First Sino-Japanese War

The First Sino-Japanese War (1 August 1894 â€" 17 April 1895) was fought between Qing Dynasty China and Meiji Japan, primarily over control of Korea. After more than six months of unbroken successes by the Japanese land and naval forces, as well as the loss of the Chinese port of Weihai, the Qing leadership sued for peace in February 1895.

The war clearly demonstrated the failure of the Qing dynasty's attempts to modernize its military and fend off threats to its sovereignty, especially compared with Japan's successful post-Meiji restoration For the first time, regional dominance in East Asia shifted from China to Japan; the prestige of the Qing Dynasty, along with the classical tradition in China, suffered a major blow. The humiliating loss of Korea as a vassal state sparked an unprecedented public outcry. Within China, the defeat was a catalyst for a series of political upheavals led by Sun Yat-Sen and Kang Youwei, culminating in the 1911 Revolution.

The war is commonly known in China as the War of Jiawu (simplified Chinese: ç"²åˆæˆ˜äº‰; traditional Chinese: ç"²åˆæˆ°çˆ­; pinyin: JiÇŽwÇ" ZhànzhÄ"ng), referring to the year (1894) as named under the traditional sexagenary system of years. In Japan, it is called the Japanâ€"Qing War (Nisshin sensō (日清戦争)); and in Korea, where much of the war took place, it is called the Qing-Japan War (Korean: 청일전쟁; Hanja:淸日戰爭).

Background

After two centuries, the Japanese policy of seclusion under the shoguns of the Edo period came to an end when the country was forced open to trade by United States intervention in 1854. The years following the Meiji Restoration of 1868 and the fall of the Shogunate had seen Japan transform itself from a feudal society into a modern industrial state. The Japanese had sent delegations and students around the world to learn and assimilate western arts and sciences, with the intention of making Japan an equal to the Western powers. Korea continued to try to exclude foreigners, refusing embassies from foreign countries and firing on ships near its shores. At the start of the war, Japan had the benefit of three decades of reform, leaving Korea backward and vulnerable.

Conflict over Korea

As a newly risen power, Japan turned its attention toward its neighbor Korea. In the interest of its security, Japan wanted to block any other power from annexing or dominating Korea, or at least to ensure Korea's effective independence, resolving to end the centuries-old Chinese suzerainty. As Prussian advisor Major Klemens Meckel put it to the Japanese army, Korea was "a dagger pointed at the heart of Japan". Moreover, Japan realized the potential economic benefits of Korea's coal and iron ore deposits for Japan's growing industrial base, and of Korea's agricultural exports to feed the growing Japanese population.

On February 27, 1876, after several confrontations between Korean isolationists and Japanese, Japan imposed the Japanâ€"Korea Treaty of 1876, forcing Korea open to Japanese trade. Similar treaties were signed between Korea and other nations.

Korea had traditionally been a tributary state of China's Qing Dynasty, which exerted large influence over the conservative Korean officials gathered around the royal family of the Joseon Dynasty. Opinion in Korea itself was split: conservatives wanted to retain the traditional relationship under China, while reformists wanted to approach Japan and western nations. After two Opium Wars against the British in 1839 and 1856, and the Sino-French War, China was unable to resist the encroachment of western powers (see Unequal Treaties). Japan saw the opportunity to take China's place in the strategically vital Korea.

1882 crisis

In 1882, the Korean peninsula experienced a severe drought which led to food shortages, causing much hardship and discord among the population. Korea was on the verge of bankruptcy, even falling months behind on military pay, causing deep resentment among the soldiers. On July 23, a military mutiny and riot broke out in Seoul in which troops, assisted by the population, sacked the rice granaries. The next morning, the crowd attacked the royal palace and barracks, then the Japanese legation. The Japanese legation staff managed to escape to Chemulpo and then Nagasaki via the British survey ship HMS Flying Fish.

In response, Japan sent four warships and a battalion of troops to Seoul to safeguard Japanese interests and demand reparations. The Chinese then deployed 4,500 troops to counter the Japanese. However, tensions subsided with the Treaty of Chemulpo, signed on the evening of August 30, 1882. The agreement specified that the Korean conspirators would be punished and 50,000 yen would be paid to the families of slain Japanese. The Japanese government would also receive 500,000 yen, a formal apology, and permission to station troops at their diplomatic legation in Seoul.

