Because of the role played by PresidentTheodore Roosevelt, the United States became a significant force in world diplomacy.Roosevelt was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1906 for his back-channel efforts before and during the peace negotiations, even though he never actually went to Portsmouth.
On Sept. 5, 1905, the empires of Japan and Russia signed the Treaty of Portsmouth, an instrument which ended the Russo-Japanese War. Arbitrated by U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt, the treaty was named after the Portsmouth Naval Shipyards in Kittery, Maine, across from Portsmouth, N.H., where the negotiations had taken place.
Roosevelt convinced the Japanese to give up their claim on Vladivostok and moderated the language of the treaty to imply that any money Russia paid to Japan would be considered merely a “reimbursement” rather than an indemnity.
Roosevelt felt compelled to write a letter directly to Czar Nicholas II, trying to convince him to surrender half of Sakhalin:
