Why did the Anglo-Japanese Alliance Fail? (Short Animated Documentary)
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- Опубліковано 28 чер 2023
- In the early 20th century, Britain and Japan were the best of friends. They hated their neighbours, loved boats and wanted to take other peoples' countries. Despite this common ground, their alliance dissolved after twenty years and another couple of decades later, the two were at war. So why? Why did Britain and Japan's alliance fail?
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“France was… France.”
Has got to be the most relatable words ever spoken
Some things never change
I loved the part when France said "it's Frenching time" and Frenched all over Africa
@@osheridan Truly a French moment
Im starting to believe that the core of the worlds problems is france
Britain did end up allying Francd in 1914 though, and they have been allies ever since
Britain holding up a sign that just says, "Ew" when looking at France really breaks down our 1,000 year relationship with them perfectly.
What makes it all the funnier is for the last 110 years or so our relationship is like siblings. We'll talk shit about each other, complain constantly about the other being insufferably French/British, but if someone else things they can come in and fuck about with the one of them, the other is going to take that real bad.
"They're ours to mess with, don't you even dare try it yourself".
@@willbxtneurope is a family of grownup adults who used to fight litterally all the time as kids, but are now all giga-bros beetween themselves and always hang out together.
Eeh. More like "We both have nukes... so let's settle for making jokes about each other 😅"
(same thing as with India & Pakistan really, who prior to getting nukes were very much into warring with each other)
It would be funnier if it said “ew! Garlic breath”
@@ryhrex "ew! frog legs!" ... there is a long list of utterly petty things to go "ew!" at the french for. Just saying "ew!" covers all of them.
Japan and Britain had so much in common: both were islands, had big navies, didn’t like Russia, loved tea, were isolationists. No wonder they got along for so long
Except Japan didn't go around the world drawing lines through countries.
@@SirAntoniousBlock ....yet. Japan's military went rogue and took over Manchurian which "declared Independence"...under the Japanese military's not so secret rule. Given enough time and power Japan would absolutely have drawn lines across asia.
@@SirAntoniousBlock japan was tottally a colonial power.
Both are currently constitutional monarchies
Both are current or former empires
Both were nearly invaded by a strong foreign power until they were saved at the last minute by a storm (Mongols for Japan, Spanish for England).
These are all clichés. See The Ginger Tree for the differences
i love that basically every video is a question we never asked, but all ended up being super interesting
Facts
I have asked me these questions all the time, but okay.
I can't think of the last time he did a video on a Q I wasn't already asking myself
Yh.
I love that this exact comment is under basically every video
Could you explain why the Mongols didn't invade the Byzantine empire? Or how the Mongols affected the crusades overall
If my memory serves me correctly, it was because the Golden Hoarde chiefs had to go back to Mongolia for a funeral. Otherwise, they were running over pretty much any territory that they encountered. It could be a cool video.
They couldn't. They lost their first war in Egypt and proceed to slowly fall apart after that
@@masterchinese28it is conflicted. This is the reason the Mongols gave, however they had began to withdraw from Hungary before they even knew of their Khans death.
The Europeans had more castles and forts , and the Mongols were losing a vast amount of troops for little reward. Combined with infighting, their campaign was never going to actually achieve anything significant
@@adgar912 And with friends I suppose you mean no the next target to conquest.
Hmm
Britain and Portugal having the longest standing alliance is a fun piece of trivia to tell people at parties you aren’t invited to
Ironically a few nations that exist today have Britain to thank.
Portugal being one of them.
@@mrfreeman2911 hahahahahhaha no. just no. quite the opposite
@@Smithiieth I guess you have 0 clue about history.
But that is okay. We can all educate ourselves.
@@mrfreeman2911 actually i do know history. And the history of this "alliance" was nothing but england taking advantage of it. But ill educate you then. The only real help england gave was the 600 archers in the battle of aljubarrota. After that:
1) when the Napoleon tried to invade Portugal, it was because Portugal was the only european country that didnt accept his continental block to england. Everyone else refused to keep trading with England except Portugal, respecting the alliance. So obviously, when Napoleon tried to invade 3 times Portugal, England had to help. And after that, since the portuguese crown had to escape to Brasil, England tried to control the administration of Lisbon.
2) When Portugal got the union with Spain, instead of supporting the portuguese independence, what did the british do? Ah yes, they tried to steal colonies from Brasil and Asia and helped burning part of the portuguese fleet, because they feared a naval invasion of France with the help of the spanish and portuguese fleet.
