Plausibility Check: Invasion of the Philippines in 1905?

It would be interesting to see what effect such a war would have on the defence programmes in Australia and NZ. Might be a whole new Russian scare, resulting in a new range of coastal forts being constructed all over
 
It's been a while since I read it and it's an older book, but in Teddy Roosevelt and Japan Esthus mentions that while the US was very afraid of exactly this scenario, Japan simply didn't want the islands at the time being. As others have pointed out Japan was far more strategically interested in Korea and Asia as these latter were considered vitally important buffers against invasion while at the time the Philippines were basically (IIRC) a poor and rebellious land that produced agricultural products (no coal, no oil until the 70s, no rubber). Again from what I can remember the main reason to take them in 1941 was to protect the supply lines invasion of the much more valuable DEI.
 
uh-huh....then how did Germany and France manage to take a good chunk of the Pacific while at one another's throats and while threatened by neighbors all around ??


Keenir,

Did I Blame Communism's post finally explain Japan's circa 1900 geo-political situation to you or should I have another go?


Bill
 

Keenir

Banned
Keenir,

Did I Blame Communism's post finally explain Japan's circa 1900 geo-political situation to you or should I have another go?

he failed to explain why Germany was able to grab islands on the other side of the planet....and yet Japan, being closer, and having fewer enemies at the time, can't.

I mean, surely Germany should've wanted neighboring lands - just like Japan wanted Korea.
 
he failed to explain why Germany was able to grab islands on the other side of the planet....


Keenir,

It should be blatantly obvious that you cannot compare Germany's strategic position with Japan's strategic position.

Seriously, if you cannot understand yourself why 1900 Germany and her geo-political situation are vastly different from 1900 Japan and her geo-political situation, I don't know how we can hope to explain it to you.

It would be like explaining color to the blind.


Bill
 

The Sandman

Banned
he failed to explain why Germany was able to grab islands on the other side of the planet....and yet Japan, being closer, and having fewer enemies at the time, can't.

I mean, surely Germany should've wanted neighboring lands - just like Japan wanted Korea.

Germany was grabbing islands that nobody else wanted, or that they purchased from the crumbling Spanish, and that had very little to recommend them other than helping Germany's position in the "Look, I've got colonies!" dick-waving contest. "Neighboring lands" would have involved going up against other modern powers for areas that didn't have Germans in them, during a time when the Germans already had more non-Germans in the Empire than they were comfortable with.

And Japan just didn't care about the Philippines. They had no resources of note, a large and guaranteed to be hostile population, and several other powers (the Germans among them) already had a vested interest in severing it from the Spanish Empire's rotting carcass. Korea was far, far more lucrative.
 
he failed to explain why Germany was able to grab islands on the other side of the planet....and yet Japan, being closer, and having fewer enemies at the time, can't.

I mean, surely Germany should've wanted neighboring lands - just like Japan wanted Korea.

No: European powers applies vastly differant hypocritical standards to conduct in the various "questions" and "colonial matters". Bismarck was a conservative statesman who wanted to keep France, Russia, and Austria as they were for reasons of his own and said as much. The "new course" was a lot less agressive and expansionist, especially in its early stages, than is sometimes made out (Bethmann wanted to return to the 1914 frontiers in the east in 1916 if it could get him peace with Russia, although that was admittedly sabotaged by Ludendorff).

Whereas in "the colonies", Germany, like everyone else, could do more-or-less what they wanted and as others have pointed out they gobbled up those islands on the basis that they were one of the few placed in "the colonies" that they could snatch without ructions in Europe.

But Japan was in a differant situation, Korea was definately "the colonies" as far as she was concerned, but as far as everyone else and especially Russian hardliners was concerned, so was she, and to be fair to them then she was no Germany, but a newly industrialised power with a fragile fleet.
 
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