The Russo-Japanese War: The Reasons of Russia’s Defeat

The work is about the reasons of Russia’s defeat in the Russo-Japanese War ...

Introduction………………………………………………………………….3
1. The Russo-Japanese War…………………………………………………4
2. The reasons for the defeat of Russia……………………………………..6
2.1. The internal situation in the country…………………………………..6
2.2. Military reasons……………………………………………………….10
2.3.Geo-strategic reasons ……………………………………………….....15
2.4.External political reasons………………………………………..……..17
Conclusions……………………………………………………………….19
List of referred literature and other sources……………………………….20

The Russian Empire possessed a colossal territory in length. In the 16th - 18th centuries, the Russian state included new lands with their inexhaustible riches, fertile soils, and forests and became an integral part. And although this area is now owned by the Russian Empire, the way of life of people from the Urals to Sakhalin, remained at a low level, and the center of power was limited to the activities of the royal governors and the content of small garrisons in some major towns, large areas not be properly monitored from St. Petersburg. Only in the 19th century, when Russia entered the era of capitalist development, an intensive exploration began of these vast spaces. The Russian state in the Far East particularly strengthened its positions. The main obstacle was Japan, which became an active rival. Both Russia and Japan at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries showed a special interest in the Far East, and especially in China. The economic and political expansion of both states made the collision of interests inevitable, and further aggravation of relations ultimately led to war.
There are different approaches to the historical events, and especially to the topic of military conflicts. And if military historians consider the military art of the parties, other historians pay more attention to the political or economic patterns of events. On such complex problems, there are different and sometimes opposing views. In this paper, an attempt was made to reflect different approaches to the problems of the Russo-Japanese War