Gapsin Coup

In 1884, a group of pro-Japanese reformers briefly overthrew the pro-Chinese conservative Korean government in a bloody coup d'état. However, the pro-Chinese faction, with assistance from Chinese troops under General Yuan Shikai, succeeded in regaining control in an equally bloody counter-coup. These coups resulted not only in the deaths of a number of reformers, but also in the burning of the Japanese legation and the deaths of several legation guards and citizens. This caused a crisis between Japan and China, which was eventually settled by the Sino-Japanese Convention of Tientsin of 1885, in which the two sides agreed to: (a) pull their expeditionary forces out of Korea simultaneously; (b) not send military trainers to the Korean military; and (c) give warning to the other side should one decide to send troops to Korea. Chinese and Japanese troops then left, and diplomatic relations were restored between Japan and Korea.

However, the Japanese were frustrated by repeated Chinese attempts to undermine their influence in Korea. Yuan Shikai remained set as "Chinese Resident", in what the Chinese intended as a sort of Viceroy role directing Korean affairs. He attempted to encourage Chinese and hinder Japanese trade, though Japan remained Korea's largest trading partner, and his government provided Korea with loans. The Chinese built telegraphs linking Korea to the Chinese network.

Nagasaki Incident

The Nagasaki Incident was a riot in Nagasaki caused by Qing Dynasty Beiyang Fleet soldiers in the port city in 1886. Several Japanese policemen confronting the rioters were killed. After the incident, the Qing refused apologies, confident in the superiority of their navy. This included the Chinese turret ship Dingyuan, a relatively modern pre-dreadnought battleship built in Germany. The Japanese navy lacked battleships, and the Dingyuan had a heavier tonnage than the most modern Japanese cruisers of the time. (The Dingyuan was eventually scuttled after the Battle of Weihaiwei.) Japan's setback during the Gapsin Coup, in which 400 Japanese soldiers had been driven off by 2000 Qing soldiers, was still recent and fresh.

The Qing Government claimed that the Japanese had attacked the Chinese, and had injured many Qing soldiers who were bringing presents to Nagasaki, but had been left to the mob by Japanese authorities.

Bean Controversy

A poor harvest in 1889 caused a governor of Korea's Hamgyong province to prohibit soybean exports to Japan. Japan requested and received compensation in 1893 for their importers. The incident highlighted the growing dependence Japan felt on Korean food imports.

Kim Ok-gyun affair

On March 28, 1894, a pro-Japanese Korean revolutionary, Kim Ok-gyun, was assassinated in Shanghai. Kim had fled to Japan after his involvement in the 1884 coup and the Japanese had turned down Korean demands that he be extradited. Ultimately, he was lured to Shanghai, where he was killed by a fellow Korean, Hong Jong-u, at a Japanese inn in the international settlement. His body was then taken aboard a Chinese warship and sent back to Korea, where it was quartered and displayed as a warning to other rebels. The Japanese government took this as an outrageous affront.

Tonghak Rebellion

Tension was high by June 1894, but war was not yet inevitable. A rebellion in Korea caused the Korean king to request Chinese troops on June 4 to aid in suppressing the Tonghak Rebellion. The rebellion proved not to be as formidable as initially thought, and the Chinese troops were not required, but the Chinese government sent General Yuan Shikai as its plenipotentiary at the head of 2,800 troops. According to the Japanese, the Chinese government violated the Convention of Tientsin by not informing the Japanese government of its decision to send troops, though the Chinese claimed that Japan had approved this. The Japanese countered by sending their own 8,000-man expeditionary force (the Oshima Composite Brigade) to Korea. The first 400 troops arrived on June 9 en route to Seoul, and 3000 landed at Inchon on June 12.

However, Japanese officials denied any intention to intervene. As a result, the key Chinese official Li Hongzhang "was lured into believing that Japan would not wage war, whereas Tokyo was fully prepared to act." Japan requested that China and Japan co-operate to reform the Korean government, which China refused. Korea requested that Japan withdraw its troops, which Japan refused.

In early June 1894, the Japanese force of 8,000 seized the Korean king, occupied the Royal Palace in Seoul, and by June 25 replaced the existing government with members of the pro-Japanese faction. Though Chinese troops were already leaving Korea, finding themselves unneeded there, the new pro-Japanese Korean government granted Japan the right to expel the Chinese troops forcibly, while Japan shipped more troops to Korea. China rejected the new government as illegitimate, and war loomed.

