Sino-Japanese War

Sino-Japanese War, war fought between China and Japan from 1894 to 1895. Provoked by a dispute over control of Korea, the Sino-Japanese War came to symbolize the degeneration and enfeeblement of the Qing dynasty. It demonstrated how successful modernization had been in Japan since the Meiji Restoration as compared with that in China. Japan feared Russian expansion into northern China and Korea, and sought foreign conquests in line with nationalistic Meiji ideology. Yi dynasty Korea sought to preserve its traditional seclusion and tributary relationship with China, which in turn strove to protect its principal vassal.

Since 1875 China had allowed Japan to recognize Korea as an independent state. Then, as China tried to reassert influence over its former tributary, this provoked rivalry with Japan and a split in Korean public opinion between modernizing reformists and inward-looking conservatives. In 1894 a pro-Japanese Korean reformist was assassinated in Shanghai and a Korean religious sect, the Tonghak, began a rebellion. The Korean government appealed to China for assistance and the Japanese encouraged Chinese intervention, only to send an expedition ostensibly in support of Korean reformists, reaching Seoul by June 8 and seizing the royal palace a fortnight later.

War was officially declared on August 1, 1894, although land and naval fighting had begun before that. The Japanese army defeated the Chinese in a series of battles around Seoul and Pyǒngyang, forcing them to retreat north. Further victories in Liaoning opened the way to China proper, and by November 21 the Japanese had taken Port Arthur (modern Luda). China's northern fleet was mauled by the Japanese navy off the mouth of the Yalu River, losing 8 out of 12 warships, retreated behind the fortifications of the Weihaiwei naval base, and was then caught by a surprise Japanese land attack across the Liaodong Peninsula which shattered the ships in harbour with shelling from the landward side. After Weihaiwei's fall on February 2 and an easing in harsh winter conditions, Japanese troops pressed their advance into Dongbei.

The Chinese were forced to sue for peace and sign the Treaty of Shimonoseki in April 1895. Though nominally recognized as a sovereign state, Korea effectively became a Japanese protectorate, and China had to cede Taiwan, the Liaodong Peninsula, and the Pescadores (now P'enghu Islands) to Japan “in perpetuity”. In addition, China had to pay a war indemnity of 200 million taels, and open four more treaty ports to external trade. In the so-called Triple Intervention, Russia, France, and Germany forced Japan to return the Liaodong Peninsula, but China was obliged to pay a further 30 million taels.

This outcome enraged Chinese students and intensified pressure for more radical modernization. Shortly afterwards Sun Yat-sen founded the revolutionary republican movement which later became the Kuomintang. The war also encouraged further Japanese encroachments on Chinese territory.