The Origins of the Russo-Japanese War by Ian Nish

Author:Ian Nish [Ian Nish]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: History, General, Asia, Japan, Military, Russia & the Former Soviet Union, World, Modern, 20th Century
ISBN: 9781317872177
Google: XzigBAAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2014-09-25T20:43:13+00:00

Lansdowne's reference to the Dreibund reminds us that Japan had some old scores to settle with the Russians: the humiliation of 1895 by the Dreibund intervention; the seizure and leasing of Port Arthur in 1898. The desire for a showdown with Russia was present in the minds of some Japanese well before the alliance came into being. The alliance could offer a naval protective shield if Japan had grounds of her own volition to go to war; but it was not itself the motive force for going to war.

The alliance was aimed not just at Russia but also by implication at the Franco-Russian alliance in east Asia. It was not unnatural, therefore, that there should be some Franco-Russian response. In a way the alliance might have been a blessing for Russia by inducing France to go further with Russia in east Asia — to extend the Dual Alliance to the east. But France was not ready to become involved in north-east Asia and generally stalled discussion. When Lamsdorf raised the matter of responding to the alliance, the two could only agree on a 'milk-andwater' agreement, signed on 16 March 1902. It stated that the AngloJapanese convention had given them much satisfaction since it reaffirmed the essential principles which France and Russia had always accepted and which remained the basis of their present policy. They reserved to themselves eventually to take steps to assure the integrity and free development of China, in the event of the aggressive action of a third power or new troubles there threatening their own interests.10 This applied the alliance to a modest extent to the East: but France almost immediately began to consider her obligations of a military kind under the Russian alignment and, as a way out, veered more and more towards some understanding with Britain. Although the two sides had initially stood together, it has to be said that in 1902 the Anglo-Japanese alliance tested the effectiveness of the Franco-Russian alliance in the east and found it wanting.11 The British foreign office did not see the new measure as specially significant:

The Franco-Russian agreement seems anodyne enough. Just as we were pushed to terms with Japan in order to avoid her running wild, it is natural that the French and the Russians should wish to be assured that neither party will put the other in a hole over Chinese questions without previous consultations.12

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