Only three years later the Chino-Japanese War began. Its cause was Chinese oppression of Korea. In one short year the ancient empire of China was thoroughly beaten by its new rival for supremacy in the Far East. As a result Japan received at the conclusion of peace in 1895 Formosa, a huge indemnity, and independence was granted to Korea. This was a wonderful achievement for the young empire, and the entire world's attention was centered on Japan. Some of the European powers interested in China began to fear for their interests and Germany, Russia, and France combined to restrain Japan and moderate its terms to China. This aroused considerable ill feeling in Japan against the three powers whose influences were said to have deprived Japan of some of the fruits of its dearly bought victory. Especially was this feeling directed against Russia whose interests in China clashed directly with those of Japan. However, in 1898, these two countries concluded a treaty in which they both acknowledged Korea's independence and promised to respect it. As soon as commercial interests of the various foreign countries had grown, Japan had to suffer the installment of consular courts of the more important European nations. This soon was felt by the Japanese as an intrusion on their sovereignty. In 1899 treaties which had been arranged during the preceding years between Japan and these countries abolishing the consular courts went into effect. Greater and greater became Japan's influence in the Far East. The superiority of its armies over the Chinese forces during the short war of 1894-1895, the apparently wonderful adaptability of the Japanese, their equally wonderfully rapid progress along commercial and scientific lines soon made Japan a desirable ally.