During the brief Japanese occupation of Taiwan in 1874, tensions heightened between China and Japan, and the possibility of war impressed on the Japanese government the need to reinforce its navy. The following year the government placed an order for the armored frigate and the "Kongō"-class corvettes "Kongō" and "Hiei"—with British shipyards as no Japanese shipyard was able to build ships of this size. All three ships were designed by British naval architect Sir Edward Reed,