Description

By August 1905 the Russo-Japanese War had been raging for 18 months, with over a million soldiers, sailors, and engineers in arms, it had cost the lives of between 100,000 to 200,000 participants and brought death and destruction to civilians. The war had seen the sinking of the Russian Pacific and Baltic fleets, and the great sieges at Port Arthur and Mukden. The world was shaken by the emphatic rise of Imperial Japan as a land and naval power. Russia had been blooded and humiliated.

But Russia was not yet done. Although both sides were financially exhausted it was Russia who continued to funnel troops into the war, while Japan’s manpower reserves were depleted. The war might yet continue, with further loss of life and property, and protracted instability in the Far East. With this would come the risk of further Russian humiliation. Both sides needed a way out. The door to that way out was opened by US President Theodore Roosevelt when he invited delegations of both sides to Portsmouth, New Hampshire - to a peace conference through August 1905. But with the sides so far apart on numerous key issues - the Russian Czar had stipulated no territorial concessions or reparation payments, and the Japanese Emperor wanted exactly those things and much more - what real hope was there that both sides could find a mutually satisfactory resolution?

In history, the answer is found in the Treaty of Portsmouth, a complex and significant diplomatic achievement, for which, for his part in facilitating and assisting, President Roosevelt was the first American to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. In Peace 1905, you - the players - will have Roosevelt’s assistance, but the work of successfully negotiating is down to you. Will you end the war, and bring a peace your governments approve of, or will the conference end in failure, and the war ignite again?

—description from the publisher