Far Eastern Imperial Navy

History

See also: Ships of Far Eastern Imperial Navy 1920

Formation

Far Eastern Imperial navy was formed in 1776 from the Russian Siberian Military Flotilla. Its early purpose was mainly exploring the vast Pacific region and support the colonial ventures especially of those of the Far Eastern American company. With colonization of Hawaii islands in 1815, The operational areas and importance of the navy rose and although aggressively expanding nation mainly in the Asian continent, Far Eastern Empire begun to actively expand in oversea territories. First major setback for the Navy became in the Crimean war in 1854 when Far Eastern Empire allied its former overlord Russia again British and French. British ships blockaded and assaulted several Far Eastern naval holdings and revealed the obsolescence of the existing Far Eastern Fleet which still relied heavily on sail ships.

With the aftermaths of the war, Far Eastern Imperial navy begun to modernize and adopted naval strategy of commercial raiding e.g. focusing on powerful cruisers instead of challenging the British and French navies evenly. During the American civil war, Far Eastern ships made visits to Californian ports to give support to the Unionist and preventing UK and France to help the southern confederation. Activities of the fleet increased with establishment of the Far Eastern Colony in New Guinea and its accompanying islands in 1884-88. In 1885 after minor clashes with Spain, Far Eastern Empire bought the Marshall Islands in 1885 from Spain and eventually the whole Caroline archipelago in 1898.

Main naval composition relied very much on armored cruisers in the latter part of the 19th century with Great Britain seen as the main adverser. To counter the Far Eastern cruisers in the region, UK build two dedicated 2nd class battleships of the Centurion class. That sparked Far Eastern Empire to build their own "battleship-cruisers" to protect the cruiser fleet. However during the late 1880, China acquired two powerful battleships from Germany and that sparked local naval race in the Asian powers.

In 1894 Japan defeated China in the First Sino-Japanese war. Japan got hold of the Chinese battleships and with money received as war indemnity started massive naval expansion program. Initially Japan was to be given free hands with Korea, but after intervention by Far Eastern Empire, Germany and France, Japan was forced to recognize Korean integrity. As a slap to Japanese faces, Far Eastern Empire leased the port of Pusan as their own naval base just few hundred miles away from Japanese home islands. The rapid emerge of Japan into the world arena meant that Far Eastern Empire no longer enjoyed the status of sole modern nation in the region. To answer Japanese threat, Far Eastern Empire start their own massive naval build-up.

Far Eastern-Japanese War

As Far Eastern presence in Korea clearly threatened Japanese own ambitions in the region, they decided to launch pre-emptive attack on Far Eastern fleet in 1904 which was stationed in Pusan at the time. Japan had secured its back by allying with Great Britain in case that Russia or any other country would intervene on Far Eastern Empire's behalf. Despite Naval authorities advice, the Far Eastern Emperor Mikhail II wanted to shown off to Japanese and kept the main fleet in Pusan despite its imminent proximity to attack and possible trap.

Japanese attacked without a warning in February 1904 and tried to destroy the Far Eastern Fleet. At the same time they landed troops in Korea and quickly started to build up defensive positions along the mountainous northern regions of the peninsula. Meanwhile the Far Eastern fleet was blockaded into Pusan and several indecisive naval battles took place around the waters between Korea and Japan. Both sides lost initially two battleships into mines which were first time used offensively in war. While the fleet was trapped in the Southern tip of Korea, Far Eastern imperial army tried to push trough Japanese defenses but were unable to make breakthrough. Japanese in the otherhand started to close in Pusan and it soon fell into siege from both land and Sea.

The situation in Pusan became unbearable as the enemy artillery became too close and the Far Eastern battle-fleet was now under the risk of being sunk by land based gunfire. Therefore the fleet decided to make final breakthrough-attempt and flee to Vladivostok. Plan was to use the light cruiser section to lure the Japanese blockade fleet to loose their guard so the main fleet would escape the port. The plan worked initially and the main battleship fleet managed to escape from Pusan but was soon caught by the Japanese fleet in the straight of Tsusima. Japanese managed to maneuver into more favorable positions and in the battle of Tsusima, the almost entire Far Eastern fleet was destroyed. From 7 battleships initially stationed in Pusan only 1 survived. As the fleet was lost and the attempt the win Japanese in the land were also failing, Far Eastern Republic asked for peace where it was forced to give up claims on Korea.