PC: Japan Conquered

I'm taken with the "Japan as Vietnam" idea. Say Russia still takes Hokkaido, as par the offered TL, but instead of having British soldiers brought onto Honshu, they just get a trade deal -- initially, anyway.

In the late 1870's, a civil war breaks in Japan, and the British are spooked that the Russians will push themselves south, potentially taking control of the East China Sea. So, even though they send an army in to protect their interests -- which, the more I think about it, the more the Afghanistan analogy makes sense, seeing as there is a well established military culture, and Honshu, unlike Hokkaido, is densely populated.

Even if the British are beat (or they "win" with little to show for it), Japan will be badly ravaged, politically, culturally, economically -- what have you. Modernization is going to take a even longer now, leaving them vulnerable.

But to who? As has been mentioned on this thread, most European powers don't really want to occupy the islands, with the exception of Russia, which could expand its influence in the Pacific a great deal more, but the other powers (especially Britain) at least agree that they don't want Russia to have it.

There is one potential conquerer though that would gain even more from controlling the archipelago -- because it is only through them that they can access the Pacific, and the rest of the world.

How you like that idea -- Korean Japan? ;)
 

maverick

Banned
There is one potential conquerer though that would gain even more from controlling the archipelago -- because it is only through them that they can access the Pacific, and the rest of the world.

That part doesn't even begin to make sense.

How you like that idea -- Korean Japan? ;)

You need a separate POD for this, and to literally have everything turn out well for Korea to have this, and it'd probably take a few decades of modernization. Joseon is still a Chinese vassal, reluctant to modernize, well somehow and just as vulnerable as 1850s Japan. Notice how they didn't declare the Korean empire until 1897, or were unable to modernize, as Siam and Japan did IOTL, or China tried with the self-strenghtening movement.

A better POD for a Korean Japan would be in the pre-Joseon period.
 
I can see the Russians moving on to conquer and annex Hokkaido should Japan not modernize on Western standards or lose majorly in the Russo-Japanese war. I would suspect that the Russians would benefit the most from this and they would flood the island with thousands upon thousands of impoverished Russians looking for a better life.
 
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