Sarah Paine

And the Korean royal house is busy mailing package bombs to each other.

I kid you not, they're blowing each other up.

What Japan is terribly concerned about is that Russia might try to fill this power vacuum.

Why would Japan think that?

Well, it's the Trans-Siberian Railway that Russia decides in 1891 it's going to build a Trans-Siberian Railway to exactly what?

There is no Russian population out there.

And Japan understands exactly what it is.

It's a bid for empire in Asia because once Russia completes this thing, it's going to overturn the Asian balance of power because Russia is going to be able to deploy troops where nobody else can.

Therefore, treaty revision happens on the 16th of July, 1894.

That's when it's signed on the dotted line with Britain.

Nine days later, Japan fires the opening shots of the first Sino-Japanese War.

And the Japanese fight three wars of Russian containment.

I'm going to talk about the two that went well for them today.

The third one's a whole other topic.

The first one's the first Sino-Japanese War, when little Japan...

defeats the greatest land power of Asia, China.

Incredible.

The second one, which I'll get to a decade later, is the Russo-Japanese War, when the Japanese defeat, sorry, spoiler alert, Russia, the greatest land empire of Europe.

Amazing that they can do this.

And the third one does not go nearly as well.