WI: Qing annexes Korea and The German Pacific Islands pass to Qing

What if a reforming Qing Annexes Korea and German Pacific Islands that Spanish ceded to Germany pass to Qing due to them joining the Allied in the WWI, what would be the consequences for this with China, would this mean that Qing Joins Axis and gets Nuked?
 
AH shouldn't follow a linear path. Just because Qing China becomes a major power ITTL, doesn't make it a like-for-like swap with Japan IOTL. It would be a very different beast and would likely butterfly away OTL WWII in the Pacific as we know it. It's also unlikely they would annex Korea, since the Qing just wanted to keep the Japanese (and Russians) out. Nor would they likely have the naval strength to seize Germany's Pacific Islands in WWI without a much, much earlier POD.
 
AH shouldn't follow a linear path. Just because Qing China becomes a major power ITTL, doesn't make it a like-for-like swap with Japan IOTL. It would be a very different beast and would likely butterfly away OTL WWII in the Pacific as we know it. It's also unlikely they would annex Korea, since the Qing just wanted to keep the Japanese (and Russians) out. Nor would they likely have the naval strength to seize Germany's Pacific Islands in WWI without a much, much earlier POD.
Honestly I think that a Beiyang fleet that wasn't run by corrupt buffoons would probably be able to cut it, especially if given time while modernized to expand it.
 
Honestly I think that a Beiyang fleet that wasn't run by corrupt buffoons would probably be able to cut it, especially if given time while modernized to expand it.
I think a Qing China-British Commonwealth temporary alliance with a Break in WWII can work wonders like the on and off relations of OTL US-Japan and that will further cement the British worldwide hegemony.
 
I think a Qing China-British Commonwealth temporary alliance with a Break in WWII can work wonders like the on and off relations of OTL US-Japan and that will further cement the British worldwide hegemony.

Difficult for Britain to ally someone when they have strong economic incentives to ignore their desires
 
Uh, I really don't think that Qing China is in any position to do something like this. I'm pretty sure that Japan already annexed Korea in 1910, and before that they had already been in a dominant position since they defeated China in the 1895 Sino-Japanese War.

I think the OP's premise is a bit confusing. The POD would have to occur some decades before WW1.
 
Uh, I really don't think that Qing China is in any position to do something like this. I'm pretty sure that Japan already annexed Korea in 1910, and before that they had already been in a dominant position since they defeated China in the 1895 Sino-Japanese War.

I think the OP's premise is a bit confusing. The POD would have to occur some decades before WW1.
Yes, it occurs decades before that
 
Why would the Qing want to annex Korea? Joseon Korea is already under their influence as a tributary and doesn't have resources not already abundant in China. Not to mention the last thing the Qing needed were even more anti-Manchu ethnic groups in their empire (especially one with a rather tumultuous history with the Jurchen/Manchu that could be exploited to encourage nationalism and resistance to the Manchu conquerors) when half their empire wanted them dead and the other half's loyalty hinged on whether or not they had food on their tables. As for using it as a staging point for a conquest of the Japanese isles, invading Japan was off the table so long as the Qing navy wasn't up to par and holding Japan was just unfeasible when China itself was growing restless under the Manchu yoke.
 
What if a reforming Qing Annexes Korea and German Pacific Islands that Spanish ceded to Germany pass to Qing due to them joining the Allied in the WWI, what would be the consequences for this with China, would this mean that Qing Joins Axis and gets Nuked?

No. That`s drawing too many parallels. TBH conquering Korea is unlikely to begin with. If they could defend it from Japan and Russia, Korea would just stay a Chinese vassal. Assuming a sort of "colonize or be colonized" philosophy, it is possible that the Qing could try to take German islands, but strong animosity would exist towards England, France, and Russia for the Opium wars so siding with the allies in WW1 is not probable (the Germans were less involved). The Qing, simply put, were an empire on the decline, and unlikely to return to the position of a great military power. If some other reformist, Han Chinese dynasty took over when things started to go bad, China might be in a position to resurge. A reformed Qing is barely plausible but assuming it pulls it off, it's probably going to be neutral or side with the Central powers. If they sided with the allies they would take the islands and try to expand further into the pacific taking the Ryukyu kingdom is a possibility due to historic ties. China would likely want t reclaim lands lost to Europeans (outer Manchuria, the port cities, parts of central Asia and maybe northern India). They may push for east Asian unification and try to take Japan but the wild expansionism of the Japanese is unlikely to be mirrored in China. They would not be interested in the whole pacific and so would not mess so much with the US. China is a land empire, Japan is more of a maritime one. Russia is a likely main enemy, and if things go similarly to OTL, the USSR still exists and is viewed as a threat. Chinese aggression against Russia may be seen as ok. As for siding with Hitler… maybe...

This china isn't likely to be as genocidal as Japan but would be authoritarian so it's not impossible. If japan went axis, china would have an excuse to invade and would thus side with the allies against both the Axis and the comintern but a weaker japan wouldn't be as militaristic as OTL so might not go fash. An Axis China, unlike Japan wouldn't bring the US into the war though.
 
No. That`s drawing too many parallels. TBH conquering Korea is unlikely to begin with. If they could defend it from Japan and Russia, Korea would just stay a Chinese vassal. Assuming a sort of "colonize or be colonized" philosophy, it is possible that the Qing could try to take German islands, but strong animosity would exist towards England, France, and Russia for the Opium wars so siding with the allies in WW1 is not probable (the Germans were less involved). The Qing, simply put, were an empire on the decline, and unlikely to return to the position of a great military power. If some other reformist, Han Chinese dynasty took over when things started to go bad, China might be in a position to resurge. A reformed Qing is barely plausible but assuming it pulls it off, it's probably going to be neutral or side with the Central powers. If they sided with the allies they would take the islands and try to expand further into the pacific taking the Ryukyu kingdom is a possibility due to historic ties. China would likely want t reclaim lands lost to Europeans (outer Manchuria, the port cities, parts of central Asia and maybe northern India). They may push for east Asian unification and try to take Japan but the wild expansionism of the Japanese is unlikely to be mirrored in China. They would not be interested in the whole pacific and so would not mess so much with the US. China is a land empire, Japan is more of a maritime one. Russia is a likely main enemy, and if things go similarly to OTL, the USSR still exists and is viewed as a threat. Chinese aggression against Russia may be seen as ok. As for siding with Hitler… maybe...

This china isn't likely to be as genocidal as Japan but would be authoritarian so it's not impossible. If japan went axis, china would have an excuse to invade and would thus side with the allies against both the Axis and the comintern but a weaker japan wouldn't be as militaristic as OTL so might not go fash. An Axis China, unlike Japan wouldn't bring the US into the war though.
So possible Qing China...could have Korea remained allied with it and annex more territories.
 
So possible Qing China...could have Korea remained allied with it and annex more territories.

Yes. Korea was a Chinese vassal. The Qing could use its ports or send an army through Korea and the expectation was that Korea would support them in war.
 
Win the first Sino-Japanese and keep Korea in the Sino-sphere, annexation not required. Go from there and profit.

This is far, far more difficult than than just winning the war. The Chinese army was hopelessly corrupt, terribly equipped and led by men who faced literal execution for failure. The Japanese rolled over them at every opportunity. They stood a reasonable chance at sea and could have preserved the Beiyang fleet if they played their cards right.

There would need to be a POD decades prior to the war to get China up to snuff militarily, and such a China probably doesn't get attacked by Japan in the first place.

A China that's that powerful won't be looking at German Pacific Islands though, they'll be looking at Russian Manchuria and French Indochina.
 
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