To What Extent was Tsar Nicholas II of Russia Answerable for the Start of the 1904-1905 Russo-Japanese War?

Part 1 – Identification and Analysis of Sources

This investigation will reply the Question Assignment, to what extent was Tsar Nicholas II of Russia answerable for the begin of the 1904-1905 Russo-Japanese War? This Question Assignment is necessary as a result of this failure of the Russian authorities added further turmoil to the rising revolt that culminated in the Russian Revolution of 1917. This socialist revolution initiated the menace of communism that dominated worldwide politics all through the mid-to-late 20th century, and thus you will need to find out about any occasion that will have helped trigger this revolution. The scope of this investigation will likely be 1900-1905 Russia, analyzing Tsar Nicholas’ insurance policies and relations in the direction of the Japanese, in addition to a short Assessment of the Japanese relations in the direction of Russia.

Rotem Kowner, Historic Dictionary of the Russo-Japanese War^[1]

 The aim of this supply is to deliver elevated public consideration to the Russo-Japanese War and its lasting impacts as a result of Kowner believes it’s a essential half of historical past. This objective considerably limits the e book as Kowner might try to make the battle extra attention-grabbing by altering particulars of conflicts or causes in efforts to garner public consciousness, however it’s nonetheless invaluable as Kowner needs to inform the public as many of the particulars of the battle as potential. This dictionary consists of many entries for occasions and those who considerably influenced the battle, offering worth because it has descriptive accounts from varied views to Help kind an investigation on the origin of the battle. However, the objective considerably limits the e book as Kowner might try to make the battle extra attention-grabbing by altering particulars in efforts to garner public consciousness. The origin of this supply is that it was written by an Israeli historian who has written many books on varied features of the Russo-Japanese War, in addition to majored in East Asian research. Whereas Kowner is clearly well-educated on this matter — including worth to the supply — the supply is restricted in that he can’t present an insider view of both empire as efficiently as a Japanese or Russian historian who lived via the battle might.

Sidney B. Fay, The Kaiser’s Secret Negotiations with the Tsar, 1904-1905^[2]

The aim of this supply is to deliver elevated consideration to the secret telegrams despatched between Nicholas II and Wilhelm II and the unbelievable impression these communications had on Nicholas’ coverage. This supply consists of quite a few telegrams despatched between the two males and the creator’s Assessment of how every correspondent thought of the telegrams. The origin of this supply is that it was written by an accredited U.S. historian of the 20th century who taught historical past programs at Harvard and Yale, including worth to our supply as he’s clearly clever. Nevertheless, the supply is restricted as the typical focus of Fay’s research is World War 1, and he might not be as accustomed to the Russo-Japanese War. The aim provides worth to the supply because it exhibits us the private opinions of Nicholas II in the related time interval, however the supply is restricted since Nicholas II might often mislead Wilhelm II in try to garner German help. This supply was solely revealed in 1918, comparatively near the battle, so it might be troublesome for the creator to decipher what’s honest of Nicholas II telegrams.

Part 2: Investigation

Most historians agree that the Russo-Japanese War was not solely brought on by Tsar Nicholas II, however as an alternative was a mix of quite a few elements current in the late 19th and early 20th century. Throughout this time, Japan was in the course of of quickly modernizing on account of the 1868 Meiji Restoration, resulting in Japan wishing to carry the similar popularity as Western nations. Simply earlier than the begin of this battle, Japan fashioned an alliance with Britain in 1902, signifying the perception in Britain that Japan would grow to be the dominant energy of Asia. The Japanese residents believed that that they had an obligation to beat Korea, perceived as an inferior civilization, to be able to keep away from the Koreans being taken benefit of by the West. To Nicholas II, the early 20th century represented a time of low Russian patriotism and help, and he wished to steer Russia to grow to be a extra affluent nation. Britain was the dominant world energy, however each Russia and Germany desired to carry this function.

As the Tsar, Nicholas II aggressively pursued the view that Russia should develop into the Orient, and appeared relentless in his ambition to perform this. Nevertheless, he didn’t imagine that the Japanese was a serious contender for this territory, and he seemed to stay at peace with Japan. When Japan provided Manchuria to Russia in order that the Japanese might have Korea, Nicholas II shortly rejected this as he didn’t wish to take care of Japan.^[3] Paradoxically, he believed that peace with Japan meant minimal communication regardless of the Japanese efforts of diplomacy, which clearly aggravated the Japanese. This could greatest be seen by Komura, the Japanese minister of overseas affairs, sending an aggressive telegram to the minister of Russia wherein he complained that negotiations had been happening for “at least 4 months … and had not but reached a stage the place the remaining situation can with certainty be predicted.^[4]” Furthemore, the Tsar’s building of the Trans-Siberian Railroad was one other clear message to the Japanese that he didn’t understand he was sending: Russia has claims in the Orient and is making an attempt to develop upon these claims. After the 1900 Boxer Revolt was put down, Russia left troops in Port Arthur: a key naval port in Manchuria. When Japan requested the elimination of these troops, the Tsar promised they might be eliminated by mid-1903 however as an alternative by this deadline he had truly strengthened his place at the port. The sluggish and ineffective negotiations by the Tsar mixed together with his advances in the Liaodong Peninsula compelled Japan to invade in the event that they wished to keep away from turning into one other Asian nation that was being taken benefit of by a Western energy.

