The First Sino Japanese War

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The First Sino Japanese War August 1, 1894 - April 17, 1895

Index

Causes of the SinoJapanese War&

The Tonghak

Rebellion

Comparison of theJapanese and

Chinese Forces

Battle of Pung-do

sinking ofthe Kowshing

July 24, 1894

Formal Declarationsof War

Aug 1, 1894

Battle of Seonghwan

July 29, 1894

Overview of the Sino-Japanese War

Battle of Pyongyang

The First Sino-Japanese War was fought between Qing Chinaand Meiji Japan officially from

Aug 1, 1894 to April 17, 1895 ( fighting broke out on July 25, 1894

) over control of Korea,

which was a Chinese tribute state . Many foreign observersexpected China to win, as

its navy was stronger on paper with its ironclad battleships andthe Chinese army was

assumed to be massive. While China had modernized somewhatunder

the Self Strengthening Movement, it could not match the rapidprogress made in

Japan under the Meiji Restoration.

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Battle of Pyongyang

Sept 15, 1894

Battle of the Yalu

Sept 17, 1894

Invasion of China

Oct 24, 1894

Battle of Port Arthur

Port Arthur Massacre

Nov 21, 1894

Battle of Wei Hai

Jan 20-Feb12, 1895

Letters

between Admiral Itoto Admiral Ding

Manchuria

Battle of NewchangMar 4, 1895

Korea 1890s

The war started in the Seoul area of modern South Korea. BothChina and Japan had the right to send troops to Korea under the

Tientsin Convention of 1885. A rebellion broke out in Korea in1894, known as the Tonghak Rebellion. Japan used this as a

pretext to try to start a war with China in Korea,which China andJapan had been ruling as a co-protectorate, with China playing

the leading role. Soon, both China and Japan had troops inKorea, and this explosive situation soon led to conflict .Japan feltitwas strong enough at this point to challenge China in a war over

Korea.

Battle of the Yalu

After losing a minor battle at Seonghwan near Seoul, the main

Chinese force concentrated

in Pyongyang and was defeated, despite outnumbering the

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Pescadores, Taiwan,

JiangsuMarch 24-29

Peace Negotiations

April 17, 1895

Map of the SinoJapanese War

photos of old Chefoo(Yantai)

LinksWikipedia on the War

Tonghak Rebellion

Meiji Restoration

Taiping Rebellion

Korean History

The China-Japan warcompiled from

Japanese, Chineseand foreign sources

(1896)

The war in the East :Japan, China, andCorea : a completehistory of the war

(1895)

Pain's pyrotechnicspectacle, war

Japanese. The following naval

Battle of the Yalu was one of the first modern naval battles inhistory with ironclad

ships, quick-fire guns and torpedoes used. The Chinese lost fiveships and retreated

to Port Arthur, then to Wei Hai, never to threaten the Japanese inthe Yellow Sea again .

After the defeat in Pyongyang, there was no more Chineseresistance in Korea

and two Japanese armies invaded Manchuria, with Port Arthur,Newchang,

Yinkou being taken . While taking Port Arthur, the Japanese foundthe mutilated remains

of Japanese prisoners and went on a frenzy of killing in PortArthur in which

almost all of the remaining Chinese population of the city wasmassacred, known as

the Port Arthur Massacre .

The Beiyang Navy base at Wei Hai fell to the Japanese in early1895 and the ships in the

Chinese Beiyang Fleet were sunk or captured, while theJapanese lost no major ships.

Battle of WeiHai

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between Japan andChina

other pre-dreadnaught wars

War of the Pacific

Spanish AmericanWar

War of the TripleAlliance

War of the Pacific

Watch The Battle of the Yalu River,a Chinese

movie about the Sino-Japanese War with English subtitles

In Manchuria, Qing forces under General Sung Qing battledfuriously to recover Hai Cheng,

even though the Japanese were outnumbered 60,000 to 25,000,they managed to hold the city

inflicting heavy loses.Japan was poised for a two prong attack onBeijing from Manchuria

and Shandong , leading the Chinese to seek peace.

Li Hong-zhang, the viceroy of Chili (Hebei) drilled his armies in

western techniques and stressed officer-soldier ties , Confucianvalues and tried to modernize the Chinese forces against the

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foreign menace .

The Treaty of Shimonoseki was signed on 17 April 17,1895.China

recognized the independence of Korea and ceded the strategic

Liaodong Peninsula ( also called the ' Regent's Sword' in manybooks of the period )

with Port Arthur, Taiwan and the Pescadores(Peng Hu) Islands toJapan and was to pay

an indemnity of 263,176,701 taels of silver (about 150 millionU.S.dollars ) , most

favored nation trade status and opening of Shashi, Chungking,Soochow and Hangzhou

to Japanese trade. Japanese could move freely in the interior andset up businesses.

The Japanese war indemnity and loans to fiance the war ofalmost 120 million taels

to fiance the war were a large drain on the economy .

During the peace negotiations, there was an assassinationattempt against Li Hong-zhang, the

Chinese plenipotentiary and the Japanese emperor Meiji declaredan unconditional armistice on March 29, 1895 Japanese guilt overthis led the Japanese to accept more moderate concessions(they

had wanted to occupy Shan-hai-kwan, Taku, and Tien-tsin(Tianjin) and some costal forts as well ).

Russo-Japanese War monument at Port Arthur, site of a battle inthe Sino-Japanese War as well . Shortly after the treaty wassigned, Russia, France and Germany united under the Triple

Intervention and threatened war with Japan if it did not withdrawfrom Port Arthur, which it did in the face of this triple threat.

Shortly afterward, Russia occupied Port Arthur .

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Japanese Sino Japanese War Medal

The major consequences of the war were that Japan wasrecognized as a rising world power,

increased xenophobia in China leading to the Boxer Rebellion in1899 and Korea

becoming a colony of Japan .The success of the armed forceslead to increasing power of the

militarists in Japan .