Status of combatants

Japan

Japan's reforms under the Meiji emperor gave priority to the creation of an effective modern national army and navy, especially ship-building. Japan sent numerous military officials abroad for training and evaluation of the relative strengths and tactics of European armies and navies.

Imperial Japanese Navy

The Imperial Japanese Navy was modeled after the British Royal Navy, at the time the foremost naval power. British advisors were sent to Japan to train the naval establishment, while Japanese students were in turn sent to the United Kingdom to study and observe the Royal Navy. Through drilling and tuition by Royal Navy instructors, Japan developed naval officers expert in the arts of gunnery and seamanship.

At the start of hostilities, the Imperial Japanese Navy comprised a fleet of 12 modern warships, (Izumi being added during the war), the frigate Takao, 22 torpedo boats, and numerous auxiliary/armed merchant cruisers and converted liners.

Japan did not yet have the resources to acquire battleships and so planned to employ the Jeune École doctrine which favoured small, fast warships, especially cruisers and torpedo boats, with guns powerful enough to destroy larger craft.

Many of Japan’s major warships were built in British and French shipyards (eight British, three French and two Japanese-built) and 16 of the torpedo boats were known to have been built in France and assembled in Japan.

Imperial Japanese Army

The Meiji era government at first modeled their army on the French. French advisers had been sent to Japan with two military missions (in 1872â€"1880 and 1884, in addition to one mission under the shogunate. Nationwide conscription was enforced in 1873 and a western-style conscript army was established; military schools and arsenals were also built.

In 1886, Japan turned toward the German (Prussian) model as the basis for its army, adopting German doctrines, military system and organisation. In 1885 Jakob Meckel, a German adviser, implemented new measures, such as the reorganization of the command structure into divisions and regiments; the strengthening of army logistics, transportation, and structures (thereby increasing mobility); and the establishment of artillery and engineering regiments as independent commands.

By the 1890s, Japan had at its disposal a modern, professionally trained western-style army which was relatively well equipped and supplied. Its officers had studied in Europe and were well educated in the latest tactics and strategy. By the start of the war, the Imperial Japanese Army could field a total force of 120,000 men in two armies and five divisions.

China

The Beiyang Forces â€" army and fleet â€" were the best equipped and symbolized the modernized Chinese military, but suffered from corruption. Military leaders and officials systematically embezzled funds, even during the war. As a result, the Beiyang Fleet did not purchase any battleships after its establishment in 1888. The purchase of ammunition stopped in 1891, with the funding diverted to build the Summer Palace in Beijing. Logistics were lacking, as construction of railroads in Manchuria had been discouraged. Chinese army morale was generally very low due to lack of pay, low prestige, use of opium, and the poor leadership which had contributed to defeats such as the abandonment of the very well-fortified and defensible Weihaiwei.

Beiyang Army

Qing Dynasty China did not have a national army. Following the Taiping Rebellion the army had been segregated into separate Manchu, Mongol, Hui (Muslim) and Han Chinese armies, which were further divided into largely independent regional commands. The war was fought largely by the Beiyang Fleet and the Beiyang Army, which consisted of the Huai and Anhwei armies. Pleas for help to other Chinese armies and navies were ignored due to regional rivalry.

Qing Muslim General Zuo Baogui (左寶貴) (1837â€"1894), from Shandong province, died in action in Pyongyang, Korea from Japanese artillery in 1894 while securing the city. A memorial to him was constructed.

Another General, Ma Yu-kun, who commanded a separate unit, was said by the Europeans to be the son of the Muslim General Ma Rulong. Ma Yu-kun fought with some success against Japan at Pyongyang during the war, and later went on to fight in the Boxer Rebellion.

Beiyang Fleet

The Beiyang Fleet was one of the four modernised Chinese navies in the late Qing Dynasty. The navies were heavily sponsored by Li Hongzhang, the Viceroy of Zhili. The Beiyang Fleet was the dominant navy in East Asia before the first Sino-Japanese War. However, ships were not maintained properly and indiscipline was common. Sentries spent their time gambling, watertight doors were left open, rubbish was dumped in gun barrels and gunpowder for explosive shells was sold and replaced with cocoa. At the Yalu river, a battleship had one of its guns pawned by Admiral Ting .

