Chapter Text
So this chapter is the continuation of chapter 108, World Building - Bakumatsu.
As I mentioned there, I had no idea that Naruto was not set in Japan when I wrote the first story in this series. I, having never seen the anime beyond the return from Wave, somewhat naively assumed that it was a fictional version of Japan and wrote what I thought was a one shot snippet accordingly.
Oops.
So, since I’d set it in Japan, with a whole bunch of references to real world Japan, I figured I’d go all the way and do a full on fusion of real world Japan with Naruto. The principal idea was to keep everything as close to the real world as possible while only changing what had to change with the addition of Naruto.
This is why the European powers and the Americans actually show up in this series. Perry and Harris appear, and many other historical events will occur in this AU just as they did in the real world. That’s because the actions of the Western powers would not have been changed by the existence of shinobi, and thus they would have done exactly what they did in the real world.
You can see how the shinobi responded to that in Engaging with the Enemy.
However, even though Kitiara and Koharu saw Harris off and engineered the Kōmei Restoration, international events continue have a great impact on Japan. Killing for a Kingdom spans 1854 to 1874, and deals with that directly.
As such, I’m going to lay out a timeline of some of the important events, and I’m going to describe how Japan’s responses differ in this AU. I’m also going to intersperse the timeline with some of the major events from the stories in this AU.
Be aware, however, that this chapter contains information on international events up to the beginning of Rivals Reconciled, the story that will be concurrent with the second half of Killing for a Kingdom, so if you don’t want spoilers for the rest of this story maybe stop of the end of the year that is referenced in the title of whichever chapter in Killing for a Kingdom sent you here.
Please note that there are going to be a lot of quotes scattered through this, almost all of them unmarked because I was making notes as I researched and I have no idea where they came from anymore, and I’m going to be liberally poaching from numerous sources. If you see wording that looks familiar, that’s because it was probably grabbed from wikipedia, the Encyclopaedia Britannica, or an online paper. I do not represent any of it as my original work, it’s not plagiarism, it’s a bunch of un-cited quotes. I am not going to cite this like it’s an academic paper, even though I kind of want to, because that would be akin to death by a thousand paper cuts.
Arc 1: Dealing with the Americans / Cumulates in Engaging with the Enemy
1854
1854, January 25: Madara makes Kagami Sandaime Hokage.
1854, January 29: New Year (shōgatsu), Kagami’s ascension is confirmed by the village.
1854, January / February: On his way back to Japan, Perry anchors off Keelung in Formosa, known today as Taiwan, for ten days. Perry and crew members land on Formosa and investigate the potential for mining the coal deposits in that area. He emphasises in his reports that Formosa provides a convenient, mid-way trade location. Perry's reports note that the island was very defensible and could serve as a base for exploration in a similar way that Cuba had done for the Spanish in the Americas. Occupying Formosa could help the United States counter European monopolisation of the major trade routes. The United States government fails to respond to Perry's proposal to claim sovereignty over Formosa.
1854, February 11: Perry returns to Japan.
1854, March 31: The Convention of Kanagawa is signed, and the daimyo of Tetsu no Kuni puts out a call to the rest of the daimyo. The shinobi call for a meeting while the daimyo are dithering, and the Sandaime Kage meet for the first time to discuss the situation - chapter 1 of Killing for a Kingdom.
1855
1855, February 7: In the real world, The Treaty of Shimoda (下田条約, Shimoda Jouyaku), formally the Treaty of Commerce and Navigation between Japan and Russia (日露和親条約, Nichi-Ro Washin Jouyaku), is signed. Following shortly after the Convention of Kanagawa, it opens the ports of Nagasaki, Shimoda and Hakodate to Russian vessels, establishes the position of Russian consuls in Japan, and defines the borders between Japan and Russia. In this AU, the daimyo of Tetsu no Kuni refuses on the grounds that the Emperor has not yet ratified the treaty with the Americans. It does increase his desperation though, and his messages to the other daimyo grow more urgent.
