Talk:Russo-Japanese War

The Japanese didn't dominate Korea till after the war. In fact, Korea was Russia's bitch for a little while there--When Japanese assassins killed the queen, proving that the local government couldn't even secure its own royal palace, the king moved to the Russian embassy and lived there for over a year. While there Korea suddenly discovered just how close Russia's foreign policy interests were to its own. The whole incident led most observers to believe that Korea was incapable of maintaining a sovereign government and that the king, who was a nasty little prick, was unworthy of international support against Japanese expansion.

So Japan gobbled up the peninsula after the war, making it a protectorate in 1905 and a wholly-owned colony in 1910, despite constant underground resistance and a government-in-exile from 1919 on that eventually became the current Republic of Korea.

The Japanese decided colonizing suited them, and their allies the British and Americans encouraged them to expand at the expense of Britain's Asian rivals. We all know how that ended.

"Don't for a minute imagine that the guns you've given [the Japanese] and encouraged them to use will not one day be turned on you." -Russia's foreign minister to the British ambassador to St Petersburg, shortly after the conclusion of hostilities

You know, the Russo-Japanese War was such a seminal event for twentieth century Asian history--the century in which they came roaring back from Euro-American whipping boys to home of great powers once again--that it really is worthy of some attention from alternate historians. (And this DoI reference doesn't count.) Turtle Fan 19:18, 9 June 2009 (UTC)