13 or so torpedo boats, numerous Gunboats and chartered merchant vessels

Foreign opinions of Chinese and Japanese forces

The prevailing view in the West was that the modernized Chinese forces would crush the Japanese. Observers commended Chinese units like the Anhui Army and Beiyang Fleet.

The German General Staff predicted Japanese defeat. William Lang, a British advisor to the Chinese military, praised Chinese training, ships, guns, and fortifications, stating that "in the end, there is no doubt that Japan must be utterly crushed".

Contemporaneous wars being fought by China

At the same time China was fighting the First Sino Japanese War, other parts of the Chinese army were fighting in the Dungan revolt (1895â€"1896) against rebels in Northwestern China, in which thousands were killed.

Generals Dong Fuxiang, Ma Anliang and Ma Haiyan were originally called to Beijing with their Muslim troops during the First Sino-Japanese War in 1894, but the Dungan Revolt (1895) broke out and they were subsequently sent to crush the rebels.

Early stages of the war

1 June 1894 : The Tonghak Rebel Army moves toward Seoul. The Korean government requests help from the Chinese government to suppress the revolt.

6 June 1894: Approximately 2,465 Chinese soldiers are transported to Korea to suppress the Revolt. Japan asserts that it was not notified and thus China has violated the Convention of Tientsin, which requires that China and Japan must notify each other before intervening in Korea. China asserts that Japan was notified and approved of Chinese intervention.

8 June 1894: First of approximately 4,000 Japanese soldiers and 500 marines land at Jemulpo (Incheon).

11 June 1894: End of Tonghak Rebellion.

13 June 1894: The Japanese government telegraphs the commander of the Japanese forces in Korea, ÅŒtori Keisuke, to remain in Korea for as long as possible despite the end of the rebellion.

16 June 1894: Japanese Foreign Minister Mutsu Munemitsu meets with Wang Fengzao, Chinese ambassador to Japan, to discuss the future status of Korea. Wang states that the Chinese government intends to pull out of Korea after the rebellion has been suppressed and expects Japan to do the same. However, China retains a resident to look after Chinese primacy in Korea.

22 June 1894: Additional Japanese troops arrive in Korea. Japanese Prime Minister Itō Hirobumi tells Matsukata Masayoshi that since the Qing appear to be making military preparations, there is probably "no policy but to go to war." Mutsu tells Ōtori to press the Korean government on the Japanese demands.

26 June 1894: ÅŒtori presents a set of reform proposals to Korean King Gojong, which his government rejects and in return insists on troop withdrawals.

7 July 1894: Failure of mediation between China and Japan arranged by the British ambassador to China.

19 July 1894: Establishment of the Japanese Combined Fleet, consisting of almost all vessels in the Imperial Japanese Navy. Mutsu cables ÅŒtori to take any necessary steps to compel the Korean government to carry out a reform program.

23 July 1894: Japanese troops enter Seoul, seize the Korean king and establish a new pro-Japanese government, which terminates all Sino-Korean treaties and grants the Imperial Japanese Army the right to expel the Chinese Beiyang Army from Korea.

25 July 1894: First battle of the war Battle of Pungdo / Hoto-oki kaisen

Events during the war

Opening moves

By July 1894 Chinese forces in Korea numbered 3000â€"3500 and were outnumbered by Japan. They could only be supplied by sea through the Bay of Asan. The Japanese objective was first to blockade the Chinese at Asan (south of Seoul, South Korea) and then encircle them with their land forces.

Sinking of the Kow-shing

On 25 July 1894, the cruisers Yoshino, Naniwa and Akitsushima of the Japanese flying squadron, which had been patrolling off Asan, encountered the Chinese cruiser Tsi-yuan and gunboat Kwang-yi. These vessels had steamed out of Asan to meet the transport Kow-shing, escorted by the Chinese gunboat Tsao-kiang. After an hour-long engagement, the Tsi-yuan escaped while the Kwang-yi grounded on rocks, where its powder-magazine exploded.

