As another Lame Cherry exclusive in matter anti matter.
In the Japanese Civil War which removed the Tycoon or Shogun from power, an interesting chain of events took place which has been neglected in history.
For the reality of it, the military leader of Japan was being leveraged out, by other factions. His military leaders had betrayed him, and his troops would have won, except for that, as he was facing a small armed band of 1000 troops of the Satsuma faction, armed with....Swiss rifles.
For those who seem to need the geography lesson, Swiss rifles come from Europe.
Into this was introduced a foreign ringleader in Sir Harry Parkes of Great Britain as their ambassador. Bombastic is the best expression for him and his policy. He fit rather well the British maxim of talking very loudly in English to bloody damn wogs, made them instantly understand English when all they spoke was Japanese.
The British contingent was very good at gaining favor with all sides. When an American sailor was shot in the uprising, the American Marines took control of the security and the British were upset with the stringent security which was issued by the Americans across the foreign sector, and the British could not move about freely as they had, according to a Secretary named Ernest Mason Satow.
Satow is an interesting character in he goes out of his way in his memoirs to focus upon that rag tag mob of 1776 defeating the British Empire by stating that it was due to French army and naval assistance, with the hint that the Americans could naturally never have defeated the superior British.
For the record, Trenton, Princeton, Cross the Delaware, King's Mountain, the defeat of Burgoyne in New York was all effected without French support.
The most crushing defeats outside New York in the crippling of the Burgoyne expedition, was unleashed by frontiersmen riding into the Colonies to crush the two lieutenants or Cornwallis, which caused him to recoil in defeat, at which point, Providence converged the French fleet to keep the British fleet from evacuating Lord Cornwallis from Yorktown, which in turn with French Soldiers, the Soldiers of George Washington defeated the British.
That was a defeat also where the Americans were disgusted in the captured British were drinking wine with the French after being captured.
Yes the olde order simply traded those they bowed to and enjoyed it all.
In Japan, after the French ambassador was removed to Yokohoma, that left only Sir Harry ruling in Japan in his new home at Kioto or Kyoto, the traditional seat of power in Japan, to which it was said that all the other diplomats came to heal.
This greatly delighted Sir Harry, who stopped screaming at the Japanese in court, and became quite pleasant at the British mindset being installed, especially when it came to the news of Stonewall Jackson.
No I am not speaking of the Confederate American Hero, but the American warship, Stonewall Jackson. This was an iron clad ram, on the design of the Merrimack which proved so effective in the American Civil War.
Yes the Japanese had purchased this warship for their Civil War with their own money, but Sir Harry wanted neutrality, so the ship was not delivered.
Examine this for a moment in those Swiss rifles were not quite neutral in being the ultimate weapon in repelling the Tycoon forces, 1000 men repelling 10,000.
From this, Sir Harry found his way in Kyoto in the very courts directing things, where of course the Tycoon had forbidden all foreigners in his rule.
That sort of sounds like the British were manipulating the balance of power in a small contingent taking over the government of Japan, and of course, let us not have those stringent security minded Americans be in control or providing a dreadnaught which might be poking holes in the only real naval force in Japan, which was the squadron of..........British naval ships.
So the British had the naval power, the British were in Kioto, the British were ruling the foreign diplomats and the "imperial guard" they were backing, as the Japanese wanted a like British Constitutional monarchy had the Swiss guns.
That kind of British "neutrality" certainly seemed to rule quite effectively in that stacked deck.
Oh the Cockchafer.........yes that is the name of the ship the British diplomats were on board.
That was just too remarkable of a Charles Dickens name to not include in this story........Yes Her Magesty's Ship, Cockchafer.
Perhaps lubrication should have been required.
agtG