1855, February 21: Emperor Kōmei ratifies the Convention of Kanagawa.
1855: The British conduct hydrographic surveys around Tsushima. In this AU, that alarms the daimyo of Yu no Kuni (Kyūshū)
1855: With the help of Nakahama Manjirō, Satsuma fief in Kyūshū builds Japan's first steam ship, the Unkoumaru (雲行丸). In this AU, that is done by the daimyo of Yu no Kuni.
1855: With Dutch assistance, the shogunate acquires its first steam warship, Kankō Maru, and begins using it for training, establishing a Naval Training Center at Nagasaki. In this AU, that is done by the daimyo of Yu no Kuni instead of the shogunate.
1855, November 11: Earthquake Fire - A magnitude 7.0 earthquake strikes Edo and caused fires in numerous locations that evolves into this great fire.
1855-1865: The shogunate also allows and then orders various domains to purchase warships and to develop naval fleets. Satsuma, especially, petitions the shogunate to build modern naval vessels. A naval center is set up by the Satsuma domain in Kagoshima, students are sent abroad for training, and a number of ships are acquired. The domains of Chōshū, Hizen, Tosa and Kaga join Satsuma in acquiring ships. These naval elements will later prove insufficient during the Royal Navy's Bombardment of Kagoshima in 1863 and the Allied bombardments of Shimonoseki in 1863–64.
1856
1856: the Okhotsk Military Flotilla changes its name to the "Siberian Military Flotilla"
1856, July 1856: Townsend Harris arrives in Japan. In this AU, he sets up a US Consulate in Edo rather than in Shimoda, simply because the Perry signed a treaty with the daimyo of Tetsu no Kuni and Shimoda is in Chūbu - Hāto no Kuni, the Land of Heart. In the real world he begins his attempt to speak to the shogunate. In this AU, he attempts to arrange a meeting with Emperor Kōmei.
8 October 1856: The Second Opium War begins.
1857
1857: The shogunate acquires its first screw-driven steam warship, the Kanrin Maru. It is later used as an escort for the 1860 Japanese delegation to the United States to ratify the new treaty of Friendship, Commerce, and Navigation between the United States and Japan. In this AU, that acquisition is done by the daimyo of Yu no Kuni instead of the shogunate, and that delegation is never sent because no such treaty exists.
1858
1858, January 22: Kagami sends his instructions to Koharu and Kitiara - chapter 2 of Engaging with the Enemy.
1858, February 11: In this AU, Harris has a meeting with the Emperor, and is forced to leave without a treaty - chapter 3 of Engaging with the Enemy.
1858, 16 May: Russia acquires the present Primorsky Krai by the Treaty of Aigun.
1858, July 29: In the real world, The Treaty of Amity and Commerce between Japan and the United States (日米修好通商条約, Nichibei Shūkō Tsūshō Jōyaku), also called the Harris Treaty, is signed on the deck of the USS Powhatan in Edo (now Tokyo) Bay. In this AU, the Emperor tells all the daimyō that they're fired, gives political legitimacy to the villages, puts all the Elemental Countries under their control, and all the independent clans are forcibly put under the rule of the villages that control their countries. In Hi no Kuni, the Hyūga and the Shimura are officially forced to bow to Konoha, though Konoha does not demand that they integrate - chapter 5 of Engaging with the Enemy.
This is the Kōmei Restoration which replaces the Meiji Restoration in this AU.
1858: The Imperial Russian Navy leases a strip of Nagasaki Bay coastline across the village of Inasa as a winter anchorage for the Chinese Flotilla's emerging Pacific Fleet because all of their domestic anchorages freeze up in winter. In this AU, the failed signing of the Treaty of Shimoda delays that and the Russian Empire makes the attempt to acquire that anchorage in 1860 instead. Koshamain warns Kagami to prevent it from happening.