3)The british ultimatum. Portugal wanted to unite the region between Angola and Moçambique while England wanted to make a railway through that region to link Cairo to Cape town. Instead of reaching an agreement, or at least, be diplomatic and respecting the alliance of centuries of years, what did england do? Threaten war agaist their own ally xD the one that always stood by it side.
So yes, Portugal dont have to thank anything to the British. But dont take my word as truth, read some books and educate yourself.
@@Smithiieth exactly, I will even say this whole trivia is more popular in the Anglosphere than in Portugal where they know they were only a junior partner and not an equal in this relationship.
The Anglo-Japanese Alliance's Failure also affected the Franco-British Relationship.
Japan winning against Russia made France realize Russia was not the power it acted like and thus, France sought for new stronger allies for their war with Germany. Britain saw Russia losing was possibly the best thing for them since now, they realized Russia was no threat to them or their interests in India.
Left with no choice and now less focused on Russia and now focused on Germany, Britain and France decided to officially become allies.
History rhymes "Russia was not the power it acted like "
Even stranger if you consider Japan were later repulsed by the Soviets and Mongolians prior to WW2, which deterred them to the extent of targeting British and US colonies
@@XXXTENTAClON227 Not really. Japan was a naval power, not a land power. Russia was the opposite. In 1905, Japan defeated Russia in a primarily naval war.
"Russia was not the power it acted like".
Where have I heard that before?
@@ryuuguu01 This was literally never the case
3:05 The Washington Naval Treaty was a much bigger factor than you mentioned. While divisions between the British Imperial Dominions about foreign policy may have played a role in ending the alliance, it was the Naval Treaty that definitively ended it. The cornerstone of the WNT was that the two largest naval powers (the US and UK) would maintain equal fleets to each other, but obviously that would be meaningless if the UK continued to maintain an alliance with the next-largest naval power. That would mean the UK and Japan could theoretically combine to overwhelm the US in both oceans, which was unacceptable to the US. So letting the Anglo-Japanese Alliance lapse was an unofficial, but still very clear, condition of the US agreeing to the WNT. Britain needed the treaty in order to avoid another massively expensive arms race, plus the other factors mentioned in the video, so they agreed.
Agreed, the breakup of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance was very much a goal of the United States at the Washington Naval Treaty.
I remember reading that the US newspapers were reporting that the UK & Japan were teaming up to carve up the US between them without any proof and it still managed to spread as a popular opinion
Some things never change
Thank you! 🙏 This was extremely helpful to understanding something I didn’t know much about.
Absolutely right, the US really pushed for an end to the Anglo-Japanese Treaty.
Much like they arrogantly demanded Australia scuttle HMAS Australia due to the close friendship between Australia and Britain.
The Australians should have asked "If we scrap 100% of our Capital ships why aren't you, in the interests of fairness."
Hard to believe the US and Britain were worried they might go to war with each other, guess things were much different back then
2:16 Probably the biggest operation of in WW1 by the combined Anglo-Japanese allied force (and perhaps the biggest military collaboration steming from this pact ever) was the capture of Tsingtao. The coastal base was paramount to the Kaiser as it was the hub and lifeline of his beloved German Fleet in the East, ("...it would shame me more to surrender Tsingtao to the Japanese than *Berlin* to the Russians...) so it took two months of seige just to take it despite outnumbering them 6:1. (Ironically, they had to invade via China and violate her neutrality in order to do this)
But even in triumph, cracks in this strange partnership already showed - During the victory parade, as the small number of British troops began marching forward, the Germans in attendance, disgusted, turned their backs to them. This resulted in the outraged Brits to complain bitterly to the Japanese Commander. To this, their ally (Knowing full well that it was the Japanese infantry that had done the heavy lifting) only replied something like, "Well we can't repeat the whole procession just because of THAT!"
Meanwhile, the Germans were incredibly respectful to the Japanese, as they saw (like you said) that the Japanese were the ones who had done the heavy lifting in capturing Tsingtao.
Germany Will Remember That . . .
I find it really funny that the British soldiers cared… you’d think it would be incredibly satisfying in the context, basically admitting to being sore losers
It was a truly epic battle in terms of magnitude.
