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I finally posted the update for my previous timeline because I was inspired to start something new. This timeline is based on an idea I've pondered before but never developed besides pondering until now. Disclaimer in the next post.
The Whale And The Lion United
Chapter I: The Year of the Four Emperors, the Second Franco-German War And The Foundation of the Quadruple Alliance, 1888-1902
The year 1888 was one of the most remarkable years of the Nineteenth Century for Germany, one that certainly established the foundations for the alliance systems that would eventually develop into the Great War or the Third Franco-German War as it is alternatively known in France. Up until 1888 Germany, Europe’s clear dominant nation, had been under the relatively stabile rule of Otto, Count of Bismarck, and Emperor Wilhelm I, king of Prussia. Germany had been founded in 1871 and clearly was the most powerful nation of the continent. That however came at a price as France hated Germany for the loss in the First Franco-German War of 1870 and Russia was distancing itself from Germany as well. The Germans were part of a tight alliance system themselves, the Triple Alliance which had been founded in 1881 with Italy and Austria-Hungary, but now things weren’t going all too well even Britain was distancing itself from the Germans who posed a threat to Britain’s ideal of not letting one nation rule the continent. They did not join either France or Russia as the British Empire was still in ‘Splendid Isolation’ at the time but German-British relations could have been warmer and while currently all was well, it was uncertain whether the future would bring the same fate or if Germany would be defeated after all in a future war by a coalition of her greatest enemies.
This uncertainty would all of a sudden change in 1888, the Year of the Four Emperors. First Emperor Wilhelm I died at the age of 90 years on March 9th. He was mourned throughout the country and also by his son who succeeded him as Emperor Friedrich III of Germany. He was a staunch liberal and had great plans to modernize the country when he would rule and adjust it to the times. He was also an Anglophile, mostly due to his wife, the Empress Victoria, who was the daughter of the British queen. Friedrich would not see any of his dreams realized though. Smoking too much had given him throat cancer and by the time that he ascended to the throne it was certain that he had not much to live anymore as his speaking capability had already gone away and he was weakening rapidly. After 99 days Emperor Friedrich died on June 15th 1888 and was succeeded by his 29-year-old son who became Emperor Wilhelm II of Germany. He was a conservative like his grandfather and thus spoiled the dreams of the liberals in the country. His views were different from that of his father and similar to those of his grandfather. The future was thus very bleak for the liberal cause. Little did they know that all hope was not lost yet though as Wilhelm II did not have very long to live anymore either. On December 20th 1888 he was shot at from close range when he was travelling across the street, returning from a tour through the country. The emperor was inside a carriage but that didn’t prevent the assassin from getting a direct hit. Wilhelm was returned home where he died later that evening, being just 29 years old.
Germany was sent into a succession crisis as the third emperor had died in just one year and the new heir, Wilhelm’s son, was just six years old. Nevertheless the young prince was crowned Emperor Wilhelm III of Germany on January 5th 1889 and a regent was appointed, namely prince Heinrich, the brother of Emperor Wilhelm II, who was assisted by Count Otto von Bismarck who had been the prime minister of Prussia and de facto-ruler of Germany since 1870 as Chancellor and retained his position now as he was needed in a time of crisis. Empress Victoria (or Empress Friedrich as she was now called) attempted to gain influence too but failed miserably as women just didn’t have an important position in the German Empire of 1888. It was perhaps good as Bismarck and Victoria disliked each other because of their differing views and because of this the Chancellor ensured that Victoria would not gain any power and wouldn’t be able to implement the liberal reforms which he had attempted to prevent. With such a young emperor the nation was quite chaotic and some Bavarian nationalists proclaimed Bavarian independence even if the ruler of the nation, prince Luitpold, remained loyal to the government as he didn’t want to take too big risks. Never mind that the nation had lost a lot of stability and an opportunity arose out of this, an opportunity which was waiting for a certain French man to seize it: Georges Ernest Boulanger.
