Dan Snow

And continues potentially to do so.

But in strategic terms and power terms, Japan doesn't get invaded by Europeans.

It remains one of the very, very few places outside Europe to retain its own indigenous... I guess to have some agency in its future.

Nearly everywhere else is conquered.

And indeed, Japan will go on to...

conquer, and even eventually take on and defeat Europeans.

So in hard power terms, it's a success.

We need to fight the Chinese in order to liberate them.

Yeah, exactly.

So part of our sharing all the wonderful things we've learned is now, unfortunately, we're going to have to invade you and occupy you in order to make you see these benefits.

Right.

And it's that conquest of Korea, that they fight China over sort of domination of Korea, they occupy Korea.

Does that bring them into competition with the Russians?

And it's a victory not of, you know, sort of Afghans defeating a British column by using clever guerrilla tactics in the harsh climate.

It's a victory of steel and Western-looking battleships and repeating rifles and barbed wire.

You know, it's a conventional war.

Yes.

Yeah.

And then the 1930s happened.

But let's finish this episode by bringing Japan to it.