HISTORY CAMBRIDGE AS - PAPER 2MODULE 1871-1918PRESENTATION 10

JAPAN WARSWITH CHINA 1894

PRESENTATION BASED ONSchencking, J. Charles (2005). Making Waves: Politics, Propaganda, And The Emergence Of

The Imperial Japanese Navy, 1868-1922

Evans, David C; Peattie, Mark R (1997). Kaigun: strategy, tactics, and technology in the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1887–1941

Jansen, Marius B. (2002). The Making of Modern Japan

Jansen, Marius B. (1995). The Emergence of Meiji Japan. Cambridge University Press

Kwang-Ching, Liu (1978). John King Fairbank, ed. The Cambridge History of China

Olender, Piotr (2014). Sino-Japanese Naval War 1894-1895

Paine, S.C.M (2003). The Sino-Japanese War of 1894–1895: Perceptions, Power, and Primacy. Cambridge University Press

Palais, James B. (1975). Politics and Policy in Traditional Korea

Sondhaus, Lawrence (2001). Naval Warfare, 1815–1914

OVERVIEWThe Sino-Japanese War (1894–95), was a conflict between Japan and China that marked the emergence of Japan as a major world power and demonstrated the weakness of the Chinese empire. The war grew out of conflict between the two countries for supremacy in Korea. Korea had long been China’s most important client state, but its strategic location opposite the Japanese islands and its natural resources of coal and iron attracted Japan’s interest. In 1875 Japan, which had begun to adopt Western technology, forced Korea to open itself to foreign, especially Japanese, trade and to declare itself independent from China in its foreign relations.

The Chinese battleship Zhenyuan captured by the Japanese during the Sino-Japanese War, 1895.

YUAN SHIKAI AND LI-ITO CONVENTIONJapan soon became identified with the more radical modernizing forces within the Korean government, while China continued to sponsor the conservative officials gathered around the royal family. In 1884 a group of pro-Japanese reformers attempted to overthrow the Korean government, but Chinese troops under Gen. Yuan Shikai rescued the King, killing several Japanese legation guards in the process. War was avoided between Japan and China by the signing of the Li-Itō Convention, in which both nations agreed to withdraw troops from Korea.

Yuan Shikai was a Chinese army leader and reformist minister in the twilight of the Qing dynasty (until 1911) and then first president of the Republic of China (1912–16).

Yuan Shikai

NO COMPROMISEIn 1894, however, Japan, flushed with national pride in the wake of its successful modernization program and its growing influence upon young Koreans, was not so ready to compromise. In that year, Kim Ok-kyun, the pro-Japanese Korean leader of the 1884 coup, was lured to Shanghai and assassinated, probably by agents of Yuan Shikai. His body was then put aboard a Chinese warship and sent back to Korea, where it was quartered and displayed as a warning to other rebels.

INFLAMATIONThe Japanese government took this as a direct affront, and the Japanese public was outraged. The situation was made more tense later in the year when the Tonghak rebellion broke out in Korea, and the Chinese government, at the request of the Korean king, sent troops to aid in dispersing the rebels. The Japanese considered this a violation of the Li-Itō Convention, and they sent 8,000 troops to Korea. When the Chinese tried to reinforce their own forces, the Japanese sank the British steamer Kowshing, which was carrying the reinforcements, further inflaming the situation.

THE WARThe war was finally declared on August 1, 1894. Foreign observers had predicted an easy victory for the more massive Chinese forces, the Japanese had done a more successful job of modernizing, and they were better equipped and prepared. Japanese troops scored quick and overwhelming victories on both land and sea. By March 1895 the Japanese had successfully invaded Shandong province and Manchuria and had fortified posts that commanded the sea approaches to Beijing. The Chinese sued for peace.

THE TREATY OF SHIMONOSEKIIn the Treaty of Shimonoseki, which ended the conflict, China recognized the independence of Korea and ceded Taiwan, the adjoining Pescadores, and the Liaodong Peninsula in Manchuria.

CHINA TO PAY JAPANChina also agreed to pay a large indemnity and to give Japan trading privileges on Chinese territory. This treaty was later somewhat modified by Russian fears of Japanese expansion, and the combined intercession of Russia, France, and Germany forced Japan to return the Liaodong Peninsula to China.

CHINA’S DEFEATChina’s defeat encouraged the Western powers to make further demands of the Chinese government. In China, the war triggered a reform movement that attempted to renovate the government; it also resulted in the beginnings of revolutionary activity against the Qing dynasty rulers of China.