Why did the Anglo-Japanese Alliance Fail? (Short Animated Documentary)

In the early 20th century, Britain and Japan were the best of friends. They hated their neighbours, loved boats and wanted to take other peoples' countries. Despite this common ground, their alliance dissolved after twenty years and another couple of decades later, the two were at war. So why? Why did Britain and Japan's alliance fail?

A special thanks to my patreon supporters:
Jens Koch-Nommensen
Øystein Alsaker
Arcedia
Sergio M. Vela
Emil Świderek
George Kapoyanis
Eclipse
Gin Aldeguer
Steven B
Dennis Vandeban
Brendan W
robert lalonde
Mathias.C
Hasmuffin
Michael Kram
CharÉTS
Franco La Bruna
Ethan
Don Bonnigan
Southside Mitch
Bradley chaulk
Justin Kubusch
Adam Barrett
John
Heath Robertson
JakeBak0905
Person
Cippalippus
Leonard Frank
His Empyreal Illuminance The Supreme High Priest Kalynx
DVoid
ChrisRom
Shauna K
Paul Munro
Piotr Wojnowski
Jane Sumpter
tegsirat
Aaron Conaway
Mario Mejia
Nuukov
Vance Christiaanse
Sean D.
Harley Raptopoulos
Sean Uzar
Mario Peshev
Martha Grondin
Nathan Mendelsohn
Christopher Godfrey
Evan Ellingson
Nicholas Menghini
John Orr
Philip Yip
Brooks Woolson
sharpie660
The Funks
Ron Johnson
Alex Teplyakov
zockotron
D. Mahlik
Bernardo Cavalcanti
Arthur Hosey Jr.
Andreas Mosand
Douglas James
Phillip Gathright
Adrian Marine
Steven Gibson
Contdoko12
Tranier Bocaj
Jamie van Brewen
Tony Belmonte
Joshua Schneider
Jack Nelson
Dr. Schtnizel
Thomas McGraw
Andrew F
Erik Hare
Peter Marino
Angel Aguiñaga
Katie Flinn
Nick Macarius
John Garcia
Chute Mi
Ciege Engine
Jason Vandeventer
Matthew Toles
Duke
Sebastian Mayor
Chase Labiste
Konstantin Bredyuk
Allen Rines
Nolan Peale
Tactical_Jackal
Clayton Schuman
GrokThis
Sahni
Jacob Zachs
William Adderholdt
Alan Romero
Joe DeVito
Bradley Backoff
Leena Al-Souki
Tim Stone
HelloAgain
Vilena5
khaki enthusiast
Bodo Nuber
Patty Culp
Chris Weisel
Dullis
Tino
blaZzinG_FurY
Matt Reed
Spencer DeRosier
Duane Bridges
Bartosz Zasada
Serius_Loyola
Windischgraetz
KNSTRKTVST
Andrew Niedbala
Hexapuma
Zachary Pascalar
No way
Florian Mäder
Ahmed Roshdi
george tyler
Liquid Chief
Justin Short
Jason Gould
Matthew O'Connor
ARandomPaperClip
Aaron Larrow
ZCoupon
Peter Wesselius
Warren Rudkin
Tall Jeff
alexccg
C. C. C.
Joseph Hutchins
Logical Insanity
Tim Sweeney
Curt Helmerich
ThePalestRose
Patrick Crowne
Oliver Jenner
Jeff Sharon
Tim Stumbaugh
Anthony McCann
Colm Byrne
Chach
bas mensink
Joel Wasserman
George Caponera
Clay Carroll
BenDrums24
Geoffrey Sparrow
Tyler Jenkins
Valentyn
James
Vegard Tønnessen
WolfiZee
kevinh
Robin!
Cade Summers
Matthew Ward
Joseph Reinsch
Stefan Møller
Burt Clothier
BattleGoat Studios
Carl Blanton
Nicolas Dronsky
Dexter_McAaron
Juan Castillo
Magdalena Reinberg-Leibel
Ethan Harlow
Melissa Prober
Alen
Yared Cristiano
Ned Burke
David Spellmeyer
Bren Ehnebuske
Matt Busch
Colonel Oneill
nullptr
Jonny Minogue
Moraxian
Donald Weaver
Andrei Listochkin
Steve Bonds
Nathan Ngumi
SketerK
SirAlpaka
Richard Wolfe
Joseph Kerckhoff
Brian Giordano
Emily Glover-Wilson
Mark Ploegstra
Sethars
Mars Project
Rob Rollins
Yuichiro Kakutani
Hiro P
T. c. north
Robert Meehan
Aeryn and Lisa Toland
Igor Stavchanskiy
Mark Littlehale
Anthony Uk
William Clark
pdswanfleet
Dr. Howard Dr. Fine Dr. Howard
Alex G.
Juan Benet
Tristan Kreller
LambOfLeg
Thomas Wang
Bort Ward
Oriki
Jeffrey Schneider
Harrison Wiener
JT96
Eric Askins
Ryan Haber
Sara Birnbaum
Andrew Patane
James R DeVries
Dustin Koellhoffer
I'm Not In The Description
YugiJitsu Games
Jasdeep Brar
Doug MacLean
Tom Ebert
John Gross-Whitaker
Roko Lisica
Sean Long
Mik Scheper
Miky Hidalgo Morriss
Hunter Bayliss
Charles Doolittle
Lech Duraj
Nathan Snyder
Kirk Hoffman
Isabel Harrison
Kishan Nair
Wolf
0_DannyBoy
Jack
Kevin Phoenix
Robert Brockway
Dutchball Animations
Dr. Sarno
Dan Reiher
Zachary Oertel
Heytun
Ian M
Michael Sempervive
Seth Reeves
Jason Sutherland
Peter Konieczny
Will Sullivan
Kinfe85
Ali Sadighian
Manny F
Andrew Sever
Taggert Jackson
Shakira Graham
Jonah Baloney
AltHistoryConjectures
Lindorien
Paul McGee
Abdallah Al-Ammari
João Santos
Daniel O'Reilly
Typhoon2401
Markus Lindström
blei95
Kasi
Robin_Col
M Scho
Jan Bart Verbist
Schwarzer Hai
Tarsirrus
Rhys Little
Ben L
James
Ash Elford
Jackarice26
Gina Service
Twinny Hill
zemnmez
KingKyumber
Roberticus1992
Phil Johnston
Rhys Jackson

[random_dude]

“France was… France.”

