1. A computer-implemented method for initializing a connection in a peer-to-peer replication environment, comprising: receiving a first message, at a target node, from an initiator node, indicating that the initiator node will begin replicating changes to the target node without waiting for any acknowledgements relating to the first message, wherein the changes are applied to a first instance of a data entity on the initiator node; receiving a plurality of replicated changes, at the target node, from the initiator node; determining whether the target node contains a base copy of the data entity, which if updated by application of the plurality of replicated changes would be synchronized with the first instance of the data entity on the initiator node; upon determining the target node does not contain the base copy of the data entity, performing one or more load operations to create a second instance of the data entity on the target node; and upon performing the load operations, processing each received replicated change in the plurality of replicated changes against the second instance of the data entity, by operation of one or more computer processors.