coast.  That she meant to use it as a base for future expansion was shown by her lavish expenditure upon its equipment and fortification.  Russia responded by seizing the strong place of Port Arthur and the Liao-Tang Peninsula, while every day her hold upon the great province of Manchuria was strengthened.  Foreseeing a coming conflict in which her immense trading interests would be imperilled, Britain acquired a naval base on the Chinese coast by leasing Wei-hai-Wei.  Thus all the European rivals were clustered round the decaying body of China; and in the last years of the century were already beginning to claim ‘spheres of influence,’ despite the protests of Britain and America.  But the outburst of the Boxer Rising in 1900—­caused mainly by resentment of foreign intervention—­had the effect of postponing the rush for Chinese territory.  And when Britain and Japan made an alliance in 1902 on the basis of guaranteeing the status quo in the East, the overwhelming naval strength of the two allies made a European partition of China impracticable; and China was once more given a breathing-space.  Only Russia could attack the Chinese Empire by land; and the severe defeat which she suffered at the hands of Japan in 1904-5 removed that danger also.  The Far East was left with a chance of maintaining its independence, and of voluntarily adapting itself to the needs of a new age.

The last region in which territories remained available for European annexation consisted of the innumerable archipelagoes of the Pacific Ocean.  Here the preponderant influence had been in the hands of Britain ever since the days of Captain Cook.  She had made some annexations during the first three quarters of the century, but had on the whole steadfastly refused the requests of many of the island peoples to be taken under her protection.  France had, as we have seen, acquired New Caledonia and the Marquesas Islands during the previous period, but her activity in this region was never very great.  The only other European power in possession of Pacific territories was Spain, who held the great archipelago of the Philippines, and claimed also the numerous minute islands (nearly six hundred in number) which are known as Micronesia.  When the colonial enthusiasm of the ’eighties began, Germany saw a fruitful field in the Pacific, and annexed the Bismarck Archipelago and the north-eastern quarter of New Guinea.  Under pressure from Australia, who feared to see so formidable a neighbour established so near her coastline, Britain annexed the south-eastern quarter of that huge island.  During the ’nineties the partition of the Pacific Islands was completed; the chief participators being Germany, Britain, and the United States of America.