The Philippine Republic is inaugurated in January 1899. China's anti-foreign Boxer Rebellion is put down by Western troops. The Russo-Japanese War. Japan's victory marks its rise as a major world power. 1905 Korea becomes a Japanese protectorate.
Japan formally annexes Korea.
1912 Pu Yi, China's last emperor, abdicates. 1913 Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore, above, receives the Nobel Prize for Literature. Korea's March 1 Movement calls for independence but is crushed by the Japanese. 1919 British troops fire on an unarmed crowd at Jallianwallah Bagh in Amritsar. The atrocity galvanizes India's independence movement.