However, in the long run, this battle was probably inevitable. Russia’s expansionist insurance policies appeared to coexist with the legacy of the Tsars, with the need to achieve the Pacific being traced again all the strategy to Peter the Nice.^[5] The weakened state of China in the early 20th century posed an opportunistic time for Russia to additional develop into Manchuria and Korea.^[6] On the different hand, Japan had way more just lately grown to a world energy that necessitated Japanese enlargement to get extra assets. Probably the most interesting goal to Japan was the weak Korea, and after defeating China in the first Sino-Japanese battle, confidence in Japan was exceptionally excessive. These two empires wishing to develop had claims for the similar space, inflicting friction that manifested itself into the Russo-Japanese War. ^[7]

Contrarily, Russia’s archaic kind of authorities made this battle happen a lot faster than different kinds of authorities would. Nicholas II was an absolute ruler: proven by article I of the Basic State Legal guidelines, “The emperor is an autocratic and limitless monarch.”^[8] This outdated system of authorities had detrimental results on Russia’s overseas coverage, typically being seen as spasmodic.^[9] There have been occasions in negotiations when it appeared that Russia was making main concessions to the Japanese, however quickly after would cease this development.^[10] The advisers Nicholas II did have had been typically made weak and incapable of actually supporting Nicholas II with main choices; the Russian diplomat Eugene de Schelking wrote, “[none of the advisers] might boast that they actually knew his thoughts.”^[11] This method gave an excessive amount of energy to the younger and unprepared Tsar when he ascended to Tsardom after the early loss of life of his father, Alexander III.

However, the Japanese additionally had a serious affect to the outbreak of the battle. In 1891, throughout a diplomatic mission to Japan, a deranged Japanese police officer tried to assassinate the younger Tsarevich Nicholas II. This incident, referred to as the Otsu Incident, is commonly cited as a purpose for Nicholas II’s hatred in the direction of the Japanese.^[12] Nevertheless, a big quantity of proof means that this assasination try was not supported by the basic public of Japan: greater than 10,000 telegrams of apologies had been despatched to the Tsarevich and a Japanese civilian, Yuko Hatakeyama, slit her personal throat in entrance of the Kyoto Prefecture as a kind of public apology to Nicholas II.^[13]

 One other issue influencing Nicholas II was his cousin, the German Kaiser Wilhelm II. Their shut relationship was detailed in the intimate telegrams despatched to one another, titled the “Willy-Nicky Correspondence.”^[14] All through these telegrams, we see the extra skilled Kaiser virtually deal with the Tsar as a puppet to perform his personal targets. Recall that at the moment, Germany and Russia had been each weaker than Britain, and Russia held a powerful alliance with France. Understanding the French disapproval of Russian imperialism into Asia,^[15] the Kaiser hoped to interrupt the Franco-Russian alliance by convincing Nicholas II to grow to be dominant in Asia. Then, Germany and Russia would grow to be main allies, and with German domination of the Atlantic and Russian domination of the Pacific, they may problem British naval and financial energy.^[16] To perform this, Wilhelm II constantly informed Nicholas II that Russia had a Christian obligation to defend the white race from the “Yellow Peril” menace, and implicit lied that Germany would help if Russia engaged in battle in opposition to Japan.^[17] Even impartial America criticized Germany for this manipulation, with American president Theodore Roosevelt accusing Wilhelm of partially inflicting the battle as Wilhelm II “ has executed all he might to deliver it about.”^[18] Thus, Wilhelm II used his expertise and manipulation to externally affect Russia’s actions.

 In conclusion, the Russo-Japanese is clearly not a black-and-white the place all of the blame will be placed on one issue. The proof exhibits Nicholas was an inexperienced ruler with an excessive amount of energy. To look diploma, the battle needed to happen on account of the expansive nature of each empires; nonetheless, the Japanese tried to barter with the Russians. Regardless of their efforts, the Tsar delayed any negotiations, additional placing blame on himself. Nevertheless, Wilhelm II and his “Yellow Peril” speeches portrayed Russia as a defender to Western Christianity, considerably forcing the Russians into battle. All in all, we are able to conclude that Tsar Nicholas II performed a reasonable function in inflicting the battle, however there have been many different elements that equally led to the begin of the Russo-Japanese War. 

