Russo- Japanese War
The Russo-Japanese war was fought from 1904-1905. It began with the Japanese attack on Port Arthur (those Japanese sure love to attack naval ports). Russia and Japan both wanted to create "spheres of influence" in the far east and they chose to do it at the expense of China. Japan fought a quick war with China from 1894-1895 and wound up winning. They imposed a large treaty on China with one of the stipulations being that they got Port Arthur. This really pissed off Russia because they wanted it so Russia ran around to all the other European countries and got them on their side so they all influenced Japan into giving up Port Arthur. Only two years later, Saint Petersburg forced China to lease Port Arthur to the Russians and this, naturally, really pissed of the Japanese. The Boxer rebellion of 1900 caused Japan and Russia to send troops to China to put down the rebels. After this was over, both countries were supposed to withdraw their troops by 1903 but Russia didn't want to give up Manchuria because she wished to hold it as a springboard for further expansion of her interest in the Far East. Japan didn't have much time to make a big deal about this, at first, because Japan was busy taking over Korea. Russia wanted a sphere of influence in Korea too and had a little one for awhile. Both countries managed to coexist peacefully for a time but Japan sentiment toward Russia was declining due to the fact that Russia wouldn't withdraw her troops from Manchuria and she had taken over the Port that Japan had won, fair and square. Negotiations between the two nations began in 1901 but didn't get very far. Japan knew she needed to do something so she strengthened her position by forming an alliance with Britain (everyone's favorite country). The terms stated that if Japan went to war in the Far East, and a third power entered the fight against Japan, then Britain would help Japan. During her negotiations with Japan, Russia did not expect to ever go to war with the Japanese. After all, Japan was a newly emergent country, whose naval officers had been trained in Britain and her army officers in Germany, but several of those officers had begun their careers wearing armor and brandishing swords. How could they ever expect to win against a wonderful country such as Russian whose army was the world's most powerful, or at least that is what the Russians thought. Japan knew that they could not win a long war fought over a vast expanse, but they could win a short localized war. And that was exactly what they did! In February of 1904 Japan launched an attack on the Russian Far Eastern Fleet anchored at Port Arthur. Japan, in this fight, possessed the advantage of a German trained army (as mentioned before) of 300,000 field troops, with a back up of 400,000 trained reservists. Czarist Russia's conscript army in the Far East, ill trained and low in morale, was 80,000 at the beginning of 1904, and was reinforced slowly, to a low maximum of 250,000 in December 1904. The Japanese fleet was superior both in size and in quality. This surprise naval attack, the blockade and siege of Port Arthur, a land victory at Mukden, and the destruction of Russia's Baltic fleet, brought success to Japan and the acquisition of Port Arthur, renamed Vladivostok. This was a complete shock to the world...how in the world could the new country of Japan beat the well-established Russian empire?! For the first time in modern history an Asian military force had soundly whipped the army and navy of a major western imperial power. This established Japan as a major world power and showed Russia they better not mess with the Japanese...they're crazy! Sources from: Russo-Japanese War Research Society Russo-Japanese War | 