The Kow-shing was a 2,134-ton British merchant vessel owned by the Indochina Steam Navigation Company of London, commanded by Captain T. R. Galsworthy and crewed by 64 men. The ship was chartered by the Qing government to ferry troops to Korea, and was on her way to reinforce Asan with 1,200 troops plus supplies and equipment. A German artillery officer, Major von Hanneken, advisor to the Chinese, was also aboard. The ship was due to arrive on 25 July.

The cruiser Naniwa, under Captain Tōgō Heihachirō, intercepted the Kow-shing and captured its escort. The Japanese then ordered the Kow-shing to follow Naniwa and directed that Europeans be transferred to Naniwa. However the 1,200 Chinese on board, desperate to return to Taku, threatened to kill the English captain, Galsworthy, and his crew. After four hours of negotiations, Captain Togo gave the order to fire upon the vessel. A torpedo missed, but a subsequent broadside hit the Kow Shing, which started to sink.

In the confusion, some of the Europeans escaped overboard, only to be fired upon by the Chinese. The Japanese rescued three of the 43 crew (the captain, first officer and quartermaster) and a German passenger, and took them to Japan; the rest died in the sinking. The sinking of the Kow-shing almost caused a diplomatic incident between Japan and Great Britain, but the action was ruled in conformity with international law regarding the treatment of mutineers (the Chinese troops).

Japanese ships did not assist in rescue, and an estimated 900 Chinese died in the sinking. However, the German gunboat Iltis rescued 150 Chinese, the French gunboat Le Lion rescued 43, and the British Cruiser HMS Porpoise rescued an unknown number.

Conflict in Korea

Commissioned by the new pro-Japanese Korean government to forcibly expel Chinese forces, Major-General ÅŒshima Yoshimasa led mixed Japanese brigades numbering about 4,000 on a rapid forced march from Seoul south toward Asan Bay to face 3,500 Chinese troops garrisoned at Seonghwan Station east of Asan and Kongju.

On 28 July 1894, the two forces met just outside Asan in an engagement that lasted till 0730 hours the next morning. The Chinese gradually lost ground to the superior Japanese numbers, and finally broke and fled towards Pyongyang. Chinese casualties amounted to 500 killed and wounded, compared to 82 Japanese casualties.

On 1 August, war was officially declared between China and Japan.

By 4 August, the remaining Chinese forces in Korea retreated to the northern city of Pyongyang, where they were met by troops sent from China. The 13,000â€"15,000 defenders made defensive repairs to the city, hoping to check the Japanese advance.

On 15 September, the Imperial Japanese Army converged on the city of Pyongyang from several directions. The Japanese assaulted the city and eventually defeated the Chinese by an attack from the rear; the defenders surrendered. Taking advantage of heavy rainfall overnight, the remaining Chinese troops escaped Pyongyang and headed northeast toward the coastal city of Uiju. Casualties were 2,000 killed and around 4,000 wounded for the Chinese, while the Japanese lost 102 men killed, 433 wounded, 33 missing. In the early morning of 16 September, the entire Japanese army entered Pyongyang.

Defeat of the Beiyang fleet

On September 17, 1894, Japanese warships encountered the larger Chinese Beiyang Fleet off the mouth of the Yalu River. The Imperial Japanese Navy destroyed eight out of the ten Chinese warships, assuring Japan's command of the Yellow Sea. The Chinese were able to land 4,500 troops near the Yalu River.

The Battle of the Yalu River was the largest naval engagement of the war and was a major propaganda victory for Japan.

Invasion of Manchuria

With the defeat at Pyongyang, the Chinese abandoned northern Korea and instead took up defensive positions in fortifications along their side of the Yalu River near Jiuliancheng. After receiving reinforcements by 10 October, the Japanese quickly pushed north toward Manchuria.

On the night of 24 October 1894, the Japanese successfully crossed the Yalu River, undetected, by erecting a pontoon bridge. The following afternoon of 25 October at 5:00 pm, they assaulted the outpost of Hushan, east of Jiuliancheng. At 10:30 pm the defenders deserted their positions and by the next day they were in full retreat from Jiuliancheng. With the capture of Jiuliancheng, General Yamagata's 1st Army Corps occupied the nearby city of Dandong, while to the north, elements of the retreating Beiyang Army set fire to the city of Fengcheng. The Japanese had established a firm foothold on Chinese territory with the loss of only four killed and 140 wounded.

