HISTORY OF ASIA GENERAL SURVEY 99 



Annenkov threw across the burning desert, united the Caspian Sea to 

 Bokhara and Samarkand, crossing the Oxus at Charjui. The continu- 

 ation of this railway from Samarkand to Tashkend and the Siberian 

 line was to place the whole of Asia beyond the Ural Mountains and 

 the Caspian Sea in the hands of the Russians. 



It seems as if nothing could put a stop to this expansion; on the 

 contrary, the bold and rapid construction of a railway across the 

 frozen steppes of Siberia was to unite Russia directly with the Far 

 East by an unbroken chain; the ports of Manchuria and Korea, 

 watered by the seas of China and Japan, being considered the termini 

 of the long line. 



Work on the western part of the Siberian Railway began on July 7, 

 1892. Its extension beyond the Baikal Lake was to take it on the 

 one hand to Vladivostock at the eastern extremity of the Russian 

 possessions in Asia, and on the other to Port Arthur in the south 

 of the Liao-tung Peninsula. It was fair to think that the point 

 where the two lines met, in the very heart of Manchuria, should be- 

 come a most important centre of industry and population; indeed, 

 this has been realized, and in a few years, in the place of a barren 

 spot, the considerable town of Kharbin (Harbin) has been built in 

 the twinkling of an eye, so to speak. 



Russia weighs with its enormous mass on the Asiatic Continent like 

 a gigantic polyp, whose head and body press on Siberia and Central 

 Asia, with tentacles stretching toward Korea, Manchuria, Mongolia, 

 Tibet, Afghanistan, Persia, Asia Minor, ready to close them on the 

 prey which she encircles, and which is disputed to her by other 

 nations anxious to take their share of the plunder, thus creating 

 a permanent state of uneasiness throughout the Continent. 



While Russia was making this enormous extension in the northwest 

 of Asia, Japan was pursuing the series of reforms which were to 

 secure for her a very special position in the concert of the nations of 

 the world. Previous to the revolution of 1868, which altered entirely 

 the state of things in Japan, a real duality in the government existed 

 in this country; while the Tenno, or Mikado, the only Emperor, 

 reigned nominally at Kioto, the power was held in fact by the Shogun, 

 a sort of Mayor of the Palace, residing at Yedo. From lyeyas, at the 

 beginning of the seventeenth century, who gave to feodality the 

 definitive constitution which lasted to our days, the power remained 

 in his house, that of Tokugawa. The foreigners who landed in Japan 

 in the sixteenth and the beginning of the seventeenth century - 

 Portuguese and English were expelled in 1637, and by the end of 

 1639 the Dutch and the Chinese were the only outsiders allowed to 

 live on the islet of Deshima, in the Bay of Nagasaki , in order to supply 

 the Japanese with the goods they required. 