Boulanger was a general whose power and influence had rapidly grown over the 1880s. He became especially popular after the French colonial war in Indochina in 1886 where he had been able to add Tonkin to the French colonial empire there. Boulanger was a conservative and had anti-German views and promoted them. In the chaotic Third Republic his popularity had increased and while the French government, greatly fearing Boulanger, had attempted to get rid of him, the general just didn’t let himself be deposed. In January 1889 he won an enormous amount of votes in the elections and was urged by his supporters to attempt a coup. After securing himself of the support of the various monarchist factions, most notably Napoleon Joseph, alternatively known by his nickname Plon-Plon, the son of Jerome Bonaparte (and thus the nephew of Napoleon I and cousin of Napoleon II and III) who was the current pretender to part of the Bonaparte monarchists, Boulanger decided to go ahead with the coup as he could seize the weakness of the Third Republic and then intervene in Germany which wasn’t the most stable of all countries either. In April general Boulanger took control of the army and marched to Paris where the government fell and the Third Republic fell with it. The Fourth Republic was proclaimed as a more autocratic state with Boulanger as president. The French army then moved forces to the German border where they provoked a conflict with the German armies in Alsace-Lorraine as Boulanger demanded the return of the ‘lost provinces’ to protect them from Germany’s internal chaos. The German regency council refused and after some hesitance the French Army crossed the border on July 3rd, 1889. A few hours later the news reached Berlin where prince Heinrich and Bismarck immediately agreed to declare war on France. The Second Franco-German war had started.
War was soon in full swing as the French were able to gain the initiative with their initial attack. The French army had modernized over the years and was at this point much stronger than the German forces, who were also still in chaos. As a result, Alsace-Lorraine was captured within a three-week campaign, culminating into the battle of Strasbourg on July 25th which cemented the French victory. The French army then marched into the Saar region which was also taken easily. A relief force was sent under command of general von Moltke which slowed down the French advance but did not succeed in throwing it back, and with the Saar region in French hands German industry was not in the best of shapes. In late September, France started a second offensive which failed to break through German lines but did make the enemy suffer heavy casualties. Overseas the war was in full swing as well as the French seized all German possessions they could get close to. German Togo was taken in just days. Cameroon took a longer time to conquer, and while there were landings in German Tanganyika and an attempted landing in German South-West-Africa, both colonies held and refused to surrender to the advancing French. In Asia French Indochina and the German New Guinean and Pacific holdings fought each other but because of the distance between the two neither colony fell. The war was slowing down into a stalemate as autumn arrived and the weather detoriated, which made staging offensives harder.
In other nations, there was a lot of interest for the Franco-German War but none of the countries joined one of the sides as Italy and Austria-Hungary had grown afraid of French successes and were unwilling to join the losing side. Britain favored Germany and her rulers because their royal families were related but the mightiest empire on the world saw no reason to pick a fight with Boulangist France for now. And so the war went on in her stalemate-form which both powers of course attempted to break. Bloody trench warfare was going on during the winter along the front on the Moselle and Rhine rivers which could have taught the sides a lesson but none of them were willing to learn it. In December the German army broke through and liberated the occupied Rhineland but the French orderly retreated to the Saar region which wasn’t seized for now. The French also attempted to inspire revolts in Germany which worked as a lot of Bavarians refused to join the ‘Prussian’ war in hopes of getting an independent Bavaria if France won.
In late February 1890 it was time for another offensive again and France struck northwards with all her might and succeeded in breaking the German lines. They took advantage of the new quarrels in the German regency and managed to advance north and win the important battle of Köln or Cologne on March 20th. With the French managing to liberate the left bank of the Rhine, German collapse seemed inevitable and Tsar Alexander III of Russia figured that he should come to the aid of his French ally. Boulanger had made negotiations with the Tsar over the winter in which it was agreed that France would appoint a monarch after the war and as an extra concession to win the reactionary Tsar over Boulanger had chosen the Legitimist party which was the most conservative of all (and, though this was important to Boulanger alone, had a secondary base in Spain). Anyway Russia declared war over a minor border skirmish on April 4th and their armies invaded German East-Prussia which was weakly defended. The Germans had to split their armies now and could not win this war. By May the French were advancing into the Ruhr region and the Russians stood poised to take Konigsberg. Even if the French were going to be at the end of their overextended lines soon, the Germans didn’t know that and insisted that the government was to sue for peace. Bismarck realised that, if it would ever happen, retaking the areas that France and Russia had occupied was too much work and too much of a gamble as well. Prince Heinrich fully agreed with him. The chancellor decided to request an armistice and did so on May 23rd 1890 to France and two days later to Russia as well. The Franco-German War was over.
