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Updated Sunday 15 May, 2011 12:18 PM |
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This Day in Alternate History Blog
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Amerika - Japan and China 1875-1912 After the opening up of Japan in the 1850s under pressure by the European
and American powers, the following years see a furious modernization of the
country, sometimes brought about by outright intimidation by the emperors. As
Japan enters its second decade of this modernization, she begins to take on the
colonial ambitions of its European idols, too. Initially centering on the island groups in its immediate vicinity, Japan
annexes the Kurile (1875), Bonin (1876) and Ryukyu (1879) islands, securing
recognition by the powers otherwise interested in the islands. It is in 1881
that the first real break with territorial isolationism comes about, though. During a
state visit to Japan of king Kalakaua of Hawaii, he puts forth a proposal to
form a union between the two islands under the Japanese emperor, to be the
beginning of a greater Asian union. At the same time, he also expresses much
interest in Buddhism, and in importing it to Hawaii. Taking
advantage of the EA pre-occupation with matters in northern America, the
Japanese jump at this opportunity and a treaty is quickly signed, creating just
such a union. One clause see Japanese Buddhist monks go to Hawaii for missionary
work and the building of shrines. Another clause sees an agreement to give
Japanese workers free entrance to the Hawaiian islands.
While the Japanese-Hawaiian union quickly bring about results (already by
1885, Japanese make up some 25% of the population, and a treaty giving Japan
monopoly on the use of Pearl Harbour is signed in 1887), attempts to expand in
other directions are stopped. Thus,
German acquisition of New Britain,
New Ireland and the Northeast Coast of New Guinea, and British acquisition
(under pressure by Queensland) of southeast New Guinea in 1884, the
establishment of a joint German-British protectorate over Samoa in 1889 and the
British establishment of a protectorate over the Solomon Islands in 1893 block
the Japanese attempts to gain more territory in the Pacific. Instead,
Japanese attention turns to Korea. There, a group of pro-Japanese reformers in
1884 attempt to overthrow the Korean government, but Chinese troops under Gen. Yüan
Shih-k'ai rescue the King, killing several Japanese legation guards in the
process. A Sino-Japanese war seems imminent. In the end, however,
it is avoided by the 1885 Li-Ito Convention, in
which both nations agree to withdraw troops from Korea. It essentially
establishes a joint Sino-Japanese protectorate over the country. Eventually,
it also give the Japanese a pretext to not only defeat and humiliate China, but
also gain Korea. The pretext is Chinese intervention in Korea during the Tonghak-rebellion
of 1894, to prop up the Korean king. The Japanese see this as a break of the
Li-Ito convention of 1885, quickly send in their own navy and troops, and score
a series of quick victories on land and at sea. By 1895, Japanese
troops are standing in Korea, Manchuria and Shantung, and China is forced to sue
for peace. In the treaty of Shimonoseki, China cedes to Japan Formosa, the
Pescadores islands and the Liaotung peninsula, agrees to pay a large indemnity,
and to open up to Japanese trade. This, however, provokes the Russians, who have their own designs upon Manchuria. Even though weakened by the 2nd Great War only 5 years earlier, she, France and Germany (trying to pry the Russians away from their French alliance) pressure Japan into giving up on the Liaotung peninsula. This be as it may, the Japanese are furious
when the Russians over the next few years manage to place themselves on that
very peninsula, as the Transsiberian railway is laid through Manchuria, and down
to Port Arthur. Along with this comes a Sino-Russian treaty of 1896 directed
squarely at Japan. Luckily for the Japanese, furious at the
repulse at the hands of the Russians, the opportunity for expansion elsewhere
offers itself when a revolution breaks out in the Philippines against Spanish
rule. Beginning in 1897, the Japanese send in all the help they can to the
Philipinos who finally, thanks to the Spaniards being tied up in the rebellion
that happens at the same time in Cuba, manage to confine them to Manila and a
few parts of Luzon. By 1898, the Philipinos under Aguinaldo feel strong enough
to declare the independence of the Philippines, but recognition only comes from
Japan and WA – all the colonial powers refuse recognition. Even in the
Philippines, both the Sultan of the Sulu Archipelago and the Moros on Mindanao
refuse to see Aguinaldo as their representative. And indeed, Aguinaldo proves totally unable
to administer the new republic, and the world can look on as it disintegrates
into a morass of corruption, warlordism and peasant- and Moro rebellion. As it turns out, the fate of the
Philippines isnt decided in the Philippine Archipelago, however, but in China.
There, with the Boxer rebels massacring foreign missionaries and diplomats, the
European colonial powers decide to begin with to send in their own troops to
crush the rebellion, but when the Chinese imperial government turns out to
collaborate extensively with the Boxers, the decision to simply depose the
Chinese dowager queen and participate the entirety of the empire isn't far away.
