To What Extent Did The Russo Japanese War Precipitate Revolution In 1905

To what extent did the Russo-Japanese War precipitate revolution in 1905?
The Russo-Japanese War lasted from 1904 to 1905, and arose from both Japan and Russia’s desire for expansion. Russia suffered many great defeats in this war, against a nation that was considered inferior and was not one of the Great Powers. This was humiliating for the people of Russia, and caused them to lose confidence in Tsar Nicholas II, as well as causing great military, economic, and political problems for Russia. This therefore caused the Russo-Japanese War to be partly responsible for the outbreak of the 1905 Revolution.
Huge military defeats were caused by the Russo-Japanese War, which highlighted the weakness of the military and caused humiliation across the country, therefore contributing to the outbreak of the 1905 Revolution. An example of a defeat was in January 1905 when the army had to surrender their Port Arthur naval base in Northern China, which they had possessed before the start of the war. The crushing of Russian’s military added motivation for the 1905 Revolution, as it made the people of Russia aware of the weakness of their military and ashamed to be Russian. They were losing to a nation very few had heard of and it was humiliating. However, many of the defeats to the Russian military occurred after the Revolution had started, not causing its outbreak, but merely adding to the opposition to autocratic rule by the Tsar and prolonging the Revolution.
The Russo-Japanese War also brought about economic problems for Russia, and this therefore meant there was a significant lack of money to solve any of Russia’s other problems, hence contributing to the outbreak of the 1905 Revolution. The war cost an extreme amount of money and as it resulted in failure no money could be gained from the invaded territories. Russia had already had economic problems, and its economy was still far behind that of other Great Powers. Russia needed more money to invest in the economy to increase it. The backwardness of Russia compared to these other Great Powers was another source of national humiliation for the people of Russia. Furthermore, the lack of money meant that the government could do nothing about the living and working conditions in towns and cities, or the problems in the rural areas of Russia. Consequently, the economic problems brought doubts in Russia being unable to solve any of its other problems due to financial constraints and this became an issue for people and made it responsible for the outbreak of the 1905 Revolution.
The political problems of the Russo-Japanese War perhaps were the most important reason as to why this war is considered to be responsible for the outbreak of the Revolution in 1905. The war was fought in the very far eastern reaches of the country, far away from where the majority of the population lived, this meant Russia was slightly at a disadvantage as news would travel slow back to mainland Russia and put them a few days behind the Japanese. There was therefore little public enthusiasm for the war. Many people felt there was little justification for it as well, public opinion was not on the side of the war. Furthermore, the military was very ill-equipped for the war and this showed to the people of Russia the government was failing them, and caused people to turn away from the Tsar as a leader, and look elsewhere, such as to political groups who were prepared to take radical action to achieve their aims. The political issues of the Russo-Japanese War helped because the 1905 Revolution because it was not supported by the public and people therefore lost faith in the Tsar and looked in other places to groups that could possibly rule instead of the Tsar.
Also the economic troubles in rural areas were another main reason for the outbreak of the 1905 Revolution. Both the peasants and the landowners were suffering. Agriculture was very behind that of other countries. Therefore the land was not cultivated properly, and famines occurred quite regularly. The peasants were free after the Emancipation of Serfs Act in 1861, but they were tied to village communities, and could not leave them without permission. They also had to make redemption payments for the land, which they held as deeply unfair. This also, like the Russo-Japanese War, caused them to resent Nicholas II. The landowners were also suffering: they had lost free labour, and with the selling of the land to the government, many of them were in deep debt. They too were dissatisfied with the Tsar Nicholas II was unable to help neither the peasants nor the landowners. The discontent, resulting from these economic issues, in rural areas partly contributed to the event of the 1905 Revolution.
Another reason for the outbreak of the 1905 Revolution was the growth of opposition groups to the Tsar. These groups were gradually becoming more and more organised. The four main groups were the Populists, the Social Democrats, the Social Revolutionaries and the Liberals. These groups were slowly providing more opposition, in particular the Social Revolutionaries. Between 1901 and 1905 this group was responsible for a wave of political assassinations. These opposition groups were becoming more widely known and provided a visible alternative to rule by the Tsar, cause by their dissatisfactions with the Tsar’s methods of ruling.
Bloody Sunday was a short term cause to the 1905 Revolution. It happened when around 100,000 proletariats marched to the winter palace in St. Petersburg with a petition that would improve their working conditions. It was led by Father Gapon. The Tsar ordered the Cossacks to open fire upon these demonstrators, and about 200 were killed, including women and children. It was a massacre. It led to wide public outrage, not just from revolutionaries and radical that a peaceful demonstration had led to such an event. After Bloody Sunday, many of the surviving demonstrators were banished from St. Petersburg, this caused further public outrage and severely damaged the Tsar’s popularity. He was no longer trusted. Bloody Sunday was the spark that ultimately started the 1905 Revolution.
In conclusion, the Russo-Japanese War was certainly a large factor contributing to the outbreak of the 1905 Revolution. It caused military, economic and political problems that definitely contributed to the Revolution. However, many of the events of it such as the majority of the defeats, occurred after the Revolution had started. The greatest effects therefore of the Russo-Japanese War occurred after the Revolution had started and just prolonged and worsened the situation, rather than causing it. There were also many other factors for the outbreak of the 1905 Revolution, the more important of which being industrialisation and the economic troubles in rural areas. These contributed more to the start of the Revolution than any other factors including the Russo-Japanese War because they showed an underlying problem that was present in Russia, and by themselves they would have eventually caused some sort of revolution whereas by itself the Russo-Japanese War would have not. Therefore the Russo-Japanese War went some way in being responsible for the outbreak of the 1905 Revolution, but it was not the most important cause of the Revolution.