Also interesting was the Japanese destroyer flotilla that served in the Mediterranean in WW1. Not that much for them to do, but they were far from useless, and having them there freed up ships and crew whose North Atlantic experience might have gone to waste. It's amazing how much of naval warfare in the 20th century only happened in planning rooms, because the deterrence value of potential threats could matter so much more than what was actually happening at sea.
00:48
Portugal is that friend who you really like and enjoyed gaming with in the past but life got in the way and their skill really dropped off so now you can't queue ranked together
As influential and skillful James Bissonette has been in shaping world events, one must not forget the invaluable albeit less notable contributions of Kelly Moneymaker
Can you please explain who James Bissonette is why is his name mentioned even though he's not even on the list of Patreon supporters?
@@CoolManCoolMan123 3:24, his name is read out.
Maybe (and I know this comes dangerously close to heresy) James Bissonette couldn't fund all those world events if Kelly didn't make all that sweet sweet money?
🤔
@@CoolManCoolMan123read out loud like Kelly as well (to add to the previous reply)
Also keep in mind there was a lot of distrust towards Japan in London and elsewhere after the 21 Demands Japan had given China in February 1915 that would have essentially made it a Japanese Dependency while the European Powers were distracted by the horrific fighting in Europe. This likely convinced several in the British Foreign Office that Japan could not be relied on to act in good faith and would potentially use the Alliance as a cover for further expansion that would drag Britain into another conflict. While Japan was convinced the British would aggressively seek to preserve their own beneficial status quo to keep Japan as the permanent Junior party.
It always amuses me to read how upset the British were at the idea of Germany, Russia, France, or Japan trying to expand when they ruled a quarter of the world.
@@nelsonchereta816 because if they expanded, UK would be forced to spend money to counter the increased power. and 1/4 of the world was a huge expense.
"convinced several in the British Foreign Office that Japan could not be relied on to act in good faith and would potentially use the Alliance as a cover for further expansion"
Another thing they had in common 😆
That is highly unlikely. At the end of the day, matters far more pressing took precedence. Because as a good-faith ally, Japanese Imperial forces fought together with British Imperial forces in one of the most instrument Allied offensives against the Germans during the Seige of Tsingtao, China. Furthermore, most of the Allies' casualties were Japanese soldiers who did most of the fighting (773 KIA, 1282 wounded; only 12 British KIA, 53 wounded).
If anything it was Britain that was a bad-faith partner by practicing alliance-abandonment at all times.
@@secretname4190 Except for the fascism and the Nazi thing.
3:05 is the ratio of capital ships tonnage by country to anyone wondering (525.000 to the US and Britain, 315.000 to Japan and 175.000 to France and Italy)
I am frankly surprised France had agreed to be third fiddle to Japan's second fiddle, especially during these pretty racist times when French "white honor" would've been at stake. Was it because the French felt they just couldn't afford naval expansion anymore? WWI had utterly exhausted the French, with their economy limping along into recession in 1921, when this treaty was signed. In the meantime, Japan was on the up and up with naval stuff, having just invented and launched the first true aircraft carrier in world history. Its curious that France was so willing to demote itself in a major international treaty and stoop to the level of--gasp!--Italy...
@pdruiz2005 prior to the recession the French government knowingly devalued its currency making it easier to export they're products, so in the case of the US, they bought cheap and paid in gold basically because of the gold standard, however, the Franc was tied to silver, so now, this gold was exchanged for silver in both the UK and Germany
As a result it put UK in a position that
1) they couldn't afford to exchange their silver reserves for gold or they would destroy the value of the pound
2) slowed their economy because now, to make up for the fact silver was leaving their reserves, interest rates on loans increased
3) high valued currency let's you buy things for cheap, buy now you can't sell you're own stuff, and when you control 25% of the world its difficult to find someone who's willing to pay your prices
While in Germany
1) they had to pay France war damages, however, they too had a Silver Standard and France was fucking them the same way they were screwing over the UK
2) in Germany's case, not only did they allow silver to leave they're reserves
3) but also mass printed currency (inflation) further devaluing the German Franc
4) as a result Hitler ended up implementing a sort of "food stamps" as a wage, basically food specific fiat money to circumvent the fact that money couldn't buy food or basically anything else
This is basically the origin of the conspiracy theory of Jewish people running the international banking system since
1) they did in fact run SOME banks in Germany
2) the banking system of things contributed to the German economy being drop on its head
So that's part of the reason why they where used as such a massive scapegoat
But in all honesty I truly set the blame solely on France for manipulating not only their own currency but "everyone " else's currency
And then some how still expect for all parties concerned to be fine
Total selfish policy move
By the time they realized they fucked up it was too late
Initially in the US, they did believe that the stock market bubble was real, but they were running on speculation, however, gold reserves making their way to France was real, and it's this second part that also saw the US increase interest rates, which cases decrease spending (deflating the bubble) but all it did was cause a panic, and the whole thing came crashing down
And I just realized how much of a tangent I went on, prior to the Great Depression is what I meant to say not recession
In response to your initial question of not building up their navy
For starters they didn't have colonies spread out everywhere, they're furthest major colony was Madagascar and they're biggest one was West Sahara
Even if they did want to build up they're navy they couldn't afford to because of the devaluation
It was a massive mess
No party involved contributes to a war that big and then gets out scot-free
@@pdruiz2005France agreed as it was never a major naval power. It and Italy were confined mostly to the Mediterranean so they didn’t need as large of a navy as Japan which had colonies across the Pacific or the US and UK which both needed the Atlantic and Pacific patrolled by their navies.
