“Leading Russia Nearer and Nearer to Utter Ruin”: Teaching the Russo-Japanese War from a Global Perspective

In many world history courses and textbooks, the Russo-Japanese War is often a minor part of teaching the effects of Japan’s Meiji Restoration. After touching on the political and economic changes, the Sino-Japanese War and the Russo-Japanese War typically appear as evidence of the “success” of Japan’s modernization and as a prelude to Japanese imperialism in the first half of the twentieth century.

While this approach helps students understand Japan’s twentieth-century rise, it can make it difficult to understand the Russo-Japanese War’s Russian and global effects. In this post, I’ll highlight some helpful resources for reframing the war. Instead of viewing the war solely in the context of Japanese history, we can help students understand it from a global perspective.

World War Zero?