The high casualty rates of the Crimean and Russo-Turkish Wars made Russia realise it needed to modernise, throughout the 19th century, reforms took place, serfdom was abolished, and the army was modernised, when Nicholas ll came to the throne in 1894, he married Princess Helene of Orleans, cementing Russia's alliance with France. Brusilov was made a General, and given the task of retaking Sakhalin. Japan requested that its ally Thailand join the war, and the Russian Baltic Fleet was sent from St Petersburg to join the fight.