In Paris and in lesser amounts in St. Petersburg the population rejoiced because of the victory. Especially France was happy because they had avenged the defeat of 1870 and beaten the mighty German Empire. French power had been restored to it’s power status and Boulanger’s popularity rose to the point where he was worshipped as a hero that God himself had sent to save France. With the population so satisfied, Boulanger had an easy time in getting the king of his wishes, Charles de Bourbon, accepted and on July 14th (which remained a national holiday in the new monarchist France) 1890 Charles was crowned to be king Charles XI of France. With France stabilized under the new kingdom, all that had to be done was to get peace with Germany which was finally concluded in September 1890 with the Treaty of Versailles, signed at the place where France had been defeated years ago.
Although Britain mediated and softened the French demands, Boulanger was nonetheless harsh and the Tsar of all Russia’s agreed with him. Alsace-Lorraine, the Saar region and the left bank of the Rhine were ceded to France in the treaty with French armies withdrawing from the rest of the Rhineland and the Ruhr. Also, German Togo, Cameroon and Tanganyika were ceded to France to enlarge their colonial empire, leaving South-West Africa as the only African shred remaining. Russia insisted on acquiring Posen which had nearly become Russian in 1815 at the Congress of Vienna but that plan had been foiled by a coalition which ironically had included France. Now things were different though and France fully supported her ally in this. Britain did manage to get the German-majority areas to stay in German hands but the majority of Posen was annexed and Russia demanded war reparations equivalent to 2 billion roubles while Germany had to pay 8 billion francs to France. Additionally a clause was included in which France had the right to purchase Luxemburg from the Netherlands which they indeed did a few weeks later, just in time for the death of William III which would’ve loosened Dutch-Luxembourgian ties and made Luxemburg fall under the Weilburg Nassau’s. With that the Treaty of Versailles was concluded.
As France celebrated, Germany was depressed as the long-awaited war had been fought and Germany had been defeated. Bismarck tried to get the empire to recover but it was no good. Britain was Germany’s friend now though as they greatly feared the continental power that France and Russia now had. In 1894 the British purchased German South-West Africa for a very generous sum of money which tightened relations between the two nations. Bismarck had been hesitant to accept British help at first but with the rise of the more extreme nationalist movements who wanted revenge at all costs Bismarck knew that he had to protect the monarchy and the German state. Alliances were reaffirmed with Austria-Hungary in 1895 and German-Italian relations got better although the Triple Alliance was dead and Italy was unsure whether to revive it as an alliance with France might be the better option in the face of French victories and the Italian irredentist claims in South-Tyrol and Trieste, among others. The Dual Alliance at least existed again to counterbalance the Franco-Russian Entente of 1892. However, soon the Entente would expand and thus set off the chain reactions of expanding the alliances all across Europe.
Charles XI, king of France, held another title next to his French position: that of king of Spain. Having fought for Spain in the Third Carlist War, his strengthened position enabled him to achieve what he did not then. He proposed an invasion of Spain to Boulanger who was very interested as it meant expanding French influence over Europe. In early 1894, nearly four years after the end of the Treaty of Versailles, the French armies crossed the border with Spain, immediately making huge gains. The Spanish government resisted as much as they could but when the French army seized Madrid in October all was lost. The ‘Alfonsist’ faction fled the nation along with king Alfonso XIII himself and Charles XI was crowned Carlos VII of Spain in January 1895, reuniting the two Bourbon nations under French rule. Spain was made a dictatorship much like France was with a puppet prime minister who was a proxy of Boulanger. After the chaos of the war had cooled down, Spain formally joined the Entente in September of 1896, making it the Triple Entente.