Arc 2: Russia vs Japan / Cumulates in Rivals Reconciled
1859
1859: The British attempt to set their flag in Tsushima. In this AU, they are sent away by shinobi from Iwa under contract to the daimyo of Yu no Kuni (Kyūshū).
1859: The Naval Training Center is relocated to Tsukiji in Tokyo.
1860
1860: The Russian clipper Gaidamak arrives in the Northern Pacific.
1860, January 19: The Kanrin Maru sets sail from Uraga for San Francisco under the leadership of Captain Katsu Kaishū, with Nakahama "John" Manjiro as the official translator, carrying 96 Japanese men and an American officer, John M. Brooke on board. The Japanese Embassy to the United States (万延元年遣米使節, Man'en gannen kenbei shisetsu, lit. First year of the Man'en era mission to America) is dispatched by the Tokugawa shogunate (bakufu) to ratify the new Treaty of Friendship, Commerce, and Navigation between the United States and Japan, in addition to being Japan's first diplomatic mission to the United States since the 1854 opening of Japan by Commodore Matthew Perry. In this AU, this delegation is never sent because no such treaty exists.
1860, July 2: the transport of the Siberian Military Flotilla Mandzhur under the command of Lieutenant-Commander Alexei Karlovich Shefner delivered a military unit to the Golden Horn Bay to establish a military post, which has now officially received the name of Vladivostok.
1860, 18 October: At the culmination of the Second Opium War, the British and French troops entered the Forbidden City in Beijing. Following the decisive defeat of the Chinese, Prince Gong is compelled to sign two treaties on behalf of the Qing government with Lord Elgin and Baron Gros, who represent Britain and France respectively. Although Russia is not been a belligerent, Prince Gong also signs a treaty with Nikolay Ignatyev.
1860, 24 October: The provisions of the Convention of Peking cede parts of Outer Manchuria in northeastern China, including the modern day Primorsky Krai to the Russian Empire. Russia by the Treaty of Peking acquires from China a long strip of Pacific coastline south of the mouth of the Amur River and begins to build the naval base of Vladivostok. Before 1860, the Russian position in the region had remained weak, with perhaps 100,000 settlers and a very long supply line, Vladivostok is an attempt to change that.
1860, November 6: The election of Republican Abraham Lincoln to become the 16th president of the United States. Seven Southern states declare their secession from the United States between late 1860 and 1861, establishing a rebel government, the Confederate States of America on February 8, 1861.
1860: A large squadron of the Imperial Russian Navy under Rear Admiral A. A. Popov is sent from the Baltic Fleet to the Pacific Ocean. During the American Civil War, ships of the squadron visit San Francisco while the Baltic Fleet visits New York City. Parts of the squadron, including the Finnish corvette Kalevala, return to the Baltic in 1865.
1860: Flotilla commander Admiral Ivan Likhachev of the Imperial Russian Navy, uncomfortable with their leased winter anchorage in Nagasaki Bay due to the dangers of basing the fleet in a foreign port, requests a go-ahead from the government in Saint Petersburg to establish a permanent base on the island of Tsushima. The cautious foreign minister, Alexander Gorchakov, rules out any incursions against British interests, while General Admiral Konstantin Nikolayevich suggests making a private deal with the head of Tsushima-Fuchū Domain, as long as it does not disturb "the West". It is agreed that, in case of failure, the Russian authorities will deny all knowledge of the expedition.
1860: Nikolay Karlovich Krabbe is appointed Minister of the Navy, and holds this position for 14 years. In 1874 he is relieved of his duties as Minister of the Navy and appointed vice General Admiral of the Russian Imperial Navy.
1860: The screw frigate Svetlana of the Imperial Russian Navy arrives in the Pacific.
1860-1870: The Russian fleet which had relied upon sails lost its significance and is gradually replaced by steam. After the Crimean War, Russia commences construction of steam-powered ironclads, monitors, and floating batteries. These vessels have strong artillery and thick armour, but lack seaworthiness, speed and long-distance abilities.
