Russo-Japanese Agreement
- Thread starter Captain2
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Germaniac
Donor
The Russians will never agree to that. You have to remember that it was only about 20 years before that Japan was a backwater medieval society. The Russians had little respect for the Japanese and really only viewed them as a second class society a few years before the war. The Russians viewed it as their mission to control the Pacific and Japan was in the way, Korea was a key part or Russia's plans.
Russia had the intention of occupying, colonizing, and annexing the majority or Manchuria. Korea would serve as a Russian Backed Buffer state.
Remember that Russia, and the rest of the world for that matter, thought the war would be a quick colonial war for the Japanese, and that Russia would just embarrass the Japanese.
This. It was pretty shocking to see a European colonial empire lose to an Asiastic nation at the time. However if you are talking about some sort of Soviet-Japanese agreement later on, it could be possible...
I Blame Communism
Banned
Actually, IIRC, Russia's belligerant belief that Japan was weak and would yield everything if pushed was a result of a few colonial hardliners getting the ear of the notoriously malleable NII. Cooler heads, while not recognising Japan's true potential (nobody did, not even Britain), did realise that Korea was a trifle, comparatively speaking, and giving it to the Japanese was an acceptable price for their non-interference north of the Yalu: I don't think a line o the Yalu is so very implausible. Japan was being used as a proxy against Russia's grand designs in China by Britain, so such an agreement would keep diplomacy rather hotter in the Far East. In OTL, the definative closing of that question in 1905, which more or less lasted until 1931, turned attention back to Europe and helped reconcile us and Russia. Ho-hum...