The Nineteenth Century was ending although it would end with a bang and not with a whimper as some people thought as various crises followed each other although a general war would be avoided by the various governments in Entente and Alliance nations. Each of the blocks was modernizing with France taking the lead in modernizing Spain and Russia. French officers were sent to both nations to see what could be improved although Tsar Alexander III was very reluctant to allow western ideas. His death in early 1897 steered the way for Russia’s modernization as the new Tsar, Nicholas II, was easier to influence than his predecessor had been. French ideas were mostly implemented in Spain though which was much closer and had a much tighter bond to the French crown, with king Carlos VII being also Charles XI of France. French armies were also sent overseas to pacify and modernize Spanish colonies such as Cuba, Puerto Rico, Spanish Morocco, Guinea and the Philippines. Especially Cuba and the Philippines were tough as both had nationalist movements which wanted an independent nation or at least more autonomy within Spain. Boulanger refused to do any concessions and started horrible colonial wars in both regions which scandalized the extremist regime in France and made Britain even more certain in her pro-Alliance stance, which they had held for quite some years now. Boulanger also suppressed revolts in France itself where the Rhineland was an area of eternal unrest by Germans who wanted either independence or return to Germany, the latter of which still appealed to most. German soldiers on the border with France had to restrain themselves as they saw their fellow Germans being punished by the Boulangists and revanchist sentiments grew. In the meantime French power in France remained undisputed and among the ethnic French the popularity of the Boulangist regime was very high. Boulanger could see the proof of this once again by the enthusiasm of the people at the marriage of crown prince Jacques/James/Jaime in 1895 to a Russian Grandduchess who was five years younger than him, Grand duchess Xenia Alexandrovna, daughter of Tsar Alexander and sister to Tsar Nicholas. The couple had five children, the princes Charles (1897), Louis (1900) and Alexander (1904) and the princesses Louise (1898) and Margherita (1901). The birth of an heir secured the house of Bourbon as now prince Charles was to be Charles XII and VIII some day.
The German Empire had by now industrialized as much as it could and her army had surpassed France again in the late 1890s. Bismarck was overjoyed with what his country had achieved. Empress Victoria, who died in 1899, died also as a happy person as Anglo-German relations had improved once again. Indeed the way to an alliance was open. The German democracy was also improving after a period of chaos in the early ‘90s. The socialist party, the SPD, was growing but her appeal was not broad enough to distract the people from revenge on France. A tighter-bound Germany had appeared by 1900, one that was ready to start a fight with their long-hated enemy and restore German glory and pride for once and for all. Austria-Hungary had nowhere near such hatred for France but they were glad that, after their refusal to join the war in 1889, Germany had let them into an alliance again and they viewed war as a necessity to protect the old empire from Russian threats. Austria-Hungary also had to modernize to be stronger as after the German defeat Russian pressure on the old Dual Monarchy had increased. In 1897 the Czechs were finally given equal rights to the Austrian Germans and the Hungarians and created a third monarchy which made Austria-Hungary be Austria-Hungary-Czechia or AHC or the Triple Monarchy of which the latter was becoming the more common name as the first was too long and the second was too silly for an independent nation to use. Nevertheless tensions decreased and only the South Slav population remained restive, but that was something they’d forever be as Serbia was Russia’s main proxy and since Russia and Austria were enemies, the Serbians in the empire would never accept a deal about their future. They didn’t want to be the fourth kingdom – they wanted independence.
In the Americas, a conflict area was emerging in Venezuela, where the Anglo-Venezuelan border had been a source of conflict for a long time. In 1896, the dispute was raised again as Venezuela applied for American help which was granted as the USA didn’t want to allow the British to violate the Monroe Doctrine. Britain however was uninterested in war and the US feared British strength so the two countries made a deal: Venezuelan interests were favored in the disputed area, granting them the region, and in exchange the American presence on Hawaii would be removed. The deal went on and in 1899 Britain occupied Hawaii. The reigning queen had no abilities to resist the superior British guns and Hawaii became a British protectorate.
In Africa in the meantime, the colonial expansion was coming to a halt as the ‘Scramble for Africa’ was almost ready. The old age of expansion without angering anyone was over and soon a flashpoint for this anger would emerge. The French, who had colonized much of West-Africa over the past twenty years, had always resented the British take-over in Egypt and now it was time for France to cut Britain off from the way south and to take over part of the Nile. The French sent an expedition eastwards in 1897 which arrived in Fashoda along the Nile and raised the French flag there. The British, however, had just made the decision to crush the ‘Mahdist’ state in the Sudan for once and for all and met up with the French here. For a moment a conflict was a realistic possibility as Boulanger did not want to back down. The French however knew that angering Britain was not an option because even if their allies would come to their aid Britain could defeat them. Russia was also unwilling to assist France in a colonial war and Spain saw no reason for a war in which all they could realistically expect to do was to lose. Under enormous pressure, Marshal Boulanger backed down and signed a compromise with Britain in which the western Sudan was granted to France but the control over the Nile remained undisputedly British. Crisis was avoided but this had been the final push to move Britain in the German camp as tensions were higher than ever. In 1900 Britain and Germany would sign the Anglo-German Treaty of 1900 and in June of 1901, shortly after the death of Queen Victoria, Britain, Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy together signed the Quadruple Alliance.
