Takeaki, to St Petersburg to clearly define the border. After a year of negotiations, Japan agreed to renounce its claims to Sakhalin, with compensation for Japanese residents, access by the fishing fleet to the Sea of Okhotsk, ten-years free use of Russian ports in the area and ownership of all of the Kurile Islands.

The treaty was concluded because Japan wanted to prevent Russian resource hunger in East-Asia reach Japanese territories. A clear delineation of the borders between the two empires would prevent this expansionism.

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[edit] References

  1. ^ G. Patrick March (1996). Eastern Destiny: Russia in Asia and the North Pacific. Praeger/Greenwood. ISBN 0275955664. 
  2. ^ Tim Chapman (2001). Imperial Russia, 1801-1905. Routledge (UK). ISBN 0415231094.