Russo-Japanese War (French Trafalgar, British Waterloo)

The Russo-Japanese War was a military conflict between the old imperial power of and the upstart industrial nation of  over influence in China and Northern Asia. The result would be a indecisive conclusion: Russia retained all its rights in China, while Japan had only gained minor trade concessions from Russia and, a "dominion" of Russia at the time.

Causes of the War
Russia had, for many years, laid claim to protect the Mongolian people, and in 1899 had pressured China to allow them to build a line of the Trans-Siberian Railroad directly to its great Pacific port of Vladivostok. However, at the same time, Japan had been pressuring the tottering monarchy in China as well, demanding favorable trading rights, and convinced the incompetent administration to block further Russian demands.

At this time, Japan had been industrializing at a breakneck pace, urged and supported by French and other Western powers. However, the Japanese Home Islands were poor, and did not possess the resources needed to compete with the other powers of Europe. Having battled China in 1873, which annexed Korea and drew massive concessions, including the right to march across Manchuria, and defeated Spain in the in 1897, taking over the Philippines, Guam and numerous other islands in a short, victorious campaign, lead them to believe that they were nearly invincible, and on par with the other great powers in the world.

Outbreak of War
The cause for the war was a relatively minor incident: on March 19, a Japanese fishing boat strayed to close to the outer defenses of Vladivostok, and, after repeated warnings in both Russian and Japanese to turn back (though to no avail), the cannon fired on the boat, severely damaging it. The boat fled to a nearby Japanese destroyer, which radioed Tokyo with the news. This caused a massive outcry in Japan, and demanded that Russia compensate the fishermen. Russia agreed to do so, still uncertain of what state the military was in to be able to confront the Japanese at the moment. However, Japan took the further step of demanding concessions of fishing rights, as well as economic privileges in Siberia. Czar Nicholas II would have none of it, and ordered a small mobilization of reserves to be sent to Vladivostok on March 26.

Japan, realizing it had bit off more than it could chew, tried to bluster her way out of it; on March 29, they demanded that Russia stand down in 24 hours. This deadline was too short: decoding delays at the Japanese Embassy, as well as the time difference, meant that, by the time it reached the Prime Minister of Russia, Count Sergei Witte, it only gave the Russian government 12 hours to reply, but Japan, in a moment of hastiness, had cut the telegraph lines between Japan and Russia, seeking to make sure Czarist agent's couldn't communicate, but in reality, ensuring war.

Count Witte rose to the Duma on April 2, and announced that, since Japan refused to hear the response to the ultimatum, a state of war now existed between Japan and Russia.

Opening Moves
Japan had been waiting for this moment ever since they had defeated Spain a decade before: a chance to defeat one of the Great European Powers. Japan was extremely confident of victory, and had already, secretly, mobilized the army, and had prepared to send 75,000 men at once to Korea, and then to take advantage of the ability to cross Manchuria to siege Vladivostok.

Russia, on the other hand, knew that her Pacific Fleet was unsuitable to confront the mighty, new Japanese navy. Therefore, the decision to send the Baltic Fleet to the Pacific was issued on April 6. This fleet, composed of the most modern of Russian battleships from France and America, as well as powerful home built ships like the St. Petersburg and the Moscow, which should hold its own against the best of the Japanese. A near incident were an overzealous destroyer commander believed that British fishing boats was a flotilla of Japanese destroyers was avoided, and the British, unaware of how close the Russians came to fire on the fishing boats, allowed the fleet to use the Suez Canal, cutting the trip by half, and allowing gunnery training that the Russian commander, Admiral Zinovy Rozhestvensky knew his fleet had lacked.

Meanwhile, with Vladivostok under siege, the Russian commander, Field Marshall Aleksey Kuropatkin knew that he either had to hold out for the Russian fleet approaching, reinforcements assembling along the Trans-Siberian Railroad, or to try to break out himself. However, Japanese attacks on the port made his mind up, and he decided to hold up. He allowed his commanders flexibility to defend their positions, and the use of machine gun's had exacted a heavy toll on Japanese forces. However, General Ōyama Iwao knew that he, one of the founders of the modern Japanese Army, must win the battle, so threw everything he had into battle on May 4. This, against heavily prepared defensive positions, proved to be a costly indecision, as, though Russian troops fell back to other defensive positions, the Japanese suffered horrendous casualties: entire platoons and companies being mauled and written off.