Overseas, the United States had seen how easy France had backed down in the face of British demands and intended to realize some dreams of her own. Over the past few years, the Cuban war of independence had been going on which had angered Washington D.C. greatly. Papers reported of Spanish atrocities against Cubans and with France seeming so weak in the light of the Fashoda issue, the USA decided that it was time for measures to be undertaken. Washington D.C. insisted on Spanish leniency in Cuba and demanded negotiations over the establishment of a free Cuba. Boulanger had no interest in a war that he might win militarily but lose politically and enlarging the Alliance with rising power America was something he didn’t want at all. It was time for negotiations again and in March 1899 Spain sold Cuba to the USA who made it a US territory, freed the Cuban independence fighters and promised to renounce their claims on Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines. Once again the crises were solved and American-Entente relations improved. France had scored a diplomatic victory but Boulanger was not very popular anymore as he was seen as weak and a coward. Revolts appeared and had appeal for the first time during Boulanger’s rule over France and Spain. He and the king ordered them to be brutally oppressed however and as the new Century emerged Boulangist France still stood.
Shortly after the turn of the century it was time for a new war but this war wasn’t quite as equal as the one most European powers had been expecting. This war would take place in China where the Boxer movement rose up against the Western powers who had been partitioning China, forcing it to give concessions and signing unequal treaties. The Boxers were a radical anti-Western movement which intended to make China strong again. The Sino-Japanese War of 1894 had been a Japanese victory and resulted in China losing even more territory and enough was enough for the Boxers. They stormed western embassies and caused chaos all over the country with the clear support of Empress Cixi, who de facto controlled China with the removal of the Guangxu Emperor who had been pro-western and had even attempted to reform China in the so-called Hundred Days, not very long ago. Chaos erupted all over China during 1900 but when a German diplomat was actually killed and a French diplomat followed, it was about time for the Great Powers to restore order into the hellhole that China had become. Old hostilities were forgotten although it took quite some persuasion to force the French and the Germans to cooperate as they had fought a war just a decade ago. As the revolts became even worse and the entire nation seemed to rise up against western embassies, the two nations finally reconciled for now as this was more important. In February 1901, The Nine-Nation-Alliance was founded out of Germany, France, Britain, Japan, Russia, the USA, Spain, Italy and Austria-Hungary, with Spain and Austria-Hungary only entering after a lot of pressure from their allies. In the summer, the alliance landed a force in China which crushed the Boxer forces and marched up to Beijing. The Chinese Empire was decisively defeated and crumbled under the might of the West and Empress Cixi was even killed. By early 1902, the Chinese finally surrendered as a lot of coastal and border land had been occupied and continued resistance was futile. A peace treaty was drafted and it was about as harsh as an early 20th-Century peace treaty could be and all powers agreed that China would need some serious punishment for these horrible deeds. Tientsin was made an international city, reparations equal to 450 million taels had to be paid and various institutions were put under Allied control, who reserved the right to station forces on Chinese soil. Also, the Chinese border regions were divided into spheres of influence. Germany got Shandong which was close to their own port of Qingdao and annexed Shanghai while purchasing the British lease in Weihaiwai. Britain got the Jiangsu and Anhui provinces and added a chunk of the northern Zhejiang province and thus established control over the Jangtze river. Russia got western Xinjiang and established northern Manchuria as an influence sphere as well. Japan got Inner Manchuria and most of Zhejiang and France took Yunnan and Guangxi. Spain took Hainan and a small part of southern Guangdong while Italy took a concession in the rest of Guangdong and Fujian. With that the entire coast had been divided. Peace was made with China under these terms and although the Chinese weren’t all too happy with it they just had to accept it and sign the treaty. This would cause Chinese resentment in years to come and was an important cause for Chinese nationalism to rise.
