First Sino-Japanese War | war between the Qing Dynasty and the Empire of Japan

For centuries, the Chinese Empire was the hegemonic power in East Asia, and the neighboring states and also Japan were characterized by a system of tribute and nominal vassalage. In Korea, the Joseon dynasty ruled as vassals of the emperor. Domestically, the empire was shaken by the Taiping Rebellion and other uprisings. Beginning in the 1850s with the First Opium War, China's inferiority to Western nations became apparent. Despite the questioning by the military defeats, the Chinese imperial court held on to the basic concept of the state and also tried to pursue its foreign policy towards the Asian states further according to the old system.

Japan had been forced to abandon its policy of seclusion by American intervention in 1854. In the years following the resulting fall of the shogunate and especially the Meiji Restoration in 1868, Japan transformed itself from a feudal society to a modern industrial state. For this purpose, Japan sent out envoys and students to the Western world so that they could learn their technology and arts there and bring them to Japan. This was done not only to prevent Japan from falling under foreign dominance, but also to compete on an equal footing with the Western powers. In addition to revising the Unequal Treaties, Japan sought its own sphere of influence in East Asia in order to assume the role of East Asian hegemonic power. In this context, Korea played a central role for the Japanese leadership, both as a possible military stepping stone to China and as a possible area for the establishment of a Japanese sphere of influence. Japan's goal was to open up Korea with modern economic and technical methods under Japanese domination. In addition to China, Japan also saw itself in competition with Russia, whose growing presence in East Asia was perceived as a possible military threat.

The Korean sovereign King Gojong, in turn, wanted to maintain the seclusion of his country and the tribute obligation to China, for which he received its protection in return. The population itself in Korea was divided between conservatives who wanted close relations with China and reformists who wanted to modernize Korea and have closer relations with Japan.

The conflict over Korea

As a young, emerging regional power, Japan increasingly focused its attention on Korea. To safeguard its interests and security, Japan wanted to prevent other states from annexing Korea, establishing themselves as its protective power, or even just expanding Korea's self-reliance by reforming its administration and economy. Prussian adviser in Japan Jakob Meckel put it this way: "Korea is a dagger pointed at the heart of Japan." Japan's view, then, was that the presence of military units from other states ran counter to its own national interests, and it was therefore determined to end centuries of Chinese suzerainty over Korea. In addition, Japan also recognized the usefulness of Korea's coal and iron ore resources for its own industrial endeavors. Korea's agricultural products were also important to feed the rapidly growing Japanese population.

In 1875, the Chinese Qing Dynasty formally recognized Korea as an independent state. On February 27, 1876, after several incidents and conflicts between Korean isolationists and Japanese, Japan forced Korea to sign the Japan-Korea Friendship Treaty, which required Korea to open up to trade with Japan. Korea subsequently concluded similar treaties with other countries.

Korea had traditionally long been a tributary state to Qing Dynasty China, which also led to strong Chinese influence among the conservative government members clustered around the Joseon Dynasty ruling family. After China was defeated in the First Opium War, the Second Opium War, as well as the Sino-French War, it had to allow political influence and land grabs by Western countries (see Unequal Treaties). Japan wanted to prevent this from happening to Korea as well, and was therefore determined to replace Chinese influence in Korea with its own.

Crisis of 1882

In 1882, the Korean peninsula suffered from a severe drought, which led to food shortages and discontent among the population. Korea was on the verge of bankruptcy; the Korean government was no longer able to pay the bills, especially to the military. This led to rapidly growing discontent among the Korean soldiers, who had not received pay for months. Finally, on July 23, mutiny and riots broke out in Seoul, and soldiers joined the populace in looting the rice camps. The next morning, the Ruler's Palace and government facilities were attacked before the mob turned on the Japanese legation building. The Japanese legation managed to escape to Chemulpo and later to Nagasaki aboard the British research vessel HMS Flying Fish, but in response Japan sent four warships and a battalion to Seoul to protect Japanese interests and demand reparations. China then sent 4,500 troops to Korea to protect its interests against the Japanese. With the Treaty of Chemulpo finally concluded on August 30, 1882, tensions decreased once again. The treaty stipulated that those responsible for the uprising would be punished and the families of Japanese killed would receive 50,000 yen in compensation. The Japanese government received 500,000 yen in compensation, an official apology, and permission to station troops and build barracks on the site of the Japanese legation.

