What country humiliated Russia in a 1904-05 war?

Japan humiliated Russia in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905. The conflict pitted the rising Empire of Japan against the Russian Empire over competing ambitions in Manchuria and Korea.

Japan opened the war with a surprise attack on Russia’s Pacific Fleet at Port Arthur in February 1904. Japanese forces then won important land campaigns, including the Battle of Mukden, while Japan’s navy imposed a decisive defeat at the Battle of Tsushima in May 1905. At Tsushima, Japan destroyed much of Russia’s Baltic Fleet after it had sailed thousands of miles from Europe to East Asia.

The result shocked the world because Japan was an Asian power that had defeated a major European empire in a modern war. The Treaty of Portsmouth ended the conflict in September 1905, recognizing Japan’s dominant position in Korea and transferring several Russian concessions to Japan. Russia’s defeat damaged the prestige of Tsar Nicholas II and contributed to unrest that helped trigger the Russian Revolution of 1905. The war is sometimes incorrectly described as a total conquest of Russia; it was instead a struggle centered on East Asian territories and influence.