Sino-Japanese War

甲午戰爭

日清戦争

- Loss of territory for China

- Significant loss of prestige for the Qing Dynasty

**Sino-Japanese War (甲午戰爭/日清戦争)** was a war between Qing China and Japan between July 1884 to April 1885. The war began over the influence over Korea. Despite the Chinese losing the war, many argued that the war brought China back on it's feet and started a new China. At the end of the war, Japan had influence over Korea eventually annexing it after the Russo-Japanese War and control over Formosa or Taiwan.

## Prelude

### Conflicting Interests

The Korean peninsula had long been an interest to it's surrounding nation, China, Japan and Russia. In 1876, Japan forced Korea to open it's doors after losing a confrontation in the Ganghwa Treaty. Following this, Korea began reforming it's country similar to China and Japan at that time. It wasn't until 1880s when Korea became a particular concern to Japan when a German strategist called Korea "a dagger pointing towards the heart of Japan" and started influencing Korea. Despite this, it was not successful as the first half of the decade was plagued with peasent uprising and general unhappiness towards the government. In 1882, a crisis happened as food shortage and drought caused riots in instablity in Korea. In July, it had gotten worse with a mutiny within the military eventually managing to storm the royal palace. Due to this, China entered Korea with 4,800 soldiers effectively quelling the rebellion and ending the violence while also gaining influence over Korea. Since this, factional rivalry began to rise resulting in pro-Japan reformist starting the Gaspin Coup in 1884 but ended in disaster. Since the coup, Korea, China and Japan decided to sign the Convention of Tientsin which have to notify Japan if China was to move troops into Korea. Despite this, China and Japan still wanted Korea for their own and anti-Chinese sentiment grew in China after the Nagasaki Incident.

### Assassination of Kim Ok-gyun

In March of 1894, a pro-Japanese revolutionary Kim Ok-gyun was assassinated in the International Settlement of Shanghai. He was previously fled to Japan after involvement in the 1884 coup. He was eventually exiled to Bonin Islands but were lured to Shanghai and was killed at a Japanese Inn there. The local authority gave the body to China as they do not have a rule to extradict dead people. The body was then sent to Korea with the assassin. The assassination brought increasing anti-Chinese sentiment in Japan.

### Donghak Rebellion

In 1894, a peasant rebellion occurred in the Korea over oppressive taxation, leading to Korea to call in for Qing support. Qing then prompted to start their own intervention in May with mobilisation of troops and entering Korea in the same month. Japan had taken notice to this and claimed China violated the Convention of Tientsin by not informing Japan before hand. China denied this. Due to this, Japan started their own intervention in late June. They swiftly captured Souel, the Korean capital, and replaced the pro-Chinese court with a pro-Japanese court. Since the rebellion was largely suppressed, China was planning to leave anyway. The new Korean government demanded China to leave immediately. However, China deemed the new pro-China government as illegittement eventually leading to the war between China and Japan.

## War

### Battle of Korea

The Japanese quickly expelled the Chinese forces from southern Korea. Official war was declared there after, and the Japanese navy quickly the fleet carrying reinforcements to Pyongyang, and soon the Chinese fled north out of Korea. The Japanese quickly took Korea, moving north to the Yalu river, however Japan lacked proper supply lines and equipment to wage a full on land war, and the modernized Chinese army successfully held Japan at the river, preventing Japan from entering Manchuria. The winter threatened to freeze the Japanese offensive, and so the Japanese would need to threaten Peking in order to force the Chinese into a treaty.

### Threats to Peking

The Japanese launched an invasion of the fort at Weihaiwei. This battle lead to the destruction of the Chinese navy, and eventually the fall of the city. However this event did not deter the Chinese, who quickly surrounded the area, and prepared to hold the Yellow river should the Japanese march north. However the Japanese could now Navally threaten Tientsin, and therefore Peking.

The Japanese seeking to further deter the Chinese, and now with almost full naval superiority, then invaded the Penghu islands in March of 1895, quickly taking the islands. This lead to a panic in the southern provinces, who feared the Japanese would attempt to take another city further south. Meanwhile at the Yalu river, the winter was coming to an end, and Chinese numbers were low, thus the Qing court called upon reinforcements to hold the river. However the Southern lords refused, fearing possible Japanese attacks in the south, and soon thereafter Chinese logistics began to fall apart.

In April, the Japanese broke the stalemate at the Yalu river, and crossed north, before taking Mukden. The Chinese government seeing that Japan was now able to push for Peking from two sides sued for peace, ending in the Treaty of Shimonoseki.

## Ending

### Treaty of Shimonoseki

The Treaty of Shimonoseki was signed in April of 1895. It forced China to recognize total independence of Korea, and cede Taiwan, the Penghu islands, and Sahaliyan. For Japan this war had shown the fruits of the Meiji Restoration, and had expanded the Japanese Empire further then it had ever been before, however the war had been costly, and Chinese reparations were not enough to fully recover from the economic losses, let alone the manpower loses. As for China, the war had highlighted the corruption and inefficiency of the militaries and navies regional administration system, and this event would lead China down the path of rebirth, as two years later, the 100 days reforms would begin, fixing to solve the issues the plagued the Chinese army and navy, and build upon the base that had been built after the second Anglo-Chinese war, making the final step into Modernization.