Gapsin coup

In 1884, a group of pro-Japanese reformers surprised the conservative, pro-Chinese government of Korea and seized power in a bloody coup. In an equally bloody counterattack, however, the Korean government, with the help of Chinese auxiliaries under General Yuan Shikai, managed to regain control. Not only did this revolt kill some reformers, it also burned down the Japanese legation and killed Japanese soldiers and civilians. This led to a dispute between Japan and China, which was finally settled in the Treaty of Tientsin in 1885. In this treaty, the two countries agreed to withdraw their respective expeditionary forces from Korea, not to send military advisors to train Korean troops, and to notify the other state in advance if they intended to send troops to Korea. The Japanese, however, were nonetheless increasingly frustrated with Chinese efforts to limit Japanese influence in Korea. Nevertheless, after the treaty was concluded, Chinese and Japanese troops left Korea and diplomatic relations between Japan and Korea were restored. Yuan Shikai remained as Chinese governor in Korea, a position he would hold until the war. He did attempt to promote Chinese trade with Korea and limit Japanese trade, but with limited success, as Japan remained Korea's largest trading partner. Subsequently, Chinese telegraphs were introduced and Korea was connected to the Chinese telegraph network, as well as financial assistance from the Qing Dynasty to Korea.

Nagasaki Incident

In 1886, during a stopover of the Chinese Beiyang Fleet in Nagasaki, Japan, riots and a full-scale street fight broke out, according to Japanese accounts triggered by undisciplined Chinese sailors who caused property damage and harassed Japanese women and children. Several Japanese policemen were also killed by the Chinese sailors during the fighting. At this point, the Chinese fleet was significantly stronger than the Japanese fleet, which is why the Qing Dynasty refused to apologize to Japan and relied on its naval superiority - the German-built Chinese flagship Dingyuan alone (there were a total of four Chinese ships in Nagasaki) was larger than any Japanese cruiser. An incident during the Gapsin coup was also still fresh in Japanese memory; there, 2000 Qing soldiers were said to have driven off 400 Japanese soldiers.

The Qing government accused Japan of attacking the Chinese sailors and injuring many when they, in turn, had merely brought gifts to Nagasaki. China further claimed that Japan had done nothing to protect the sailors.

Soybean Dispute

After another poor harvest in 1889, the governor of Hamgyong Province banned the export of soybeans to Japan. Japan then demanded compensation for its importers and finally received it in 1893. This incident shows Japan's growing dependence on Korean agricultural products.

Kim Ok-gyun

On March 28, 1894, the pro-Japanese Korean revolutionary Kim Ok-gyun was assassinated in Shanghai. Kim had participated in the 1884 Gapsin coup and fled to Japan after its failure. Calls by the Korean government to extradite Kim were refused by Japan. Kim Ok-gyun was eventually lured into a trap. When he arrived in Shanghai at the invitation of Li Hongzhang, he was assassinated in a Japanese inn in the International Quarter by the Korean Hong Jong-u. His body was subsequently sent to Korea on a Chinese warship, quartered there, and put on public display as a warning to other pro-Japanese rebels. The Japanese government was outraged by this and considered it a direct attack on their dignity and prestige.

Donghak Uprising

Tensions between China and Japan were thus considerable in June 1894, yet war was not yet inevitable. The Donghak Rebellion in Korea prompted King Gojong to call in Chinese troops to put down the rebellion on June 1, 1894. China then sent 2,800 troops under the command of Yuan Shikai, though it soon became apparent that the Chinese were not needed to put down the rebellion at all. According to the Japanese, the Chinese government did not inform the Japanese of this troop deployment, thus violating the Treaty of Tientsin. Because of this violation of the treaty, Japan responded by sending an 8,000-man expeditionary force to Korea in its turn. The first 400 troops reached Seoul on June 9, and others landed at Incheon on June 12. According to Chinese sources, however, the Japanese had encouraged the Chinese to comply with the Korean request for assistance, and Japanese officials had assured them that Japan had no intention of intervening because of it. Thus, Li Hongzhang, the Chinese official in charge, had been led to "the false assumption that Japan would not dare to go to war, when in fact Tokyo was already fully prepared for it." In any case, Japan demanded that China join Japan in reforming the Korean government, but China refused. Korea demanded the withdrawal of Japanese troops, which was again refused by Japan. The Japanese Expeditionary Force finally captured the Korean king in early June, occupied the Royal Palace, and formed a new Korean government of pro-Japanese Koreans. The new government was sworn in on July 25. The new Korean government eventually granted Japan the right to forcibly remove the Chinese from Korea, and Japan sent more troops. Since China again did not recognize the new Korean government, war broke out.

Japan

Japan's reforms in the course of the Meiji Restoration gave high priority to fleet building and the establishment of an efficient modern army. Japan therefore sent numerous military officers to Europe to study the strength and tactics of European armies and fleets.

