Well, I've been thinking. While Britain had its Raj and Imperial Russia was mucking about in Central Asia, there was a sense, from some of the books I've been reading nearly continuously, that sooner or later Russia and Britain would go to war over territorial conflicts in Central Asia or some other cause. Regardless, it was assumed that there would be fighting in Central Asia, and that Russia would threaten India.
Well, this never happened. In spite of all of the war scares, Britain and Russia never had a really climactic show down as was expected. Sure, there was the Crimean War, but that doesn't really count. So, my thought is, imagine if during the Russo-Japanese War, the Dogger Bank Incident results in war between Britain and Russia. Now, consider this. At the time, Russia was allied with France. One might imagine the possibility - indeed, one must imagine the possibility, that this results in France becoming involved in the fighting. The results... well, I had the idea that it could be Imperial Russia and France against Britain and Japan, with perhaps the Ottoman Empire jumping on the Russians with British encouragement when they begin to falter, as they inevitably will. This could be a sort of earlier World War One, perhaps...
The thing is, it's not so plausible for France to leap to the aid of doomed Russia against Britain. So I had the idea that Germany, which at that time had been playing for Russia's friendship might end up siding with Russia. So that it would be Britain, France (France was interested in seeing Germany humbled above all else, after all), Japan and perhaps the Ottoman Empire against Germany and Russia.
Any permutation of either of those two ideas might've worked out in the end - I can't say that either would have been inevitable. I can only ask what are your thoughts on this...
So, what are they?
Well, this never happened. In spite of all of the war scares, Britain and Russia never had a really climactic show down as was expected. Sure, there was the Crimean War, but that doesn't really count. So, my thought is, imagine if during the Russo-Japanese War, the Dogger Bank Incident results in war between Britain and Russia. Now, consider this. At the time, Russia was allied with France. One might imagine the possibility - indeed, one must imagine the possibility, that this results in France becoming involved in the fighting. The results... well, I had the idea that it could be Imperial Russia and France against Britain and Japan, with perhaps the Ottoman Empire jumping on the Russians with British encouragement when they begin to falter, as they inevitably will. This could be a sort of earlier World War One, perhaps...
The thing is, it's not so plausible for France to leap to the aid of doomed Russia against Britain. So I had the idea that Germany, which at that time had been playing for Russia's friendship might end up siding with Russia. So that it would be Britain, France (France was interested in seeing Germany humbled above all else, after all), Japan and perhaps the Ottoman Empire against Germany and Russia.
Any permutation of either of those two ideas might've worked out in the end - I can't say that either would have been inevitable. I can only ask what are your thoughts on this...
So, what are they?