1861
1861, February 8: The Confederate States of America is formed.
1861: As Vladivostok is not a year-round ice-free port, Russia still wants a more southern port. Russia attempts to seize the island of Tsushima from Japan and to establish an anchorage, but fails largely due to political pressure from Great Britain and other western powers. In this AU, that does not happen in quite the same way.
This is what happens in the real world.
February 20, 1861: In line with Likhachev's will and Konstantin's advice, the Russian corvette Posadnik (Посадник, 1856), captained by Nicolai Birilev, leaves Hakodate.
1861, March 1: Posadnik reaches the village of Osaki on the western coast of Asō Bay (Tatamura Bay in historical reports). Sō Yoshiyori, head of Sō clan, immediately informs the Bakufu government, however, the cautious cabinet of Andō Nobumasa delays their response and Yoshiyori has to act on his own. Birilev, captain of Posadnik, makes personal contact with Sō, exchanges courtesy gifts, and secures Yoshiyori's consent to survey the Imosaki Bay.
1861, April: The crew disembarks, raises the Russian flag, and begins building temporary housing and a landing jetty. They prepare to refit the ship which needs repairs to the propeller and stern tube. Japanese officials tacitly agree with de facto establishing a naval base and even assign a team of fifteen local carpenters to help the Russians; the latter reward Sō with a gift of small naval cannons. Likhachev inspects the bay twice, March 27 on board the Oprichnik and April 16 on board the Svetlana, and records friendly behaviour of the Japanese. However, in April the situation irreversibly changes.
1861, April 12: Confederate General Pierre Beauregard opens fire upon Union troops at Fort Sumter in South Carolina.
1861, April 12: The Russians disembark from their launches, and a group of locals led by one Matsumura Yasugorō attempts to bar entrance and drive the Russians back. In the ensuing clash Yasugorō is killed, two Japanese citizens are taken hostage, and the rest flee, while no Russian fatalities are recorded. Sō appeases the population, ordering them to wait for a Bakufu pronouncement, and does not take any action. Russian sources say nothing about presence of Japanese or British warship in the area.
1861, 13 May: The Russians send a launch to explore the eastern coast of the island, despite the presence of two Saga Domain warships, the Kankō Maru and Denryū Maru, as well as one British warship.
1861, May 21: A clash takes place between the Russian sailors of a launch and a group of samurai and farmers, in which one farmer is killed, and one samurai, who soon committed suicide, is captured by the Russians.
1861, May: Oguri Tadamasa, the messenger of Bakufu, arrives in Tsushima in May and politely tells Birilev to leave; Birilev explains that he will not move unless his own Admiral orders him to retreat. After 13 days of waiting in vain, Oguri departs; leaving a letter allowing contacts between Birilev and local administration without prejudices against further radical action by the Japanese. Birilev uses the permit to the full, and persuades the council of Japanese officials to issue a charter agreeing to the Russian naval presence in Tsushima. The Tsushima elders grant the coastline between Hiroura and Imosaki exclusively to the Russians and agree to bar entrance to any other foreign nation. The charter, however, clearly says that all these concessions depend on the good will of the central government.
1861, mid-July: The Bakufu vehemently oppose the deal made by the Tsushima elders, and Hakodate bugyō Muragaki Norimasa goes directly to the Russian Consulate in Hakodate, demanding the departure of the ship to the Russian Consul Goshkevitch. As this strategy does not work, the Japanese call the British envoy Rutherford Alcock to intervene, as the British also have an interest in preventing the Russians from extending their influence in Asia. Alcock immediately dispatches two ships under command of Vice Admiral James Hope.