Imperial Japanese Navy

The Imperial Japanese Navy was modeled after the British Royal Navy, which was the strongest fleet in the world at the time. British advisors were sent to Japan to train and educate the Japanese naval leadership; Japanese students, in turn, were sent to Britain to study and observe the Royal Navy. Through these training and lessons, Japan was able to field a fleet that was professionally trained in seamanship and artillery.

At the beginning of the war, Japan had 12 modern warships (the cruiser Izumi was added during the war), one frigate, 22 torpedo boats and numerous auxiliary cruisers. Japan did not yet have battleships and therefore followed the Jeune École doctrine which favored fast, small warships such as cruisers and torpedo boats, with sufficient armament to destroy larger ships. Many of the Japanese ships had been built in British and French shipyards (8 in British, 3 in French, and 2 in Japanese); 16 of the torpedo boats had been produced in France and assembled in Japan. Among them, however, were milestones of modern ship design. The British-built torpedo boat Kotaka, for example, is considered the prototype of the later destroyer classes. The cruiser Yoshino, also built in Great Britain, was the fastest cruiser in the world when it entered service in 1892.

Imperial Japanese Army

The army of the Meiji State in 1893 consisted of 6,000 officers, 12,000 non-commissioned officers and 60,000 active conscripts. The army's wartime strength could be reinforced by 270,000 reservists. The armed forces, which were being built up along Western lines, used domestically produced modern rifles, but often relied on imports of inferior quality for artillery and technical equipment, as Japan lacked the necessary industrial production capacity. During the war, the army mobilized more than 220,000 reservists, bringing the total strength of the seven regular divisions to 125,000 men. About 100,000 soldiers were used as reserves and in logistics in the main islands of Japan during the war. The Japanese Expeditionary Force recruited some 153,000 Korean laborers who, in civilian clothes, assisted the forces in logistics.

China

Although the Beiyang forces (Beiyang Army and Beiyang Fleet) formed the best-equipped and most modern units in China, corruption was a serious problem. Military leaders and officials embezzled armament funds even during the war. As a result, the Beiyang fleet was unable to acquire battleships after it was formed in 1888. The purchase of munitions ended in 1891 because funds were diverted to be used to build the Summer Palace in Beijing. Logistics were also a major problem as they had failed to build railways in Manchuria. Morale in the Chinese armies was generally very low due to low pay, low prestige, opium consumption and poor leadership, which also led to ignominious retreats, such as the abandonment of the well-fortified and defensible Weihaiwei.

Beiyang Army

Qing Dynasty China did not have a unified national army. As a result of the Taiping Rebellion, the army had been divided into Manchu, Mongol, Hui (Muslim), and Han units, which in turn were divided into largely independent regional commands. During the war, fighting was almost exclusively by the Beiyang Army and the Beiyang Fleet; calls for help were often simply ignored by other Chinese armies out of regional rivalry. At the same time, Chinese forces were also engaged in the Dungan Revolt in Qinghai, which resulted in thousands of casualties.

Beiyang fleet

The Chinese Navy had no national high command. It was divided into four fleets (Beiyang, Nanyang, Fujian, Guandong). In 1894, these four units comprised 65 major warships and 43 torpedo boats. The Beiyang Fleet was the strongest of the four units and was roughly equal to the strength of the entire Japanese naval force. The fleet was considered the strongest fleet in East Asia. Command and administrative responsibility for the fleets rested with the regional power centers. The viceroy of Zhili Li Hongzhang was responsible for the Beiyang fleet.

The Beiyang fleet was one of four modernized fleets of the late Qing dynasty, the ships receiving substantial financial support, especially from Li Hongzhang. However, the ships were not adequately maintained and discipline was also poor. Guards sometimes passed their time by gambling, doors between watertight bulkheads were left open, rubbish was disposed of in gun barrels and black powder was sold under the table and replaced by cocoa. On the Yalu River, a gun of a battleship had even been pawned by Admiral Ting.

Foreign opinions about Chinese and Japanese armed forces

The prevailing opinion in the West was that the modernized Chinese army and fleet would defeat the Japanese forces. Units such as the Anhui Army, which was part of the Beiyang Army, and the Beiyang Fleet were praised by Western observers. China was seen as militarily superior and the German General Staff also believed that Japan would lose. The British military adviser to the Chinese army, William Lang, was interviewed by Reuters. In it he praised the Chinese forces, training, modern ships, guns and equipment. He stated that "ultimately there was no doubt that Japan would break completely" and that Japan's defeat was preordained.