Series: Russo-Japanese War - Russia desires warm-water ports

The Russo-Japanese War is a turning point in modern history. The Japanese victory symbolised Asia’s fighting ability to knock out the Western power, enjoying the rise of international status rather than being subjugated. So how did the Japanese defeat the Russian Empire, 12 times larger than them? The pre-war’s global interaction is the first page of this magnificent story.

The Russians desired perfect warm-water ports for potential invasion and socio-economic interactions with foreign countries since the reign of Peter the Great in the 17th century. Because of that, Peter the Great ordered the establishment of St.Petersburg as the new capital of the Russian Empire to have a closer economic exchange with affluent Western Europe. Even though the vast Siberia, Caucasus in Central Asia and part of Poland were vanquished by mighty Cossack cavalry, the Russian’s further expansion was obstructed by neighbouring countries in the West and Western colonies in the South.

The Baltic Sea freezes in winter. To have a year-round navy, the closest year-round warm water port would be by the Black sea

On the other hand, the rise of the British Empire colonised lots of foreign lands so a buffer zone was desperately needed to protect a tremendous interest in British India. Afghanistan became an ideal barrier for the British Empire because of its geographical location and complicated terrain. Still, it became a political and military confrontation, a so-called “the Great Game”, between the Russian Empire and the British Empire. Both empires confirmed the borderline to avoid a devastating war. Besides, the Russians launched several intrusions into Persia (Nowadays: Iran) to obtain warm-water ports. If the Russians could attain their goals, the Russian navies might threaten the British sea routes to the Far East. Because of that, the British sought to build up an alliance with the Ottoman Empire to restrain the Russian Black Sea Fleet so as not to enter the Mediterranean Sea, the Persian Gulf and the Indian Sea. To take a further step, the British Empire even actively invaded Southern Persia to control all warm-water ports before the arrival of Russian troops. In brief, the Russian dream of warm-water ports was greatly hindered by British influence, so the Liaodong Peninsula became their next target.

The geopolitics of Persia became a chess game between the British Empire and the Russian Empire

The British Empire and the Russian Empire

Meanwhile, the Japanese understood that modernisation was the only way to avoid being conquered by Western imperialism, so they experienced unprecedented westernisation and modernisation, the “Meiji Restoration”, in the late 19th century. From Emperor Meiji to the peasants, they were resolute to strengthen their military mighty whatever the cost may be. Unparalleled solidarity let the Japanese government purchase western military equipment and consultants no matter how expensive they were. In 1895, the modernised Japanese Imperial army and navy defeated Qing China in the First Sino-Japanese War and annexed Taiwan (Formosa), Penghu and the Liaodong Peninsula. With foreign support from the German Empire and the French Third Republic, the furious Russians compelled the Japanese to relinquish the sovereignty of the Liaodong Peninsula because it was their warm-water port’s ideal target. All Japanese held a grudge against the Russian Empire but couldn’t avenge it due to an imbalanced military ability. This became the prelude to the Russo-Japanese war in the future.

The geopolitics in East Asia. The Japanese Empire was a rising star when the Qing Empire was staying at its ‘imperial dream’

A waning Qing China sought an alliance with the Russian Empire to resist Japanese military aggression. In return, the Russians could lease Port Arthur and even construct the formidable defensive site. They were also permitted to build railways within China so that Russia’s sphere of influence was rapidly increased in the North-Eastern part of China. The Japanese were anxious because they had to confront a high-handed Russian Empire. In this sense, Japan and the British Empire had a common enemy and instantly formed an Anglo-Japanese Alliance in 1902.

See Part 2 for more.

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Reference:

D Steinberg J W Wolff (Eds. (2007). Russo-Japanese War in global perspective ; World War Zero. Vol. 2. (pp. 87–178). Brill.

Esthus, R. A. (1981). Nicholas II and the Russo-Japanese War. Russian Review, 40(4), 396. https://doi.org/10.2307/129919

McKercher, B. J. C. (1989). Diplomatic Equipoise: The Lansdowne Foreign Office the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905, and the Global Balance of Power. Canadian Journal of History, 24(3), 299–340. https://doi.org/10.3138/cjh.24.3.299

Wurtzburg, S. J. (2006). Choctaw Women in a Chaotic World: The Clash of Cultures in the Colonial Southeast. Ethnohistory, 53(4), 774–776. https://doi.org/10.1215/00141801-2006-027