Sino-Japanese War

1894-95

Keen competition between Japan and China for markets in Korea was the real cause of this war. Its immediate cause, however, was the violation of an agreement made between Li Hung-chang and Count Ito for maintaining the status quo by the dispatch of Chinese troops to Korea without notice to the Japanese government. The resulting and thorough defeat of the Chinese was a startling revelation of the rise of Japanese power in the Far East.

Japan's first opportunity to interfere in Korean affairs came as a result of disorders in Korea, of which China was the normal suzerain. Japan then secured a treaty with China involving the independence of the principality. The Chinese government sought to retrieve the position by intrigue, which soon brought the two countries to the brink of war, troops from both being already in Korea. Then followed a number of incidents, which compelled Li Hung-Chang to arrange a modus vivendi with Count Ito, under which the troops on both sides were withdrawn; but the agreement was broken in the manner indicated above, and war was declared by Japan on 1 August 1894, actual hostilities having begun a week previously with the sinking of the transport Kowshing, a British vessel carrying Chinese troops.

In the battle of Pyong-yang (15 September), a Chinese army was routed with heavy loss, Chinese methods of generalship being archaic in the extreme. On 17 September, however, the Chinese navy fought stoutly, and the most important navel action of the war took place off the island of Hai-yang, when the Chinese fleet was defeated.

Late in October a Japanese army under Count Oyama invaded Manchuria. The fortress of Port Arthur was taken by storm on 21 November with only slight loss to the Japanese. In February 1895, at the decisive battle of Wei-hai, the Chinese land and sea forces were utterly defeated, the Chinese admiral, Ting, committing suicide in his ship. The Japanese, continuing to advance, now closed on Peking, with the result that Li Hung-chang himself departed for Japan to conclude peace. A treaty was signed at Shimonoseki in April and ratified in May at Chifu, under which Korean independence was recognised, and Liao-tung, Formosa (Taiwan), and then Pescadores were ceded to Japan. Other terms included the opening of ports in Szechwan, Hupeh, and other provinces, and a large indemnity to Japan. Later, however, Japan was induced by France, Germany and Russia to give back Liaotung in exchange for an increased indemnity. This interference by Western powers aroused the indignation of Japan, especially against Russia, and formed a remote cause of the Russo-Japanese War (1904-05).

As a result of the Sino-Japanese War, Japan established its position in Asia and expanded its markets. The revelation of China's weakness rendered it more than ever liable to invasion by Western powers, and eventually caused the revolution which overthrew the imperial regime.

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