Russo-Japanese War

The Russo-Japanese War was a war between Japanese Empireball and  Russian Empireball over who would get Manchuria's clay.

Russian Empireball and Japanese Empireball both wanted to get  Manchuriaball and  Korea from  Qingball and  Korean Empireball respectively. So, they war themselves in order to anschluss the region. Japanese Empireball won and gained the Kwantung Leased Territory and South Sakhalin. Montenegroball was technically at war with Japanball until 2006 because of this.

Introduction
The Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905 changed the history of warfare forever, ushering in a new era of conflicts in which naval battles became central to the fate of the struggle. Its' ending had long term consequences, becoming another factor that made WWI and WWII inevitable.

Before the First Sino-Japanese War
In 1868, Tokugawaball entered a modernization period called the Meiji Restoration, which resulted in the formation of  Japanese Empireball. In the same year, the Imperial Japanese Navy was formed, which showed Japanese Empireball was now vying for naval dominance in the region. However, since it lacked industrial capacity, Japanese Empireball relied on  UKball for a development of a modern navy. Meanwhile in Russian Empireball, they were eager to increase their presence in the Pacific. It had strong navies in the Baltic and Black Seas, but the country didn't have a naval port/base in the East. So, in 1860 Russian Empireball accquired Vladivostokball  from  Qingball, and turned it into a naval base in 1871. Meanwhile, in Moscowball, they built the Trans-Siberian Railroad to link  Moscowball and  Vladivostokball together in 1891. Although Vladivostokball was in a prime position, it wasn't a warm water port, which  Russian Empireball desperately needed. Meanwhile Qingball, which was reeling from defeats at the hands of European Powers, bought 2 battleships from  German Empireball in 1885, which threatened  Japanese Empireball, as it lacked financial resources to acquire his own. In 1893, Japanese Empireball ordered 2 battleships from Britain, but the war between  Japanese Empireball and  Qingball erupted, resulting in the First Sino-Japanese War, resulting in  Japanese Empireball to rely on his cruisers.

After the First Sino-Japanese War
To the shock of the entire world, Japanese Empireball won the war in less than a year, managing to destroy one of the  Qingball's battleships, and capturing another. Since the end of the First Sino-Japanese War in 1895, Japan feared  Russian plans to create a sphere of influence in  Korea and  Manchuriaball. Russia had demonstrated an expansionist policy in Far East Siberia from the reign of Ivan the Terrible in the 16th century. Seeing Russia as a rival, Japan offered to recognize Russian dominance in  Manchuria in exchange for recognition of  Korea as being within the Japanese sphere of influence. Russia refused and demanded Korea north of the 39th parallel to be a neutral buffer zone between  Russia and  Japan. The Japanese government perceived a Russian threat to its plans for expansion into Asia and chose to go to war. After negotiations broke down in 1904, the Japanese Navy opened hostilities by attacking the Russian Eastern Fleet at Port Arthur, China, in a surprise attack.

Minor Battles and Land Battles after 1st Port Arthur
Russia suffered multiple defeats by Japan, but Tsar Nicholas II was convinced that  Russia would win and chose to remain engaged in the war; at first, to await the outcomes of certain naval battles, and later to preserve the dignity of  Russia by averting a "humiliating peace". Russia ignored Japan's willingness early on to agree to an armistice and rejected the idea to bring the dispute to the Arbitration Court at The Hague. The war concluded with the Treaty of Portsmouth. Russiaball was forced to cede South Sakhalin Oblastball to  Japanball, which they made into  Karafutoball. The complete victory of the Japanese military surprised world observers. The consequences transformed the balance of power in East Asia, resulting in a reassessment of Japan's recent entry onto the world stage. It was the first major military victory in the modern era of an Asian power over a European one since the Mongols.