In Europe, the Alliances were now set as the future war would see the Quadruple Alliance of Germany, Britain, Italy and Austria-Hungary against the Triple Entente of France, Spain and Russia. War plans were drawn up and the Alliance was clearly in the advantage in this field as they had the clear support of the neutrals (Sweden-Norway hated Russia and liked Britain, while the Ottoman Empire had a long-standing argument with Russia and the Portuguese were allies of the Brits since the 13th Century) except for maybe a few Balkan nations which no one cared about. The Germans soon came to the conclusion that the French fortifications on the Rhine would be too strong to immediately be breached and that, with the removal of the Franco-Belgian border, the only way to get around the border was to invade through mountainous Switzerland, which was a hopeless cause, or the pro-German Netherlands which Germany didn’t want to alienate. It was thus decided that in the war Germany would go on the defensive in the west where they would surely be able to hold off Franco-Spanish attacks with Italian full strength deployed there and possibly a British Expeditionary Force. Instead Germany would attack in the east with Austria-Hungary and would conquer Poland and the Baltic States which would surely force Russia to the peace table and shouldn’t take more than a year and a half, maybe two years at most. The German army could then turn west and aid the British and the Italians in crushing France. German nationalists were involved in a hot debate on whether they should leave the Low Countries aside in their offensive or not. The situation there was very clear with the Dutch being pro-German and the Belgians clearly being in the French sphere of influence which had been so since the foundation of the French-dominated nation in 1831 and had increased after the establishment of the new Franco-German border in 1890 which cut Belgium off from Germany. Belgium was clearly in the Boulangist French sphere of influence which was further established by the marriage of crown prince Albert to princess Alicia de Bourbon, youngest daughter of Charles XI, in 1899. The Flemish weren’t happy with the French rule in the country and already pan-Germanic nationalists in the German and British Empires dreamed of marching in aside the Dutch and being greeted as liberators. Neither the Dutch or the Belgians were in either alliance yet though and thus these dreams remained just dreams and speculations of what could be the future but might as well not be.
In 1900 Wilhelm III reached the age of 18 and assumed power in Germany where he was crowned Emperor in a spectacular ceremony. He ascended to the throne in a relatively stable nation which was still one of the great powers of Europe and had a big chance of winning the future war. Prince Heinrich retreated to the background and Bismarck retired but they had done their jobs and Germany was now in a tight alliance with Britain. The future for the Quadruple Alliance and the Emperor looked bright. In Asia, however, events would soon spiral out of control.
Japan had come out of the Boxer uprising unsatisfied. Sure, they had gained Inner Manchuria and Zhejiang, but they wanted more and that was not granted to them. Also, they had been treated as an upstart and no full great power. Japanese nationalists insisted on the empire expanding but all of the islands in the Pacific had already been colonized by now. The only way to get more territory was through a war which was coming now. The Spanish Philippines were just to the south of Japanese Formosa and were a rich colony and thus an attractive target. Seeing how American diplomacy had made her gain Cuba, Japan started negotiations with Spain in March of 1902 about the purchase of the Philippines to Japan, and made clear that Japan had the military might to back her claims up. The Philippines weren’t really pacified just yet from the uprisings in the late 1890s and Spain had just seen conflicts everywhere. The Spanish government was weak and was all right with Japan purchasing the Philippines. Boulanger however was staunchly against it as he was unpopular enough already over Fashoda and Cuba when his opponents had all gotten their ways. The third time was the charm and Boulanger would not back down now and neither would king Charles XI whose traditionalist views didn’t see Japan as being capable of actually fighting France. Also Russia disagreed with it as Russo-Japanese relations were bad and Russia didn’t want her enemy strengthening. Boulanger thus cut off the negotiations about the purchase in May.
Japan was enraged and the government now insisted more than ever on acquiring the Philippines. An incident which occurred with a Japanese ship sinking in Spanish waters, close to the Philippine coast, increased the tensions. On June 6th 1902 a Spanish ship accidentally shot at a Japanese ship which they thought was a warship and the overenthusiastic captain of the Spanish ship wanted to reap some glory. His only glory was that he was fired from his job as Japan was enraged about the incident. On June 8th 1902 they declared war on Spain, intending on quickly seizing the Philippines and then asking peace while ensuring French and Russian neutrality. France and Russia however decided to stand by their ally and were united in the idea that the Japanese upstarts needed to be taught a lesson. On June 10th France declared war on Japan. On June 14th Russia followed. The Japanese-Entente War had began.