Japan buys Alaska

There is no possible way Japan would be remotely interested in or in a position obtain Alaska from Russia until the early 20th century, presumably as a result of a settlement in an ATL Russo-Japanese War. If such an outcome appeared remotely possible to the USA or Britain, either one would step in first and either buy Alaska themselves or just take it in the aftermath of a Russian defeat. By 1905, the US, in particular was far too concerned about the "Yellow Peril" to allow Japan any holdings in North America.

Of course as others have said, a world in which Russia never sold Alaska to the US in the 1860's might be so different from OTL as to make reasonable speculation about this difficult.

Well america buying alaska was kinda unexpected too. Plus the idea of a japan boost sounds like a good TL.
 
There is no possible way Japan would be remotely interested in or in a position obtain Alaska from Russia until the early 20th century, presumably as a result of a settlement in an ATL Russo-Japanese War. If such an outcome appeared remotely possible to the USA or Britain, either one would step in first and either buy Alaska themselves or just take it in the aftermath of a Russian defeat. By 1905, the US, in particular was far too concerned about the "Yellow Peril" to allow Japan any holdings in North America.

Of course as others have said, a world in which Russia never sold Alaska to the US in the 1860's might be so different from OTL as to make reasonable speculation about this difficult.

Lots of countries bought or conquered territory that would otherwise seem like places they'd never do so.

Japan could buy it for one or more of the following reasons;
1. Imperial growth (almost all of the empires did this).
2. Prestige (again, something everyone did if they could).
3. Strategic positioning (a Japan that wants to build a Pacific Empire would find Alaska very useful).
4. Misguided beliefs about availability of resources.
5. Economic reasons (as I said, having a direct conduit to get North American resources from would be highly useful).
 

katchen

Banned
Yes. What WOULD a world in which the USSR is breathing down Canada's neck with a border near Dawson and Prince Rupert be like? How would the prospect of the Reds being a North American power affect US behavior 1918-19? Would the US be more proactive in support of the Whites? Or if the Reds did rule Alaska, what would the 1940s and 50s and 60s be like in a US and Canada with Russia breathing down their necks?
 
Yes. What WOULD a world in which the USSR is breathing down Canada's neck with a border near Dawson and Prince Rupert be like? How would the prospect of the Reds being a North American power affect US behavior 1918-19? Would the US be more proactive in support of the Whites? Or if the Reds did rule Alaska, what would the 1940s and 50s and 60s be like in a US and Canada with Russia breathing down their necks?

No Alaska Purchase would change things to the point their would be no Bolshevek Revolution, however in the very unlikely event it still happened, Britain/Canada or the U.S. would seize the territory when it started looking like the Soviets were going to win the civil war.
 
No Alaska Purchase would change things to the point their would be no Bolshevek Revolution, however in the very unlikely event it still happened, Britain/Canada or the U.S. would seize the territory when it started looking like the Soviets were going to win the civil war.
Or, at least, prop up a 'White' puppet regime there...
 
There is no possible way Japan would be remotely interested in or in a position obtain Alaska from Russia until the early 20th century, presumably as a result of a settlement in an ATL Russo-Japanese War. If such an outcome appeared remotely possible to the USA or Britain, either one would step in first and either buy Alaska themselves or just take it in the aftermath of a Russian defeat. By 1905, the US, in particular was far too concerned about the "Yellow Peril" to allow Japan any holdings in North America.

Of course as others have said, a world in which Russia never sold Alaska to the US in the 1860's might be so different from OTL as to make reasonable speculation about this difficult.

I'm surprised no one has said "Monroe Doctrine".
 
I'm surprised no one has said "Monroe Doctrine".

Well, considering the Monroe Doctrine was basically only supported by Britain for most of its existence and was aimed at South American and the Caribbean and later by the United States at Central America and the Caribbean, it would'nt make much sense.
 
Well, considering the Monroe Doctrine was basically only supported by Britain for most of its existence and was aimed at South American and the Caribbean and later by the United States at Central America and the Caribbean, it would'nt make much sense.

AFAIK, Monroe never actually SAID "Latin America". And I wasn't referring so much to rapacious Canadians:rolleyes: as I was to the fact that due to Anglo settlements expanding in Russian Alaska, the Russians had to figure they were going to lose the territory eventually by osmosis to the British, if nothing else. Far better to sell to the far less threatening Yankees and get the $$$. Better that than let Alaska fall to a power that conceivably threaten their Far Eastern territories. Selling to Japan (even if the Japanese somehow had the money:confused:) would only make that paradigm even worse.

From a Russian perspective, I honestly cannot think of a better prospective customer to buy Alaska than the USA, a nation Russia had extremely good relations with in the 1860s.:) Particularly in the American Civil War, when the Imperial Russian Navy made a "goodwill visit" to New York City and San Francisco.
 
I wonde rif the Japanese could get anyone to go to Alaska. As I recall, Hokkaido was still thought of as a howling wilderness well into the Twentieth Century, Alsaks would be even more so.
 
If Japan was able to successfully close a sale on Alaska without the US or Great Britain falling into a moral panic over ORIENTALS!! SHOCK! HORROR!! buying a piece of the Western Hemisphere (which is by no means certain), there likely would not BE a war in the Pacific, since Alaska would have all the coal, iron, copper, oil, molybdenum platinum, silver, lead, zinc and a few other minerals that Japan needs to fuel it's industrialization. Japan would simply have no need to invade Manchuria. It would already have vast steel mills in places like Anchorage IOTL or Port Heiden IOTL. Marshal Braginsky can identify other likely industrial sites.
Unless of course the US got threatened enough to actually invade Japanese Alaska, in which case a Japanese settled Alaska backed by a more industrialized Japan on what would by then be Japanese home soil would be a very formidable opponent, even for the United States in a war in which the US would be clearly in the wrong.:(

Hmmm... Interesting. Maybe some sort of alternative WW1 with Britain and the US being sort of asian-racist aggressors? Russia having sold this to Japan now finds itself dealing better with Japan as an ally, and sides with Japan?
IDK. I'm probably blowing smoke here, but in general it sounds like a fun time-line. On another tangent... could Russia get so angry with some sort of small recent events happening with Britain and the US that it sells to Japan to spite them? That one is probably a bit out, but not entirely impossible I hope.
 
I wonde rif the Japanese could get anyone to go to Alaska. As I recall, Hokkaido was still thought of as a howling wilderness well into the Twentieth Century, Alsaks would be even more so.

To play devil's advocate a bit here, the frontier in the continental US wasn't "closed" until 1890. People also suggest attaching Alaska to Canada, and the most intensive period of the settlement of the Canadian West went on until the beginning of the First World War.
 
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