Warmatrix

Japanese soldiers overlooking Port Arthur, colorized photo

The Russo-Japanese War of 1904 CE - 1905 CE was the first war in the industrial age where a non-European state defeated a European state. It was the first where new weapons like machine guns, hand grenades, quick-firing guns, spotlights, barbed wire, mines and dreadnoughts were used on a large scale. The high number of casualties cast a shadow ahead to World War I.
Starting from the Meji Restoration in 1868 CE Japan had very rapidly transformed itself from a Medieval shogunate to an industrial state. It adopted the same imperialist strategy that its European examples followed and clashed with China over effective power in Korea. It won the First Sino-Japanese War, but was forced to back down by Russia, Germany and France. Meanwhile Russia, equally expansionist, occupied the Liaodong peninsula in 1897 CE and fortified Port Arthur (now Lüshun), to serve as a naval base for its Far East Fleet. It also built the Chinese Eastern Railway and started to make inroads into Korea. Korea and China were powerless to stop these moves. Japanese diplomats tried to settle the matter by splitting the territory, yielding Manchuria to Russia and taking Korea for Japan, but without success. Then Japan, despite of being militarily weaker, declared war on Russia in early 1904 CE.
The Japanese fleet launched a surprise attack on Port Arthur followed by the naval Battle of Port Arthur. Afterwards the Russian fleet remained in port, trying to break out a few times, without success. The Japanese attempted to completely block the port, also failing. They used both ships and naval mines to seal the blockade. Soon the Russians used the same tactic against them. The stalemate at sea lasted until the Battle of Tsushima in the next year.
Meanwhile the Japanese army landed in Korea. In contrast to the Russians, who were prone to plunder, rape and kill, they mostly paid the local Koreans well and made rapid progress. The Russian strategy was to play for time, while hurrying to complete the Trans-Siberian railway near Irkutsk and moving in reinforcements. The Japanese tried to fight their way into Machuria to cut off Port Arthur's land side. In the spring they attacked and defeated the Russians at Battle of Yalu River, though suffered heavy losses at Nanshan.
In August Japan landed reinforcements on the Liaodong Peninsula. Half went south to besiege the well fortified Port Arthur and the other half north to fend off Russian reinforcements which tried to relieve Port Arthur. In four battles, at Liaoyang, Shaho, Sandepu and Mukden, the Japanese repulsed and even slowly drove back the Russians. Mukden was the largest modern battle in Asia before World War II and very costly to both sides, neither of which was able to decisively defeat the other.
Meanwhile the other Japanese half, under Nogi Maresuke, had fought its way to Port Arthur, gaining posession of some important hills at the cost of many lives. When the Russians saw that they were now threatened by both the Japanese fleet and field artillery on the hills around the city, they made a sortie with the fleet, aiming to reach the safety of Vladivostok. The Japanese tried to contain them at the Battle of the Yellow Sea, one the first naval battles between fleets with dreadnoughts. The Russians nearly broke out, but suffered some unlucky hits to their main ships and then fled back to Port Arthur.
Nogi went on closing the ring around the city. He showed little competence, throwing his soldiers at Russian defenses in several assaults. Tenacious Russian resistance ensured that these gained little ground but caused heavy casualties. Nogi then settled down for a prolonged siege, trying to destroy the fortifications with sappers, while the Russians started to suffer from scurvy and dysentery, due to lack of fresh food. Attacks on the hills surrounding the city were kept up and finally concluded in December. Once this was accomplished, Japanese artillery started to fire on the city and the Russian fleet. In a few weeks, it was shot to pieces. The Russian commander Stessel, believing that without it there was no point in keeping up the defense, surrendered Port Arthur the next month, though his garrison was far from defeated.
Victories on land did not ensure victory in the war; this would be decided at sea. The Russian Baltic fleet sailed half the globe to reinforce the Far East fleet. On route through the North Sea it accidentally fired on some British fishing boats, whereupon the British denied it passage through the Suez Canal, forcing it to go around Africa. This detour, other incidents and reliance on coal, lengthened the journey to seven months. When it finally arrived in the far east the two sides clashed in the Battle of Tsushima. There the Japanese wiped out the Russian fleet, dealing a knockout blow.
Japan was militarily and economically exhausted, while Russia had the resources to continue the war. But its economy was in bad shape, the population rebellious and the strategic value of the far east too low. So tsar Nicholas made peace. Russian troops evacuated Manchuria, lost south Sakhalin and recognized Korea as part of Japan's sphere of influence, which it annexed five years later. Russian losses were not made good until the end of World War II.
The war greatly reduced Russia's prestige and stability, paving the way for German aggression in World War I and ultimately the February Revolution in Russia itself. Japan gained a lot of prestige, though - in the eyes of its population - not so much from the peace agreement as it had hoped, as the US president Theodore Roosevelt, who mediated, sought to balance the two aggressors. The country grew wary of the influence of the USA, setting the first steps towards imperalism in Korea and China and the final confrontation with the USA in World War II. The real losers of the war were Korea and China, who were tossed about in the fighting and did not reassert themselves until after World War II.