Though the Japanese provide about half the 20.000 troops used initially to
occupy Peking and Tientsin, they are fundamentally outmaneuvered in the
subsequent Congress of London that draws the borders inside what used to be
China, and end up only in the possession of the province of Fukien. So the
Japanese are in serious need of compensation. It is here that the famous London
Compromise comes about – essentially Great Britain, Russia, France and Germany
in a seldom show of cooperation chip in to buy Spain out of its claim to the
Philippines and the accompanying Pacific islands, and hand most of it over to
Japan. Now, just to make sure that nobody thinks this is about unselfish desire
for peace and happiness, both Great Britain and Germany keep parts of the
purchase - Great Britain keeps the Sulu Sultanate, and Germany Mindanao, Palau,
the Caroline and Marshall islands. Elsewhere, the compromise also sees
Germany exchange its rights to the remainder of the Solomons
islands for the British rights in Samoa, which is annexed to Germany. In China, the
participation looks as follows: as mentioned, Japan gets the province of. France
attains the three southwestern provinces of Yunnan, Kweichow and Kweichow, while
Great Britain takes the remainder of the Yangze valley, south China and Tibet.
In the north, the Russians annex the long-coveted Manchuria while Mongolia (both
Outer and Inner), East Turkestan, the Hui sultanate of Kansu and the province of
Jehol all form new vassal states on the lines of Buchara and Khiva in Central
Asia. The remainder – the mid- and lower Yellow River valley come under German
control. ”Congrol”, of course, being a somewhat fluent concept in all parts
until the final remnants of military resistance are crushed in 1908. Peasant
rebellions persist even longer. For the Japanese, Fukien and the
northern Philippines isnt quite enough, though. They had, after all, wanted not
only those regions, but the Philippine islands Germany and Great Britain took
over, and Manchuria, too. To that comes that nobody bothered to actually
acknowledge Japanese possession of Korea, which soon again becomes an area of
disagreement between the newly nationalist Russia under its reformist Zar
Nicholas and expansionist Japan. With the Japanese sending in aid to the
imperial rebels under former emperor Guangxu in Russian-controlled territory,
and Russian support for the attempts by Korean nationalists to tear the kingdom
loose from Japanese control, tension only increases over the years. It ends in war in 1904. Japan, knowing of the Russian
military build-up and modernisation that has been taking place since 1895 with
French money, decides to take on Russia before she can get any stronger. Japan
has already seen the Trans-Siberian railway creep more and more to the east, and
isnt about to wait until it is totally finished. Thus, February 1904 sees a
Japanese surprise attack on the Russian fleet anchored at Port Arthur on the
Laotund Peninsular in Manchuria, followed by a Japanese landing in Korea in
March and on the Liaotung Peninsula in April. As the Japanese try to take on the
Russian fortifications on the Laotung Peninsula, however, they come into serious
trouble. Equipped with, among others, the French machine guns that showed
themselves to effective during the German offensive into France in 1890, the
Russians are able to throw back assault after assault by the Japanese infantry.
As the Russians at the same time are able to ship in thousands of troops by the
half-completed Transsiberian railroad, the Japanese are soon robbed of all hope
for a quick victory. The Russians on their side are
unable to dislodge the Japanese, and in the end opt for a plan to send their
Baltic Sea Fleet around Africa to provide the Russian forces with the naval
punch to cut off Japanese communications and supply routes. It very nearly leads
to war with England when the Russians (somewhat paranoically), fearing they are
being attacked by Japanese torpedo boats, shoot up an English fishing fleet in
the North Sea. British intervention is avoided by the Russian state paying
compensation, but the Russian fleet very well
might have been better served by taking a fight right there and then – as it
engages the Japanese fleet after having briefly docked at Port Arthur, it is
sunk in a two-day engagement in the Tsushima Strait. This proves to be the final blow
– both parties have shown themselves to be without the means to actually win,
so the two parties agree – through neutral mediation by the WA – to call it
a draw, disengage and evacuate any enemy territory occupied. To at least signal
that both parties have gained something from the bloodletting, they agree to
acknowledge each others possessions as are – i.e., Japanese possession of
Korea is acknowledged, as is Russian possession of Manchuria. Outside aid to
rebels is also cut off. The following years, leading up
to the 3rd Great War, are comparably calm. Well, calm in the manner
of no inter-state wars occurring. Internally, as mentioned, the suppression of
Chinese resistance and occasional rebellions goes on. In Korea, Japan disarms
the Korean army in 1908, to finally annex it as part of Japan in 1910. Fukien
– the Japanese bit of China – has already been so annexed in 1903. And thus the stage is set for
“The war to end all wars”, the 3rd Great War.
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