@@emberfist8347 France had a massive colonial empire at the time. I'd figure Paris would stand up for itself during these negotiations, making a rather strong case that because it had the second largest colonial empire to patrol and protect, it needed a navy on par with Japan, at the very least. This just tells me that France really was strapped for cash, much more than the British, and that it needed to radically cut back on naval spending. And this was the best way to do it, since it forced other naval powers to also ratchet down their spending to predetermined levels.
"Russia was soon unvictorious" God I love this channel.
Ain't it the best? 😂
had to skip back for that one as well!
is that even a word?
@@ro.m.6432 It is now.
"Russia was unvictorious" are words I could get used to hearing.
I LOVE how all the flags are era appropriate. Not just the Japanese, but the Portuguese and Canadian flags as well. You got yourself a subscriber!
Actually no, Japan's civil flag was not that one, it's one of the biggest misconceptions when it comes to this kind of stuff.
The flag for Japan is actually incorrectly assumed.
the flag of Japan has always been the Hinomaru (i.e. the one without sun rays). The one with sun rays were used by the military, and its variation still used by the self defence force today.
Yes, ditto on the American flag
I love learning the answers to questions I didn’t ask but still want to know
@@AjToSkilled East Coast?
3:00 Australia was a big advocate for its renewal, as they did not believe they could rely on the United States to come to their aid in any potential conflict
Canada said it couldn’t agree because Japan was becoming more hostile with the USA, and in the event of war it knew that it would be screwed in comparison to everyone else declaring war
ty for this info xxxtentacion i love your music
@@castelia2316 any time ❤️ ❤️
That's the thing with being an imperial subject. The colonial capital always makes decisions that are never based on the realities of where you live.
Big mistake for canada if you ask me.
@@kingace6186 that’s the ironic part. Canada was the main factor in Britains judgement. Australia were merely doubtful, whereas both Britain and Canada KNEW that no one would could provide sufficient protection for Canada if the USA invaded because it would be a lost cause. Australias concerns were more so paranoia due to US passiveness and the whole reluctance to war thing
“The winners (and Belgium)”
Rofl 😂 the inside Belgium jokes are always straight gold
There's actually some really adorable postcards from the time celebrating the alliance, showing ruby-cheeked British and Japanese children holding hands. You can find them through a Google image search.
...my lawyer advised me to refrain from adding "children" to any search engine
@@aaeve5676 I don't get it.
In the 1905 war Britain closed off the Suez Canal, which delayed the Russian Black Sea fleet. Many wealthy Britons also invested heavily in Japanese Govt Bonds.
TBF they did it because of the Dogger Bank incident.
@@TyphonJRT Yes, but it still made a huge impact on the war.
@@watchesandcoins.7738 As huge impact as it was but with that navy crew experience I said even if Britain open the Suez Canal for them they will still lose to more experience Japan.
@@thanhhoangnguyen4754probably true, the 2nd Pacific Squadron really was pathetic.
Then again, had they not needed to go around Africa, there'd been less morale-draining incidents... Like getting the whole fleet and their lungs covered in coal dust, a whole-ass zoo's worth of exotic and often dangerous animals coming aboard, and a damn STD epidemic.
