The Russo Japanese War

• What caused the Russo-Japanese war was RussiaN expansionism, Need for a ice-port, to distract from home problems
• Russian Surrender of Mukden in 1905
• Russian fleet destroyed at Tsushima, May 1905
• 89 000 Russian soldiers died at the battle of mukden
• Military defeats lead to a loss of confidence in the tsarist regime
• Reasons for Russian defeat include, the underestimation of Japanese strength, Inadequate military planning, poor strategy and Japan's readiness, skill and spirit
• A strength that Russia had was the third-strongest navy in the world and a railway that spanned 600km
• Russia's army consisted of about 700 000 to 1 000 000 troops
• Japan's navy was far more advanced than the Russian navy, they had about 6 battleships
• The defat exposed Nichola's 2 incompetence: HE refused to listen to bad news on the war, he had appointed deferential generals with little experience of modern warfare, He trusted his religious advisors who promised him that God would give Russia victory, he had little understanding of economis or modern military strategy, he rejected ealistic assessments of the problems facing Russia from ministers such as Sergei witte, who knew the economy was too weak and the military leaders were too incompetent to cope with war