Has got to be the most relatable words ever spoken

[jonbaxter]

Britain holding up a sign that just says, "Ew" when looking at France really breaks down our 1, 000 year relationship with them perfectly.

[TheNorthie]

Japan and Britain had so much in common: both were islands, had big navies, didn’t like Russia, loved tea, were isolationists. No wonder they got along for so long

[dakota_kiwi]

i love that basically every video is a question we never asked, but all ended up being super interesting

[nemesis]

Could you explain why the Mongols didn't invade the Byzantine empire? Or how the Mongols affected the crusades overall

[kieranwalsh]

Britain and Portugal having the longest standing alliance is a fun piece of trivia to tell people at parties you aren’t invited to

[Wolfeson]

3:05 The Washington Naval Treaty was a much bigger factor than you mentioned. While divisions between the British Imperial Dominions about foreign policy may have played a role in ending the alliance, it was the Naval Treaty that definitively ended it. The cornerstone of the WNT was that the two largest naval powers (the US and UK) would maintain equal fleets to each other, but obviously that would be meaningless if the UK continued to maintain an alliance with the next-largest naval power. That would mean the UK and Japan could theoretically combine to overwhelm the US in both oceans, which was unacceptable to the US. So letting the Anglo-Japanese Alliance lapse was an unofficial, but still very clear, condition of the US agreeing to the WNT. Britain needed the treaty in order to avoid another massively expensive arms race, plus the other factors mentioned in the video, so they agreed.

[spacemanspud]

2:16 Probably the biggest operation of in WW1 by the combined Anglo-Japanese allied force (and perhaps the biggest military collaboration steming from this pact ever) was the capture of Tsingtao. The coastal base was paramount to the Kaiser as it was the hub and lifeline of his beloved German Fleet in the East, ("...it would shame me more to surrender Tsingtao to the Japanese than *Berlin* to the Russians...) so it took two months of seige just to take it despite outnumbering them 6:1. (Ironically, they had to invade via China and violate her neutrality in order to do this)

But even in triumph, cracks in this strange partnership already showed - During the victory parade, as the small number of British troops began marching forward, the Germans in attendance, disgusted, turned their backs to them. This resulted in the outraged Brits to complain bitterly to the Japanese Commander. To this, their ally (Knowing full well that it was the Japanese infantry that had done the heavy lifting) only replied something like, "Well we can't repeat the whole procession just because of THAT!"

[USSFFRU]

The Anglo-Japanese Alliance's Failure also affected the Franco-British Relationship.

Japan winning against Russia made France realize Russia was not the power it acted like and thus, France sought for new stronger allies for their war with Germany. Britain saw Russia losing was possibly the best thing for them since now, they realized Russia was no threat to them or their interests in India.

Left with no choice and now less focused on Russia and now focused on Germany, Britain and France decided to officially become allies.

[ArchangelTenshi]

00:48
Portugal is that friend who you really like and enjoyed gaming with in the past but life got in the way and their skill really dropped off so now you can't queue ranked together

[MilesCWard]

As influential and skillful James Bissonette has been in shaping world events, one must not forget the invaluable albeit less notable contributions of Kelly Moneymaker

[danielveras]

3:05 is the ratio of capital ships tonnage by country to anyone wondering (525.000 to the US and Britain, 315.000 to Japan and 175.000 to France and Italy)

[aaronmarks]

There's actually some really adorable postcards from the time celebrating the alliance, showing ruby-cheeked British and Japanese children holding hands. You can find them through a Google image search.

[michaelthayer]

Also keep in mind there was a lot of distrust towards Japan in London and elsewhere after the 21 Demands Japan had given China in February 1915 that would have essentially made it a Japanese Dependency while the European Powers were distracted by the horrific fighting in Europe. This likely convinced several in the British Foreign Office that Japan could not be relied on to act in good faith and would potentially use the Alliance as a cover for further expansion that would drag Britain into another conflict. While Japan was convinced the British would aggressively seek to preserve their own beneficial status quo to keep Japan as the permanent Junior party.

[TheCSC]

I LOVE how all the flags are era appropriate. Not just the Japanese, but the Portuguese and Canadian flags as well. You got yourself a subscriber!

[cronaalbarn]

"Russia was soon unvictorious" God I love this channel.

[MitchellTravels]

“The winners (and Belgium)”
Rofl 😂 the inside Belgium jokes are always straight gold

[Mullet-ZubazPants]

My great grandmother had a Christie's cookie tin that she kept sewing supplies in. On the tin it had a Union Jack, and the Japanese flag. I never knew what it meant, until I learned about the Anglo/Japanese alliance as an adult

[joenamath]

This is a real interesting topic, and something that's rarely brought up or mentioned (as well as a lot of other obscure but important events).

It sucks that most historical books barely mention the alliance considering how important it was for history (as well as the events it helped cause).

[XXXTENTAClON]

3:00 Australia was a big advocate for its renewal, as they did not believe they could rely on the United States to come to their aid in any potential conflict

Canada said it couldn’t agree because Japan was becoming more hostile with the USA, and in the event of war it knew that it would be screwed in comparison to everyone else declaring war