Part three: Reflection

 All through the course of, I used a range of analysis strategies for the investigation, permitting me to simply see the challenges going through  historians. Many main sources relating to the Russo-Japanese War had been written in Russian or Japanese; for Western readers akin to myself who can’t communicate these languages, they’re compelled to depend on the presumably inaccurate translations of these sources, assuming such translations exist in any respect. Thus, historians are restricted to solely working with the accuracy of the translations, which might simply be altered by the translator based mostly on their biases. For instance, any quote from Tsar Nicholas II needed to be translated to English to ensure that me to research, however the translator might probably have a pro-Russian bias as he spoke their language. Thus, it’s debatable as to how dependable that quote will be as a real illustration of the Tsar’s insurance policies. Moreover, not all Russian sources will likely be translated, resulting in much less obtainable proof and leaving out a doubtlessly totally different view of the matter. Moreover, main sources should not at all times helpful to historic analysis. Many historians analyzing Tsar Nicholas’ diaries have known as these sources “the despair of his biographers;” the few entries that he did write had been typically utterly unrelated to the main occasions happening throughout this time and fairly centered much less necessary issues, akin to many entries about the climate. This may be infuriating to historians who’re attempting to piece collectively the views held by the Tsar.

 Analyzing secondary sources can show to carry simply as many challenges as main sources. As every historian holds totally different biases, many have totally different views of an occasion or individual, akin to Tsar Nicholas II, and thus there’s a lot much less objectivity in historical past in comparison with arithmetic or the sciences. Furthermore, most makes an attempt to make a e book extra goal typically result in extremely lengthy sources that could be too inconvenient to research. For instance, whereas the Historic Dictionary of the Russo-Japanese War comprises many different viewpoints that depict a extra full image of the battle, it’s an 899 web page e book. Assessment of this complete supply would take an exceptionally lengthy quantity of time, and thus a historian utilizing this could be restricted as to how a lot they’ll use this e book.

In the finish, my investigation confirmed me the hardships confronted by historians making an attempt to pick and analyze sources, and I’ve a deeper understanding of how historic analysis works via my Assessment of the main sources and the works executed by college professors.

Bibliography:

• Kowner, Rotem. Historic Dictionary of the Russo-Japanese War, Edited by Jon Woronoff. Maryland, United States: Scarecrow Press, 2006.
• Fay, Sidney. The Kaiser’s Secret Negotiations with the Tsar, 1904-1905. England: Oxford College Press, 1918. Web page 48-72.
• Esthus, Raymond. Nicholas II and the Russo-Japanese War. Ohio, United States: Wiley, 1981. Web page 396-411.
• Schierbrand, Wolf von. America, Asia and the Pacific, with particular reference to the Russo-Japanese battle and its outcomes. New York, United States: H. Colt & Co., 1904.
• Hoshino, Köta. The mission of Japan and the Russo-Japanese War. Translated by Stanford College. Yokohama, Japan: Fukuin Print Co., 1904.
• Asakawa, Kanʼichi. The Russo-Japanese battle, its causes and points. Boston, United States: Houghton Mifflin, 1905.
• Kowner, Rotem. Nicholas II and the Japanese Physique: Photos and Resolution-Making on the Eve of the Russo-Japanese War. Maryland, United States: Scarecrow Press, 1998.
• Bernstein, Herman. The Willy–Nicky Correspondence: Being the Secret and Intimate Telegrams Exchanged between the Kaiser and the Tsar. New York, United States: A. A. Knopf, 1918.
• Geyer, Dietrich. Russian Imperialism: The Interplay of Home and International Coverage, 1860–1914. Leamington Spa, UK: Berg, 1987.
• Correspondence relating to the negotiations between Japan and Russia (1903-1904) Introduced to the Imperial weight-reduction plan. March 1904.
• Katō, Yōko. What Precipitated the Russo-Japanese War: Korea or Manchuria?. Japan:  Social Science Japan Journal, April 2007. Web page 95–103.
• Röhl, John C.G.. Wilhelm II: Into the Abyss of War and Exile, 1900–1941. Translated by Sheila de Bellaigue & Roy Bridge. UK: Cambridge College Press, 2014.
• McLean, Roderick R. Desires of a German Europe: Wilhelm II and the Treaty of Björkö of 1905. Mombauer & Deist, 2003. Web page 119–41.
• Fiebi-von Hase, Ragnhild. The makes use of of ‘friendship’: The ‘private regime’ of Wilhelm II and Theodore Roosevelt, 1901–1909. Mombauer & Deist, 2003. Web page 143–75

^[1]  Rotem Kowner, Historic Dictionary of the Russo-Japanese War (Maryland: Scarecrow Press, 2006), P. 1