The Japanese 1st Army Corps then split into two groups with General Nozu Michitsura's 5th Provincial Division advancing toward the city of Mukden (now Shenyang, China) and Lieutenant General Katsura Tarō's 3rd Provincial Division pursuing fleeing Chinese forces west along toward the Liaodong Peninsula.

By December the 3rd Provincial Division had captured the towns of Ta-tung-kau, Ta-ku-shan, Xiuyan, Tomu-cheng, Hai-cheng and Kang-wa-seh. The 5th Provincial Division marched during a severe Manchurian winter towards Mukden.

The Japanese 2nd Army Corps under ÅŒyama Iwao landed on the south coast of Liaodong Peninsula on 24 October and quickly moved to capture Kin-chow and Talienwan on 6â€"7 November. The Japanese laid siege to the strategic port of Lushunkou.

Fall of Lüshunkou

By 21 November 1894, the Japanese had taken the city of Lüshunkou (Port Arthur). Furious over Chinese massacre, torture and mutilation of captured wounded Japanese soldiers, the Japanese army massacred thousands of the city's civilian Chinese inhabitants in an event that came to be called the Port Arthur Massacre (note that the scale and nature of the killing continues to be debated). By 10 December 1894, Kaipeng (modern-day Gaixian) fell to the Japanese 1st Army Corps.

Fall of Weihaiwei

The Chinese fleet subsequently retreated behind the Weihaiwei fortifications. However, they were then surprised by Japanese ground forces, who outflanked the harbor's defenses in coordination with the navy. The battle of Weihaiwei would be a 23-day siege with the major land and naval components taking place between 20 January and 12 February 1895.

After Weihaiwei's fall on 12 February 1895, and an easing of harsh winter conditions, Japanese troops pressed further into southern Manchuria and northern China. By March 1895 the Japanese had fortified posts that commanded the sea approaches to Beijing. This would be the last major battle to be fought; numerous skirmishes would follow. The Battle of Yinkou was fought outside the port town of Yingkou, Manchuria, on 5 March 1895.

Occupation of the Pescadores Islands

On 23 March 1895, Japanese forces attacked the Pescadores Islands, off the west coast of Taiwan. In a brief and almost bloodless campaign the Japanese defeated the islands' Qing garrison and occupied the main town of Makung. This operation effectively prevented Chinese forces in Taiwan from being reinforced, and allowed the Japanese to press their demand for the cession of Taiwan in the negotiations leading to the conclusion of the Treaty of Shimonoseki in April 1895.

End of the war

The Treaty of Shimonoseki was signed on 17 April 1895. China recognized the total independence of Korea and ceded the Liaodong Peninsula (in the south of the present day Liaoning Province), Taiwan and the Penghu Islands to Japan "in perpetuity". The disputed islands known as "Senkaku / Diaoyu" islands were not named by this treaty, but Japan annexed these uninhabited islands to Okinawa prefecture in 1895. China asserts this move was taken independently of the treaty ending the war, and Japan asserts that they were implied as part of the cession of Taiwan.

Additionally, China was to pay Japan 200 million Kuping taels as reparation. China also signed a commercial treaty permitting Japanese ships to operate on the Yangtze River, to operate manufacturing factories in treaty ports and to open four more ports to foreign trade. The Triple Intervention, however, forced Japan to give up the Liaodong Peninsula in exchange for another 30 million Kuping taels (450 million yen).

After the war, according to the Chinese scholar, Jin Xide, the Qing government paid a total of 34,000,000 taels ( 13,600 tons ) of silver to Japan for both the reparations of war and war trophies. This was equivalent to (then) 510,000,000 Japanese yen, about 6.4 times the Japanese government revenue.

Japanese invasion of Taiwan

Several Qing officials in Taiwan resolved to resist the cession of Taiwan to Japan under the Treaty of Shimonoseki, and on 23 May declared the island to be an independent Republic of Formosa. On 29 May Japanese forces under Admiral Motonori Kabayama landed in northern Taiwan, and in a five-month campaign defeated the Republican forces and occupied the island's main towns. The campaign effectively ended on 21 October 1895, with the flight of Liu Yung-fu, the second Republican president, and the surrender of the Republican capital Tainan.