1861, September: Likhachev, as instructed by Konstantin, orders a general retreat and sends the message to Tsushima with the Oprichnik. Birilev and Posadnik leave Tsushima on September 7, 1861, while Oprichnik and Abrek stay in the harbour; both leave at the end of September 1861. Likhachev later says that the failure has its upside: "We did not allow the British conquest of the islands", an opinion indirectly supported by contemporary personal meetings between Gorchakov and ambassador Francis Napier; the latter, however, never gave a definite answer about British plans in Tsushima. Likhachev is demoted from his command and tenders a voluntary resignation, which is rejected; the admiral is given command of a Baltic Fleet squadron. The Russian Navy stays at Nagasaki until the completion of the Port Arthur base in China.
This is what happens in this AU.
1861: The Sandaime Kage meet for the third time. Tsushima is part of Yu no Kuni (Kyūshū) who - instead of screaming for the British, yell for help from Iwa instead. Iwa fends off the Imperial Russian Navy using doton - for a price. Discussing the upheaval in America, the Kage assume that Japan is no longer going to be the focus of the American government (true), but worry about Vladivostok and the increased Russian presence. Uzushio and Kiri make an informal alliance against the European powers.
1861: Russian builds the first steel-armoured gunship Opyt (Опыт).
1862
1862: The Bakufu placed its warship orders with the Netherlands and decides to send 15 trainees there. The students, led by Uchida Tsunejirō (内田恒次郎), leave Nagasaki on September 11, 1862, and arrive in Rotterdam on April 18, 1863, for a stay of 3 years. They include such figures as the future Admiral Enomoto Takeaki, Sawa Tarosaemon (沢太郎左衛門), Akamatsu Noriyoshi (赤松則良), Taguchi Shunpei (田口俊平), Tsuda Shinichiro (津田真一郎) and the philosopher Nishi Amane. This starts a tradition of foreign-educated future leaders such Admirals Tōgō and, later, Yamamoto. The Bakufu had initially planned on ordering ships and sending students to the United States, but the American Civil War led to a cancellation of those plans. None of this happens in this AU.
14 September 1862: The Namamugi Incident occurs when a British merchant, Charles Lennox Richardson breaks into a Daimyo Procession, disregarding the warnings, and is eventually killed by the armed retinue of Shimazu Hisamitsu, the father and regent of Shimazu Tadayoshi, the daimyō of the Satsuma Domain. Reportedly, Richardson fails to yield for Shimazu's entourage while travelling on a road near Kawasaki, Kanagawa, and is subsequently killed under Kiri-sute gomen – the right for samurai to kill people of lower class for perceived disrespect. Richardson's death sparks outrage from Europeans for violating the extraterritoriality they enjoy under terms of the Unequal treaties. Lieutenant-Colonel Edward St. John Neale, the British Chargé d'Affaires, demands from the Bakufu (the central government of the Tokugawa Shogunate) an apology and an indemnity of £100,000, representing roughly 1/3 of the total revenues of the Bakufu for one year. Neale keeps threatening a naval bombardment of Edo, the Tokugawa capital city, if the payment is not made. Britain also demands the Satsuma Domain arrest and put on trial the perpetrators of Richardson's death, and £25,000 compensation for the surviving victims and the relatives of Richardson.
This incident never happens in this AU.
The hidden villages have been pretty isolationist all along, and there are very few places that welcome Europeans. Uzushio definitely takes anyone who cares to sail into it, Nagasaki welcomes the Dutch, and Edo is bound by treaty to accept the Americans. Pretty much all of the foreign knowledge that it's coming into Japan is arriving either via Nagasaki or Uzushio.
The samurai that kill Richardson are the armed retinue of Shimazu Hisamitsu, the father and regent of Shimazu Tadayoshi, the daimyō of the Satsuma Domain, and that is already something different to what happened in this AU since the Christian daimyo of Kyushu were never deposed. As such the daimyo isn't even held by the same clan - it's held by the Arima in this AU, while in reality they went through several changes to end up with the Shimazu.
Also, I don't think Richardson would have been so willing to face down a bunch of Samurai with drawn swords if he didn't have the knowledge that he was legally in the right given that the treaty signed between Japan and Britain at the time made British citizens exempt from Japanese law.
