Russian Japanese War
Russian-Japanese WarThe Russian-Japanese war of 1904 was a European
conflict that was
fought because one country was becoming too strong.
The conflict was mainly
fought because two separate countries had their
own special interests in far east
countries like Korea, China, and Manchuria.
Britain
and Japan recognized the independance of China and Korea, but at
the same
time authorized each other to intervene in either territory if their own
"special interests" were threatened by another power or by internal disorder.
That power was now Russia. There was already a rivalry going on between
Britain and Russia because of the Trans-Siberian railway but now there was
another dimension. Russia now had access to the pacific. Her presence in
Asia
threatened already established Britain interests. China leased the
ice-free Port
Arthur to Russia and allowed them to store their war ships
there. The two
empires were set on a collision course.
Britain was
very reluctant to commit herself to a distant threat of war so she
took
a step to allying herself with the growing industrial power of Japan. In
doing so, Britain found her soldiers in the east.
At this time Russia failed
to realize how powerful Britain and Japan had
made themselves. Russia
was unable to take Japan seriously even though they
had many reports on
how large the Japanese naval and military forces were.
Unfortunately,
Russia's constant penetration into Korea and Manchuria
continued unabated
despite the presence of numbers of Japanese immagrants
and traders.
Russia
had succeeded in replacing the now defunct Chinese influence with
her own.
Russia now began taking over the administrative departments and had
their
officers train the Korean army to fight on their side.
In April, May, and
June of 1903, Russian's had told the Japanese that they
would move out
of China. They did not and continued to occupy the land. In
July of the
that same year, the Japanese Ambassador proposed that Russia and
Japan
were to recognize the independance of China and Korea. Both nations
were
to rcognize preponderance, the Japanese in Korea balanced by russians in
Manchuria. They were to recall their troops from their respective area as
soon as
possible. In return, the Russians would protect the railways in
Manchuria and
the Japanese would do the same in Korea.
It came to the
attention of the Japanese that the Russians were building up
their naval
and military forces in the far east. They were also moving troops not
only into Manchuria, but also into North Korea. It now became obvious to the
Japnese that the Russians had no intention of releasing their hold on Manchuria
and Korea. Nevertheless, the negotiations went on. On February 10th, 1904,
both nations produced formal declarations of war.
On February 8th, a large
part of the Russian Pacific squadron lat anchor in
the roadstead of Port
Arthur. The ships were arranged in three lines running east
and west.
The innermost consisting of five battleships: the flagship, the
petroulouk,
the sebastopol, peresuept, pobieda, and pollada. The middle line
was headed
by two more battleships which were the tsarevich and the retvizan.
They
were followed by three crusiers and...
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