Aftermath

Japan had achieved its main goal of ending Chinese influence over Korea. The Japanese success during the war was the result of the modernization and industrialization embarked upon two decades earlier. The war demonstrated the superiority of Japanese tactics and training as a result of the adoption of a Western-style military. The Imperial Japanese Army and navy were able to inflict a string of defeats on the Chinese through foresight, endurance, strategy and power of organization. The victory raised Japanese prestige worldwide and established Japan as the dominant power in Asia.

For China, the war revealed the ineffectiveness of its policies and the corruption of the Qing administration. Traditionally, China viewed Japan as a subordinate part of the Chinese cultural sphere. Although Qing China had been defeated by European powers in the 19th century, defeat at the hands of an Asian power and a former tributary state was a bitter blow. Anti-foreign sentiment and agitation grew and would culminate in the Boxer Rebellion five years later. The Manchu population was devastated by the fighting during the First Sino-Japanese War and the Boxer Rebellion, with massive casualties sustained during the wars and subsequently being driven into extreme suffering and hardship in Beijing and northeast China.

The European powers (Russia especially), while having no objection to the other clauses of the treaty, felt that Japan's control of Port Arthur would threaten their own ambitions. Russia persuaded Germany and France to join her in the Triple Intervention of 23 April 1895, applying diplomatic pressure which forced the Japanese to relinquish (Port Arthur) and the Liaodong Peninsula in exchange for an increased financial indemnity.

Japan succeeded in eliminating Chinese influence over Korea, but ironically, it was Russia which reaped the benefits. Korea proclaimed itself the Korean Empire, announcing its independence from China. The Japanese-sponsored Gabo (or Kabo) reforms of 1894-1896 transformed Korea: legal slavery was abolished in all forms; the yangban class lost all special privileges; outcastes were abolished; legal and social equality were established; child marriage was abolished; Hangul script was to be used in government documents; Korean history was introduced in schools; the Ming calendar was replaced with the western (common era); education was expanded and new textbooks written.

In 1895, a pro-Russian official tried to abduct the Korean king to the Russian legation. This failed, but a second attempt succeeded, and for a year the King reigned from the Russian legation in Seoul. The concession to build a Seoul-Inchon railway, which had been granted to Japan in 1894, was revoked and granted to Russia. Russians guarded the king in his palace even after he left the Russian legation.

In 1898, Russia signed a 25-year lease on the Liaodong Peninsula and proceeded to set up a naval station at Port Arthur. Although this infuriated Japan, it was more concerned with Russian encroachment in Korea than in Manchuria. Other powers, such as France, Germany and Great Britain, gained expanded port and trade concessions from the decaying Qing Empire. Tsingtao and Kiaochow were acquired by Germany, Kwang-Chou-Wan by France and Weihaiwei by Great Britain.

Tensions between Russia and Japan would increase in the years after the First Sino-Japanese war. During the Boxer Rebellion an eight-member international force was sent to suppress and quell the uprising; Russia sent troops into Manchuria as part of this force. After the suppression of the Boxers the Russian government agreed to vacate the area, but by 1903 it had actually increased its forces in Manchuria. Over 1901â€"1904, Russia intentionally stalled negotiations with Japan on recognizing their respective spheres of influence, Russia over Manchuria and Japan over Korea. Russia felt strong enough to eschew compromise, and believed Japan would not dare go to war against a European power. Russia also had intentions on Manchuria as a springboard for further expansion in the Far East. In 1903, Russian soldiers began construction of a fort at Yongnampo, but stopped after Japanese protests.

In 1902, Japan formed an alliance with Britain stating that if Japan went to war in the Far East and a third power entered the fight against Japan, then Britain would come to Japan's aid. This was a check to prevent either Germany or France from intervening in any future war with Russia: Japan sought to prevent a repetition of the Triple Intervention that deprived her of Port Arthur. The British reasons for joining the alliance were to check the spread of Russian expansion into the Pacific, to free Britain's hand to act in other areas, and to gain a powerful naval ally in the Pacific.

Japan felt increasingly threatened by Russia's drive to dominate Korea, and the rising tensions eventually erupted in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904â€"05.

In popular culture

The events of the First Sino-Japanese War are depicted or fictionalised in films and television series such as Mga Bakas ng Dugo sa Kapirasong Lupa, Empress Myeongseong (2001), The Sword with No Name (2009), Saka no Ue no Kumo (2009), The Sino-Japanese War at Sea 1894 (2012) and Deng Shichang: The Martyr.