As such, the Charles Lennox Richardson in this AU is a heck of a lot more discrete and retreats in good order in the face of swords rather than getting up on his high horse about it - if he is even in Japan, which he very well might not be given the way Europeans aren’t particularly welcome in Japan at this point.
All of this means that the British won't bombard Kagoshima in revenge for the death of Richardson, the Emperor won't actually issue his Order to Expel Barbarians, and the Chōshū clan won't start firing on all foreign ships traversing Shimonoseki Strait. That then means that the entire Shimonoseki campaign won't occur.
All of that never happens in this AU - two wars fought between Japan and the Western powers, have both been avoided.
1863
March 11, 1863: Emperor Kōmei's Order to expel barbarians - does not occur in this AU as the tensions between the Emperor and the Bakafu over the issue of the Western powers do not exist.
1863: Japan completes her first domestically-built steam warship, the Chiyodagata, a 140-ton gunboat commissioned into the Tokugawa Navy.
1863: The Shimonoseki campaign, a series of military engagements in 1863 and 1864, is fought to control Shimonoseki Straits of Japan by joint naval forces from Great Britain, France, the Netherlands and the United States, against the Japanese feudal domain of Chōshū, which takes place off and on the coast of Shimonoseki, Japan. It never happens in this AU - having maintained their independence of the western powers, the general feeling of ill will is not so great among the general populace of Japan. Without the economic hardship caused by the centralisation of capital, there is less anti-western sentiment and more of a general wariness of the west. It does not escalate into war at this point.
1863, 15 to 17 August: The Bombardment of Kagoshima, also known as the Anglo-Satsuma War (薩英戦争, Satsu-Ei Sensō), is a battle fought between Britain and the Satsuma Domain in Kagoshima. The British are trying to extract compensation and legal justice from the daimyō of the Satsuma Domain for the Namamugi Incident in 1862, when vessels of the Royal Navy were fired on from coastal batteries near Kagoshima. The British bombarded the city in retaliation and pushed out the Satsuma, but were unable to defeat them and retreated two days later. The Satsuma declared victory and after negotiations fulfilled some British demands for the Namamugi Incident.
As the Namamugi Incident did not occur in this AU, the Bombardment of Kagoshima also does not occur.
However, the underlying pressures which made it possible are indeed occuring. Disaffected fudai who were part of the Bakufu and have been displaced by the village led government have flocked to Yu no Kuni (Kyūshū) where the daimyo still holds considerable sway, making Satsuma Domain ripe for rebellion. Fudai clan members have also moved to Chūbu but that has only added to that chaos. They have mostly become ronin and are in the process of trying to centralise enough to rebel against the Emperor.
1863, September: Popov arrives in San Francisco in October with six ships, the corvettes Bogatyr, Kalavela, Rynda and Novik, and the clippers Abrek and Gaidamak, where he remained until 1864.
1864
1864: Gaidamak leaves the Northern Pacific for the last time.
1865
1865: Parts of Popov’s squadron, including the Finnish corvette Kalevala, return to the Baltic in 1865.
1865
1865, April 9: Ceasefire agreement of the Army of Northern Virginia by General Robert E. Lee.
1865, April 14: President Lincoln attends a performance of Our American Cousin at Ford's Theatre. During the third act, a Confederate sympathiser named John Wilkes Booth shoots and kills Abraham Lincoln. As he flees the scene, he yells "Sic semper tyrannis", the Virginia state motto. John Wilkes Booth is tracked, twelve days later, to a farm near Bowling Green, Virginia, on April 26. He is shot and killed by Union Army Sergeant Boston Corbett. His co-conspirators are tried before a military commission and hanged on July 7.
1865, November 6: Ceasefire agreement of the Shenandoah.
