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Summary
The geopolitical results of the campaign in the Pacific were crucial to the future development of the whole region, and their effects are being felt even now in relations between Japan and China, China and Russia, and Russia and Japan, with the United States intervening. It was one of those moments in history when one is very tempted to discuss ‘what if’ things had happened otherwise what if, the war continuing, the British had invaded the Amur; what if the Manchu emperor had been more alert, and had responded to the tentative British offers of an alliance; what if the Japanese government had objected loudly and strongly either to the Russian encroachments, or to the British use of its ports for what were in effect warlike purposes, or both? But it is certain that in these three years the history of the region was wrenched out of one set of tracks and put on another route, altogether rougher and more dangerous.
None of those involved, except one, gained anything from the events. The commanders and politicians in all the involved states found no advantage to be gained from their work excepting, of course, Muravev, soon ennobled as Count Muravev-Amurski, certainly a distinction well earned in terms of contemporary estimates of success, but one which tended to glorify, by recognising his achievement, his rather unpleasant methods. A close examination by the tsarist government would surely have elicited cries of alarm at the way he had made imperial policy on his own, presenting a fait accompli to the government in St Petersburg which it could not disavow, and threatening war with China.
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- The First Pacific WarBritain and Russia, 1854–56, pp. 190 - 192Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2008