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egan the three great changes that have transformed theFar East for our day.From the south, the British as a result of the firstAnglo-Chinese war (1839-42) compelled China to admitforeigners on special terms, besides setting a possibleprecedent by the acquisition of Hong Kong. A new doorinto China was opened for the influence of Europe andAmerica, small at first but soon to be widened, withfar-reaching consequences both for China and the world.A dozen years later (1853-54) the United Statescompelled Japan to open certain ports to her. Thisaction led immediately to contacts with other foreignstates and to the great reversal of Japanese isolationismthat had been the national policy since the early seventeenthcentury. In 1868 the policy of self-modernizationon the basis of Western technique was deliberatelyadopted, with decisively rapid results. Within fortyyears the Pacific had a new great power in the modernsense.The third great change in the Far East was theforward movement of Russia, beginning in the middle ofthe century, which brought her to the Amur and Vladivostok,and within forty years to Port Arthur (see map 2).The initial impetus was due to the ambition andvision of Muravyov-Amursky (1809-81), one of the mostoutstanding figures in the long line of Russian proconsuls.He foresaw Siberia as the great field forRussian colonization in the century to come: therefore"in order to preserve Siberia it is necessary now [1853]to preserve and strengthen for us Kamchatka, Sakhalinand the mouths and navigation of the Amur and to obtainsolid influence over neighbouring China.'' Otherwise,the British, always his special bugbear, would forestallRussia. As governor-general of eastern Siberia from1847 to 1861 he overrode the obstructive caution of theforeign minister Nesselrode and others of his opponentsin St Petersburg and launched out with well-preparedenergy on the consolidation and expansion of Russianpower in the Far East.Muravyov had the satisfaction of bloodily repulsing aBritish expedition against Kamchatka during the Crimean299