1865: French naval engineer Léonce Verny is hired to build Japan's first modern naval arsenals in Yokosuka and Nagasaki. Verny is appointed chief administrator and constructor of the Yokosuka Naval Arsenal. The same year, he briefly returns to France to purchase all necessary machinery and recruit French naval experts from Brest, Toulon, and Cherbourg (45 families in all) to help organise the construction of the arsenal. More ships are imported, such as the Jho Sho Maru, the Ho Sho Maru and the Kagoshima, all commissioned by Thomas Blake Glover and built in Aberdeen.
Verny is hired in this AU, and the naval arsenals are constructed with funding drawn from all of the Five Great Shinobi Countries. However, the ships from Aberdeen are not imported - at the insistence of the Raikage, Tsuchikage, and Kazekage, all the ships purchased by the Five Great Shinobi Countries must be built in Japan, at the naval arsenals in Yokosuka and Nagasaki.
1866
1866, November: In the real world, the Yokosuka Naval Arsenal completes its first warship, the Yokosuka-maru, the shipyard’s first locally produced steam ship. That does not happen in this AU, as the naval arsenals are slower to construct ships.
1866, August 20: United States President Andrew Johnson signs a Proclamation Declaring that Peace, Order, Tranquillity, and Civil Authority Now Exists in and Throughout the Whole of the United States of America. It cites the end of the insurrection in Texas, and declares ... "that the insurrection which heretofore existed in the State of Texas is at an end and is to be henceforth so regarded in that State as in the other States before named in which the said insurrection was proclaimed to be at an end by the aforesaid proclamation of the 2nd day of April, 1866. And I do further proclaim that the said insurrection is at an end and that peace, order, tranquillity, and civil authority now exist in and throughout the whole of the United States of America."
1867
1867: Popov and his flag captain Stepan Makarov are back with the Baltic fleet.
1867: Kagami mentions that both Konoha and Kumo have ordered steam powered ships in his letter to Koshmain.
1867: By the end of the Tokugawa shogunate in 1867, the Japanese navy already possesses eight Western-style steam warships around the flagship Kaiyō Maru which are used against pro-imperial forces during the Boshin War, under the command of Admiral Enomoto. The conflict culminates with the Naval Battle of Hakodate in 1869, Japan's first large-scale modern naval battle. The shogunate has a fleet of eight warships and thirty-six auxiliaries. Satsuma (the largest domain fleet) has nine steamships, Choshu has five ships plus numerous auxiliary craft, Kaga has ten ships and Chikuzen eight. Numerous smaller domains have also acquired a number of ships. However, these fleets resemble maritime organisations rather than actual navies with ships functioning as transports as well as combat vessels; they are also manned by personnel who lacked experienced seamanship except for coastal sailing and who have virtually no combat training.
In this AU, Japan does not have nearly this many steamships. Satsuma and Chikuzen are located in Kyūshū - Yu no Kuni in this AU. As such, their ship numbers remain unchanged from history. Chōshū Domain is part of the Chūgoku region which is Kaze no Kuni in this AU, and the Kazekage quickly puts a stop to any attempts to spend money on purchasing naval vessels. Kaga domain is in Chūbu - Hāto no Kuni in this AU - and their daimyo does not have good control of his domains. However, the Kaga domain overlaps with Ishikawa Prefecture and that is the area traditionally claimed by the Yamanaka. Through them, Konoha exercises control to prevent the purchase of ships.
1868
1868: In the real world, this is the year the Meiji Restoration occurs. In this AU, the Kōmei Restoration which occurred in 1858 replaced it.
1868: The planned two repair yards, three shipyards and iron works in the Yokosuka Arsenal are not completed yet.
1868: In the real world, this is the year the capital moves to Tokyo. In this AU, that occurred in 1858 along with the Kōmei Restoration.
1868: The Imperial Russian Naval vessel the Vsadnik is serving in the Northern Pacific and is rearmed by rifled guns. It continues to serve until 1871.
1868, February: In the real world, as part of the Meiji Restoration, the Imperial government places all captured shogunate naval vessels under the Navy Army affairs section. That does not happen in this AU as there is no central government.