Maybe they'd been curbstomped a little less decisively? 😅
@@mnxs Maybe if they were more experienced they wouldn’t have mistaken one of their own ship as a Japanese ships.
Better yet they wouldn’t have mistaken English fishing boat for Japanese torpedo boat. And even better more if they actually hit the freaking target was sitting duck right there?
This is a real interesting topic, and something that's rarely brought up or mentioned (as well as a lot of other obscure but important events).
It sucks that most historical books barely mention the alliance considering how important it was for history (as well as the events it helped cause).
The details in the animations make this channel great.
At 0:36 you depict the king of Spain (Alfonso XIII) as a baby with a moustache.
My great grandmother had a Christie's cookie tin that she kept sewing supplies in. On the tin it had a Union Jack, and the Japanese flag. I never knew what it meant, until I learned about the Anglo/Japanese alliance as an adult
0:26.
“So for Context, back in the late 19th century, Britain was, well, Suspicious of basically every other Major Power. Germany was a Rising Threat, Russia was eyeing up India & Central Asia, The USA was asserting itself across the America’s, and France was … *France* 🇫🇷.”
The Historic Rivalry between The UK & France is Legendary.
3:00 has got to be the funniest thing I've ever seen on this channel, and that's saying A LOT.
The moment when Edward anounces other countries' existence and the shock on people's faces 😂 love your work man 👌🏻👌🏻👌🏻
The London naval treaty also prohibited alliances between the major powers stated in that treaty as to not upset the balance of power
Hi Sir, as always, thanks for the excellent content!
Small suggestion, next time it's better to wrote "大清"(Great Qing) on the banner of China instead of "中国" which is not only more period correct but "character" correct.
Because 中国 is the simplified Chinese (which was officially implemented by Mao) while 中國 is the traditional version. For personal reason, since I'm a Taiwanese, I preferred the traditional one more.
Excellent work man, keep it up ❤
I'm a bit embarrassed to say I knew absolutely nothing about this relationship between Japan and the United Kingdom. I'll have to learn more about it.
I love everything this channel does and I'm always so stoked to see a new video drop.
Britain: Our alliance is done. We don't want to be friends anymore.
Japan: Oh, okay. Well, we're gonna go find new friends now.
Britain: Wait-
I went scuba diving in Yap (Fed States of Micronesia) several years ago. In one dive we saw the telegraph cable at the bottom of the bay that was installed by the German's during their brief occupation of the island before it was handed over to Japan.
i'm a fan of alternate history, so after watching this i absently contemplated how ww2 would've gone had the anglo-japanese alliance remained intact.
then i came to a particularly unsettling question: if pearl harbor still happened in this alternate timeline, how would the usa have responded?
For that, Japan would need to be not nearly as militsristic. Which already is a fascinating timeline on its own. And as a result, Britain and Japan are closer allied.
I don't like the idea that America would join the Axis this way, in my opinion, America would be a third party.
i was thinking of ww1 breaking out in 1904 with britain entering the russo-japanese war on japan's side and then france declaring war on britain, then the other great powers getting involved somehow
It would be near impossible to imagine such a scenario as there would be no way Germany and Italy would never ally themselves with an ally of one of their arch-enemy and Japan wouldn't need to join the Axis as having the biggest colonial empire on their side was more than enough for them.
And say it did last, alliances like are formed out of mutual benefits, if Pearl Harbor did happen in this scenario, the US would still happily declare war on Japan and would dare the UK to even respond as at that point in the war the UK was very much semi dependent on lend lease to keep on fighting and would just ditch Japan. While I am not going to say the US was the reason ww2 was won by the allies, with its industrial might and untouched manpower unlike that of the USSR and UK, it would simply be foolish for Britain to even oppose them, and therefore it gives the US free rein to do as they please.
A benefit of a less militaristic Japan means they can better democratize. But on the geopolitical scale, Japan doesn't feel the need to build a Great Pacific "Cooperation Sphere", and is able to avoid the U.S. oil embargo. Thus Japan is firmly an Allied Power alongside Britain.
Your videos are the only ones that take me about twice as long to watch as they actually are, because I'm pausing for all the funny details.
"Japan is kinda scared of Russia. You'll never guess who's also kinda scared of Russia: Great Britain! So Japan and Great Britain make an alliance together, so they can be a little less scared of Russia".
I love these videos. Thanks for all of them.
