After the defeat of the First Sino-Japanese War, the alliance with Russia to resist Japan became the priority strategy of the Qing Dynasty, especially the success of Russia, Germany and France in intervening in Liao, which made the Qing Dynasty, which was in an eventful season, have many unrealistic illusions about Tsarist Russia. **Taking the opportunity to lure the Qing Dynasty** to sign the "Sino-Russian Secret Treaty" and enter the Northeast in a big way, this is tantamount to luring the wolf into the house.
In 1900, Tsarist Russia took the opportunity of participating in the Eight-Nation Alliance's war of aggression against China and sent troops to occupy Northeast China. ** The move sparked opposition from Japan and other powers, who demanded that Russia recognize its superior interests in Korea. Although the two countries have negotiated many times, they have not reached a consensus, and the contradictions between Russia and Japan have intensified. At the same time, Britain, the United States, and other countries are also worried that Tsarist Russia will monopolize Northeast China and infringe on its own interests in China. So in 1902, Britain and Japan took the opportunity to form a military alliance. Since then, Britain has given Japan a lot of economic and military aid, and has continued to cheer up the small allies who have challenged the big bear, and a war between the two countries has become inevitable.
At the beginning of 1904, Britain and the United States and other countries instigated Japan to put forward the demand for the "demilitarization" of Tsarist Russia in Northeast China, which was categorically rejected by Tsarist Russia. On February 6, Japan announced the severance of diplomatic relations with Tsarist Russia. As a result, war between the two sides is inevitable, and a major war is about to break out.
At midnight on February 8, 1904, Japanese Navy Marshal and known as the "God of the Navy" Heihachiro Togo commanded the Japanese Combined Fleet to raid Port Arthur, a Chinese port under the control of the Russian Empire, and severely damaged the three most elite ** ships of the Russian First Pacific Fleet, opening the prelude to the Russo-Japanese War. The Russo-Japanese War was another war that Japan could not afford to lose, following the First Sino-Japanese War. During the Russo-Japanese War, Japan mobilized more than 1 million soldiers to fight in the war. Judging from the strength on paper, Tsarist Russia has an absolute advantage over Japan in both national and military strength. However, as a huge empire spanning Asia and Europe, Tsarist Russia was too large in land area and too long in front, and it was impossible to take care of both east and west. In addition, Tsarist Russia has long regarded itself as a European country, and its strategic focus has always been on Europe, in fact, its power in the Far East is not particularly strong.
The main battlefield of the Russo-Japanese War was far away from the three northeastern provinces of China, as many as 8,000 kilometers away from St. Petersburg, the capital of Tsarist Russia at that time. The Baltic Fleet, as the main fleet of the Navy, needs to pass through Africa and the Indian Ocean and bypass most of the world to support its Pacific Fleet deployed in the Far East, which lasts for a hundred years. This is not only a waste of money for Tsarist Russia, but also a huge cost of time. Taking all of the above factors into account, Japan has a relative advantage in the Far East, and as long as it can achieve a quick victory, it can win the war against Tsarist Russia.
However, Tsarist Russia was not without advantages. Their army and navy in the Far East had a clear superiority in equipment and numbers, and with the right strategic approach, it was possible to turn the tide of the war. At the beginning of the war, the chief of staff of the Tsarist Far East Dispatch Army, Kuropatkin, formulated an ingenious battle plan, in which he intended to take advantage of Tsarist Russia's geographical advantage in the northeast to adopt the tactics of strategic retreat and luring the enemy into depth. Lengthening the supply lines of the Japanese army and consuming the manpower and material resources of the Japanese army. Then, a large number of reinforcements were gathered on the front line of Harbin, Heilongjiang, on the Sino-Russian border, and the first army was launched to annihilate the Japanese army in one fell swoop. Unfortunately, Alekseev, the Governor-General of the Russian Far East, rejected this plan, insisting that the Russian army confront the Japanese army head-on at the Yalu River, which led to a crushing defeat of the Russian army.
Here it is very necessary to introduce Alekseev, the Governor-General of the Tsarist Far East, who is said to be the illegitimate son of the elder Tsar Alexander II and the uncle of the current Tsar Nicholas II. This person was of high rank and prestige, and was the first favorite of the Tsar at that time, but the biggest disadvantage of this person was that he could not fight. What's even more strange is that as the leader of the Far Eastern Military District, the dignified vice admiral of Tsarist Russia, this person can't ride a horse, because he has always avoided ** because of seasickness. What he is best at is ** and autocracy, and this guy is extremely arrogant, especially good at saying no to the suggestions made by his subordinates. One general is incompetent and exhausts the three armies, and with the commander of the front line, it is difficult for Tsarist Russia not to lose!
In the end, a series of defeats in naval battles such as the Battle of Tsushima dealt a heavy blow, and the two main fleets of the navy were completely annihilated. With the crushing military defeat and the outbreak of revolution at home, there was no chance of victory for Russia. After that, the United States intervened to mediate, and Japan and Russia held peace talks in the United States. After fierce bargaining, the two sides signed the Portsmouth Treaty on September 5, 1905, re-partitioning Northeast China and the Korean Peninsula, ending the Russo-Japanese War.
The Russo-Japanese War gave the newly rising Japanese Empire a complete victory over the decrepit Russian Empire, and Japan gained large colonies and investment sites through the war. Japan's chaebols also made war windfalls, setting off a boom in corporate investment. From the second half of 1905 to 1907 alone, the amount of investment in new construction and expansion enterprises was equivalent to twice the total investment in the decade after the First Sino-Japanese War. Since then, Japan has launched the second industrial revolution in an all-round way, the capitalist economy has developed rapidly, and its international status has also been markedly enhanced.
For Britain and the United States, this battle was won in one fell swoop, and it was of great strategic significance. During the war, Britain and the United States did not send a single soldier, and only spent a small amount of money to aid Japan, allowing Japan to defeat Tsarist Russia. It not only served the purpose of curbing the expansion of Tsarist Russia in the Far East, but also laid the groundwork for the final collapse of the tsarist system more than ten years later.
The biggest loser in this war is undoubtedly the Qing Dynasty, and its most criticized thing is that on February 12, 1904, the Qing Dynasty declared neutrality on the grounds that Japan and Russia were both friends, and allowed the Japanese and Russian teams to fight in China. Due to the connivance of the Qing Dynasty, Japan and Russia burned, killed, looted, and committed all kinds of evil in China, resulting in the death of 20,000 people in the war and the loss of 69 million taels. In the Russo-Japanese peace talks after the end of the war, China, as the country that suffered the most from the war, was excluded from the peace talks, and finally reluctantly accepted the reality that Japan and Russia redivided the sphere of influence in the northeast.
The fact that Japan and Russia fought vigorously in China while China was forced to become neutral was another great shame in China's modern history, which not only seriously trampled on China's sacred territorial sovereignty, but also caused the Chinese people to suffer an unprecedented catastrophe in the war. This war also more fully exposed the corruption and incompetence of the Qing Dynasty, made the Chinese people more soberly aware of the reactionary nature of the Qing Dynasty, and strengthened the determination of the Chinese people to overthrow the Qing Dynasty.
Looking back at this period of history, it also makes us more soberly aware that history has never sympathized with the weak, and it is the iron law of history that if you are backward, you will be beaten. Only by constantly striving for self-improvement and constantly improving comprehensive national strength can we be invincible.
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