ABSTRACT
For Germany’s international relations the Russo-Japanese War was a significant watershed. As this chapter will argue, the outcome of this conflict shaped German attitudes toward both Japan and Russia in the succeeding decade. The consequences could be felt on two continents. In Asia, Germans were fearful that the rise of this new regional power would weaken their political position and undermine their colonial pretensions in China. They were also anxious about the racial challenge an “Asiatic” nation posed to their cozy assumptions of white supremacy. Nevertheless, they hoped to exploit Japan’s growing prominence to their advantage. In particular, it was believed that Japanese expansionism could be used to put a spoke in the burgeoning Anglo-American friendship and German diplomacy was mobilized to this end. In Europe, the result of the Russo-Japanese War was the forging of a new set of perspectives about peace and security. In the short term, Russia’s definitive military defeat ensured that Germany would experience a new sense of certainty that its place in the Great Power system was a secure one. However, the comforting assumptions created by the RussoJapanese War would ultimately prove more destabilizing. As Russia recovered from its calamitous debacle in the Far East, the Reich would experience a growing sense of insecurity that would act as a powerful impetus toward World War I, a conflict in which, ironically, Germany would find itself ranged against both Japan and Russia.
