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

Index


Causes of the Sino
Japanese War &
The Tonghak
Rebellion



Comparison of the
Japanese and
Chinese Forces


Battle of Pung-do
sinking of
the Kowshing
July 24, 1894


Formal Declarations
of 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 China
and 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 observers
expected China to win, as
its navy was stronger on paper with its ironclad battleships and
the Chinese army was
assumed to be massive. While China had modernized somewhat
under
the Self Strengthening Movement, it could not match the rapid
progress made in
Japan under the Meiji Restoration.



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 Ito
to Admiral Ding


Manchuria
Battle of Newchang
Mar 4, 1895


Korea 1890s

The war started in the Seoul area of modern South Korea. Both
China and Japan had the right to send troops to Korea under the
Tientsin Convention of 1885. A rebellion broke out in Korea in
1894, known as the Tonghak Rebellion. Japan used this as a
pretext to try to start a war with China in Korea,which China and
Japan had been ruling as a co-protectorate, with China playing
the leading role. Soon, both China and Japan had troops in
Korea, and this explosive situation soon led to conflict .Japan felt
it was 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

Pescadores, Taiwan,
Jiangsu
March 24-29


Peace Negotiations
April 17, 1895


Map of the Sino
Japanese War



photos of old Chefoo
(Yantai)

Links
Wikipedia on the War
Tonghak Rebellion
Meiji Restoration
Taiping Rebellion
Korean History
The China-Japan war
compiled from
Japanese, Chinese
and foreign sources
(1896)
The war in the East :
Japan, China, and
Corea : a complete
history of the war
(1895)
Pain's pyrotechnic
spectacle, war
Japanese. The following naval
Battle of the Yalu was one of the first modern naval battles in
history with ironclad
ships, quick-fire guns and torpedoes used. The Chinese lost five
ships and retreated
to Port Arthur, then to Wei Hai, never to threaten the Japanese in
the Yellow Sea again .
After the defeat in Pyongyang, there was no more Chinese
resistance in Korea
and two Japanese armies invaded Manchuria, with Port Arthur,
Newchang,
Yinkou being taken . While taking Port Arthur, the Japanese found
the mutilated remains
of Japanese prisoners and went on a frenzy of killing in Port
Arthur in which
almost all of the remaining Chinese population of the city was
massacred, known as
the Port Arthur Massacre .


The Beiyang Navy base at Wei Hai fell to the Japanese in early
1895 and the ships in the
Chinese Beiyang Fleet were sunk or captured, while the
Japanese lost no major ships.



Battle of WeiHai

between Japan and
China
other pre-
dreadnaught wars
War of the Pacific
Spanish American
War
War of the Triple
Alliance
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 battled
furiously 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 on
Beijing 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 , Confucian
values and tried to modernize the Chinese forces against the
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 many
books of the period )
with Port Arthur, Taiwan and the Pescadores(Peng Hu) Islands to
Japan and was to pay
an indemnity of 263,176,701 taels of silver (about 150 million
U.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 and
set up businesses.
The Japanese war indemnity and loans to fiance the war of
almost 120 million taels
to fiance the war were a large drain on the economy .

During the peace negotiations, there was an assassination
attempt against Li Hong-zhang, the
Chinese plenipotentiary and the Japanese emperor Meiji declared
an unconditional armistice on March 29, 1895 Japanese guilt over
this 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 in
the Sino-Japanese War as well . Shortly after the treaty was
signed, Russia, France and Germany united under the Triple
Intervention and threatened war with Japan if it did not withdraw
from Port Arthur, which it did in the face of this triple threat.
Shortly afterward, Russia occupied Port Arthur .


Japanese Sino Japanese War Medal

The major consequences of the war were that Japan was
recognized as a rising world power,
increased xenophobia in China leading to the Boxer Rebellion in
1899 and Korea
becoming a colony of Japan .The success of the armed forces
lead to increasing power of the
militarists in Japan .