The Russo-Japanese War lasted for a year, and finally ended with the victory of Japan, which resulted in the acquisition of control of the Northeast. But what you may not know is that Japan forced Russia to pay reparations after the war. After all, Japan started the war and suffered a lot. Moreover, judging from Japan's war thinking at that time, it was inevitable to demand huge reparations from the defeated country. As a defeated country, there is naturally nothing to say about demanding reparations from the victorious country. If you can't win on the battlefield, there is no bargaining power at the negotiating table. After the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, the negotiation between Li Hongzhang and Ito Bowen was like this, and you can only be slaughtered. However, the difference is that after the defeat, Russia, in addition to surrendering control of the Northeast, flatly rejected the compensation proposed by Japan! Japan unexpectedly compromised on Russia's refusal and did not continue to ask for it. So what caused Japan to have such a reaction? I think there are two points:
First, in the Russo-Japanese War, although the Russian Pacific Fleet was almost completely annihilated, Japan also suffered heavy losses. Coupled with Russia's tough attitude and refusal to give in, Japan is unable to continue the war. In fact, the losses of both sides in the Russo-Japanese War were very tragic. Even Japan suffered more casualties than Russia. Russia killed 50,000 people and Japan killed 80,000 people. At that time, Russia had a total population of more than 65.438+400 million, an active army of 65.438+0 million and a reserve of more than 3.7 million, while Japan had a total population of more than 40 million, an active army of 370,000 and a reserve of 65.438+. Although the battlefield was close to Japan at that time, and Japan had an advantage in weapons, equipment and troop transportation, if the war continued and Russia was determined to fight a protracted war with Japan, then Japan would inevitably fall into the quagmire of war, which was the last thing for an emerging power. At that time, in the post-war negotiations between Japan and Russia, when Japan demanded compensation from Russia, Russia refused, and firmly stated that if it did not agree to peace talks, the war could continue.
Russia's tough attitude naturally makes Japan helpless. At that time, the Russian navy suffered heavy losses, but the army was still strong. At that time, there were more than 700,000 troops in Russia and more than 700,000 in Japan. If we continue to fight, Japan's losses will be even heavier, and the new army trained by the Meiji Restoration is likely to be all buried in the Japanese-Russian battlefield, which the Japanese government does not want to see.
Second, Japan's economic strength does not allow Japan to continue the war. The losses caused by the Russo-Japanese War to both sides are not only personnel and weapons, but also economic. At that time, Germany and France supported Russia and Britain and the United States supported Japan. Therefore, western powers gave Japan and Russia assistance behind the scenes, especially Japan, which obtained more than 400 million US dollars in loans from Britain and the United States. At that time, Japan's annual fiscal revenue was only $6,543.8 billion. Such a huge fiscal deficit quickly plunged Japan, which was still prosperous before, into an economic crisis. If Japan can get huge compensation from Russia to fill the financial crisis caused by the war, however, Russia's tough attitude shattered Japan's fantasy, Britain and the United States achieved the goal of attacking Russia with the help of the Japanese, and the subsequent loan assistance to Japan began to decrease. Therefore, Japan is even more afraid to risk continuing the war and can only accept Russian peace talks.
In fact, this war was a failure of the Japanese, Russian and Qing governments, and what really benefited was Britain and the United States. After this war, Russia's strength was greatly weakened, and the czar's rule was in crisis, while Japan not only failed to get corresponding compensation, but also shouldered huge debts, which further aroused the dissatisfaction of Japanese domestic people and directly led to the collapse of Keitaro's cabinet in Japan, while Britain and the United States took the opportunity to sell arms to Japan and make a hard profit.
In fact, through the performance of Russia after the Russo-Japanese War, it can be seen that although Japan's strength has greatly increased after the Meiji Restoration, it is still difficult to fight a protracted war with the old empire, which easily reminds us that the Sino-Japanese War was also wiped out by the navy. Russia can continue to choose to take a tough attitude towards Japan with superior forces, but the Qing government chose to give in. If the Qing government could not compromise like the Russian government at that time, the result of the Sino-Japanese War would not be so humiliating.