In 0:14 the animation had a few frames of Queen Victoria, first of Her name, before suddenly transitioning to King George, seventh of His name.
Your videos are so good they have to be rewatched in slomo to catch the usually accurate small details
This is a question I never realized I was curious about
Please do videos on the following subjects:
1. Why did the People's Revolution of 1848 fail in Germany and Spain?
2. Why do people drive on different sides of the road in different countries?
Old British colonies shenanigans, you can match up the maps some what on that one, also non American market cars have the steering wheel on the right which correlates < left wheel, drive on right >< right wheel, drive on left >
A lot of island nations in general also drive on the left side like they do in the UK
I love your channel keep up the great stuff
This channel really makes me think more about WWII, how so many factors had their part in creating it.
"And France was..France"
Yep, I know that feeling
Me to pal,me to
Second time watching and still 10/10
Another amazing video
love this guy he answers questions i didn’t even know i had
I miss your "Explained" videos (the last was the 1975 Australian Constitution Crisis Explained). Wish there was more of those.
I really enjoy how much effort you put into making the flags period-accurate, seeing some historical flag in the background always makes me smile!
But... why is Uncle Sam wearing fishnets?
😂 Because he was trying to entice the Brits.
Sam showing his sexy side...
Whoever does the little signs needs a raise 😂 good stuff! Fav part of the videos
Yay late night upload!
Also, US exerted pressure to end the alliance. US saw Japan as a threat after it seized the Philippines. There was much grumbling from the British that isolationist America wasn't offering to do anything about
'forcing Japan to find new friends...' beautiful understatement and visual effect.
Good informative ep
Only channel I watch as soon as I get notified that you uploaded a video. Great content.
0:02 they also both really like tea
and using slaves from other countries to do their work.
Oh boy a History Matters video at 1 AM! Who needs sleep?
Ikr
Thank you for answering the questions no one asked but everyone was thinking
i like how the signs at 1:17 just say "china" and "china china". love the small details in all of these videos, really neat easter eggs!
*Why did the Anglo-Japanese Alliance fail?*
"Well to begin we need to go back to Napoleon.
Oh, wait no.
We actually do not need to go back to Napoleon for once."
I still find it incredible how Napoleon ALONE changed the course of history so much that many other events can be traced back to him
@@NIDELLANEUM Well he didnt do it alone and history is full of people changing history "by themselves" more recent examples would be Hitler and Stalin.
Always a pleasure to learn more.
Best channel, srsly.
Love them 2am videos
3:03 Uncle Sam in Fishnets is an image no one wanted, but you have seen fit to burn it into our retinas without any remorse or any standard of human decency.
Because James Bissounette needed each country weak to take them over.
o may got
And Kelly Moneymaker wasn't far behind
@@hipp013 Kelly Moneymaker is a fierce Tank General in the History Matters army, led by James Bissounette
spinning three plates and Marvin cassau are humanity's last hope against James bisonette and Kelly moneymaker
Lol
Its always something we didn't ask for but needed it
I know I’m procrastinating too hard scrolling through Wikipedia when I already know the answer to a question from your videos
The real reason why British and Japan got along is because both love their tea very much
James bisonette wasnt invited to the negotiations
Fascinating!
Thank you for another nifty video. I don't know if I even knew Britain had an exclusive military alliance with Japan. Also, I enjoyed the thumbnail lol.
God be with you out there everybody. ✝️ :)
The Anglo-Japanese Alliance had two ramifications that few people think of regarding the Russo-Japanese War.
- Firstly Tsarist Russia had to send its fleet right around the world to get to Port Arthur to relieve the naval squadron there. This is derided in the west as a fiasco but they don't look at the other side; with the Suez closed to them by Britain the Tsarist navy had to view the British as a possible enemy and indeed fired on the Dogger Bank fishing fleet when a horde of lights appeared off the coast of Britain that refused to answer hails from the fleet. Rather than ineptitude it shows just how close Russia and Britain were close to war at that point and what level of tensions there were in Tsarist Russia after decades of British hostility over an imagined threat to India.
- Secondly a British spy sold the plans of Port Arthur to Japan, this was the (in)famous Sydney Reilly. It has always been maintained that Reilly did this for his own interest but Russia simply saw Britain selling Japan plans to its naval base that Japan then attacked. Once again to Russia this was simply Britain undermining Russia in every conceivable way.