1868, 26 March: In the real world, the first naval review in Japan takes place in Osaka Bay, with six ships from the private domain navies of Saga, Chōshū, Satsuma, Kurume, Kumamoto and Hiroshima participating. The total tonnage of these ships is 2,252 tons, which was far smaller than the tonnage of the single foreign vessel (from the French Navy) that also participated. This does not occur in this AU.
1869
1869: The Imperial Russian Navy begins the construction of one of the first seafaring ironclads, Petr Veliky (Пётр Великий).
1869: Japan acquires its first ocean-going ironclad warship, the Kōtetsu, ordered by the Bakufu but received by the new Imperial government, barely ten years after such ships were first introduced in the West with the launch of the French La Gloire. The Kōtetsu was built in Bordeaux, France, for the Confederate States Navy under the cover name Sphinx, but was sold to Denmark after sales of warships by French builders to the Confederacy was forbidden in 1863. The Danes refused to accept the ship and sold her to the Confederates which commissioned her as CSS Stonewall in 1865. The ship did not reach Confederate waters before the end of the American Civil War in April and was turned over to the United States. This does not happen in this AU, as the orders from the Kage preclude the purchase of foreign built ships. Instead the name Kōtetsu will be reserved for one of the first two ships to be build in the Japanese naval shipyards.
July 1869: In the real world, the Imperial Japanese Navy is formally established, two months after the last combat of the Boshin War.
1870
1870: In the real world, Imperial decree determines that the British Navy is the model for development, and the second British naval mission to Japan, the Douglas Mission (1873–79) led by Archibald Lucius Douglas lays the foundations of naval officer training and education. Tōgō Heihachirō is trained by the British navy. That does not happen in this AU as the British are still regarded with suspicion by the Kage. The shinobi are working through figuring naval matters out on their own.
1870: The Imperial Russian Navy screw corvette Vityaz arrives in the Pacific, but Pavel Zelenoy is no longer the commander of the vessel.
1870: Pyotr Bezobrazov is promoted to lieutenant aboard the frigate Svetlana.
1870, winter: In this AU, Konoha and Kumo take delivery of their ocean going ironclads. Ordered in 1867, it took the shipyards 3 years to get them made. Basically, Verny’s people copied the French ironclad Gloire, and then put wrought iron plates on it like the British did for the HMS Warrior - making it smaller than the Warrior class frigates, but with the best armour available for the time period.
The Gloire was laid down on 4 March 1858, and launched on 24 November 1859 (a year and 8.5 months), and I made the assumption that a newly built Japanese shipyard would be less practised than the French ship yards.
1871
1871, 25 February: Johan Hampus Furuhjelm is appointed chief of Russian seaports in the Pacific, where he contributes a lot to development of Vladivostok and Primorsky Krai, opening the Amur Telegraph Company, several lighthouses, and ship dockyards.
1871: The clipper ship Pearl is in the Pacific Ocean, with Eduard Schensnovich aboard as a midshipman.
1871, Spring: Kagami - very sensibly knowing that no one in Konoha has ever handled a ship - leverages the Senju alliance with the Uzumaki and sends his ship up to them to be crewed.
1871: The Svetlana arrives in the Pacific.
1871: The Vityaz is rearmed by rifled guns.
1871: In the real world, the Imperial Japanese Navy takes over the Yokosuka Shipyard, keeping Verny and the other French engineers on until 1878 while they train the Japanese engineers who will continue their work.
1871: Vladivostok becomes the Siberian Military Flotilla’s principal base.
This is where the Russians move against Kiri.
In response, Kiri calls upon the rest of the Elemental Countries, and the Five Great Shinobi Countries unite for the first time in generations.
Kagami brings Tsunade and Sara. Ōnoki brings Mū. A brings his ironclad. The Sandaime Kazekage stays behind to guard Japan.
This is Rivals Reconciled.