Our western narrative tends to like always see our 'side' acting as innocents that these things just happen around, not active participants in geopolitical bastardry. When Britain went into the Russian Civil War just over ten years later it was seen by Russians as Britain continuing its long-running vendetta over them of its anxiety over India.
They were fighting over who got the last sip of tea.
I instantly remembered your quote from Imperial japan video with british and their dominions counting as equals :D
Nice mesh stockings, Uncle Sam.
"and more importantly..."
They both drive on the left side of the road!
"They both had their eyes on russia."
Yeah that too...
Great video and keep up the work, but I did see a minor problem, Russia didn't have Tannu Tuva (1:10) until late 1944, after the Russian Empire had collapsed
Russia did annex tuva, but it did gain independence during the Russian Civil war.
@@BreakstuffzMappingAnd internationally only the Soviets and Mongolia recognized the state as being independent. Everyone else say it as part of Russia.
@@BreakstuffzMapping Fair, I don't usually look into this time of the world. I've studied the 1400's better, and thought this because you know ww2, everyone who studies history knows what happened then
It's always a lovely day when he uploads 😊
Great vid 10/10
Love the face of David Lloyd George at 3:02
As someone with heritage to both of these nations, it feels weird to me to think they were once allies.
I mean we still are kinda. Japan and the UK are now working together on a sixth-gen fighter jet with Italy, and are much closer allied than most nations on two different sides of the world.
If you have heritage from both nations there must've been some good alliances up your family tree
@@milobem4458 Haha. Had a relative who fought for Imperial Japan and a few who fought for the Allied Forces
I wonder if Japan and the UK had stayed friends if Japan wouldve been apart of the allies in WW2.
If they were, what would that mean for the USSR and the Allies? Japan and Russia weren't exactly on great terms.
@@SkaerKrow The soon to be USSR wasn't really on good terms with anyone before, during, or after.
@@SkaerKrow I also wonder what was going to happen with China. Were the Allies going to have a blind eye with what Japan was doing in Asia? Something like "okay, we need to deal with Hitler first, then we think about that"
@@NIDELLANEUM KMT actually had good relations with germany so it could have very weird
@@SkaerKrowThe enemy of my enemy is my friend.
Uncle sam in the fishnets is a nice touch i love it!
Any day that produces a new “History Matters” video is a great day, verily! ❤
The Imperial Japanese wanting an ‘equality clause’ and the refusal of implementing that being a reason why broke down their alliance is incredibly ironic considering what they will do around 20 years later.
Which kinda proves that nobody cares for racism if they don't otherwise benefit from it.
Japan would complain about how European would look down on Japan, than build a human zoo where they would cage chinese, korean, ainu and Ryukens.
At this point the goverment of japan was still civilian and not military only after 1935 military manageg to took control of japan
UA-cam commenter shocked that governmants can change their ideas.
Treaty was the main factor by far.
Imagine WW2 if this treaty never fell apart.
They could have beaten the US and Russia and brought about a new golden age
Early 20th century geopolitics is so interesting you should make more videos about it
"Unvictorious" is a very diplomatic way of putting things.... I like it.
To be honest, that was diplomacy back then, and, in a way, right now. And in the case of Japan, you can be sure you can trust them as far as you can throw them, in the sense that they will be your ally as long as they can get something in exchange. Like anyone else.
Fun fact: during the US fleet problems they simulated battles against an anglo Japanese alliance
Nice video
Really interesting video as always
Also japan at the time was not under the rule of ultranationalists, but soon would be.
And Britain and Japan's interests further diverged when japan invaded china, which Britiain obviously did not like.
Things might have gone quite differently if the Battle of Dogger Bank had caused Britain to join the Russo-Japanese war (also, the existence of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance helps explain why the Baltic Fleet thought there might be Japanese warships in the North Sea). Then again, maybe not, since at some point Japan would still have wanted a racial equality clause in a major treaty, probably decades before the British were prepared to even consider that.
It's always good to see cartoons frolicking through the flowers.
Thanks!
This guy is askin the real questions
Japan was a rising power that wanted its place in the big leagues. The big leagues didn't want an Asian member.
Japan is trying too hard by copying the Europeans (bullying their fellow Asians)
@@UnitedStates1997 Yeah that was a blunder on their part. Not the modernizing and absorbing western technology but invading the Asian colonies not as a liberator but as as the new colonist.
this ones a banger
Very interesting