Qing War Research Paper

On August 1, 1894 Emperor Meiji of Japan issued an Imperial Rescript declaring war on China which marked the beginning of the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895. The idea of a low-ranked nation like Japan, challenging the much more respected power China, seemed unimaginable, much less for them to win the war. Shockingly, Japan was victorious from this war and proved to be a world power that should be feared through their tactics of imperialism and modern intelligence. Their overload of numbers and strategies overwhelmed Chinese officials to the point where they could not compete. The defeat of Qing China at the hands of Japan highlighted the weakness of the Chinese military and government while also accelerating the decline of the Qing dynasty.

During the 17th and 18th centuries, the Chinese and Japanese faced much internal conflict, but while China faced a combination of economic setbacks and political weakness, the Japanese were riddled with wars along their countryside. First, the Chinese emperor was too weak in comparison to his bureaucracy, which ended up making most of the decisions for the last Ming dynasty emperor. This was due to the emperor’s realization that having a title as Son

Japan’s location blocked it from being a seafaring nation as early as China. However, Japan benefitted from the isolation, as they didn’t undergo any foreign influence. China’s economy continued to grow during the Qing dynasty. Some regions of Qing China began to specialize in the manufacture or production of certain goods. Traders transported goods along canals and coastal waterways.

In 1984 the Sino-Japanese war happened. This war has significant influence for Chinese government, because this is the first time China were defeated by a non-western power, and Japan was consider as a weak “tiny” neighbor of China. China and the entire world was shocked by losing Sino-Japanese War. Losing Sino-Japanese War is a symbol that Qing Dynasty is going to perished, and the way that China lose is worth to study. Even though the westernization movement did not operated so well, but it still modernize and improve the Chinese military power. Especially Chinese marine has lots of modern warship and weapon, and China has more soldier than Japan. It is fair to say that China has enough army to fight with Japan. But, why Japanese win the Sino-Japanese War? Firstly, Chinese government did not realized that Japan dare to fight with China, so they did not prepare well. Secondly, Chinese government try to stop the war by diplomacy, they trying ask western countries for help, but, at the moment the western countries were stand for Japan. Last and most importantly, the old feudalism and bureaucracy made Chinese army lose the war. The commander of Chinese marine Li Hongzhang, who is also the leader of “westernization” party in the government. Because he is the commander of the marine, so he has authority in Qing government. He does not wants to fight with Japanese army, because if he lose his marine, he will also lose the

In the late 1890s, tensions between China and Japan were growing. China’s power was growing into the early 1900s as it converted to Nationalism. Japan felt the need to expand and conquer because they had been forced into the modern age by the United States, and they believed it was their destiny to exert government over other nations (Chang 23-24). The Japanese felt the need to do something before China became “too powerful to be conquered” (Chang 28-29). This put Japan on the path to war with China (Chang 25).

Japan wanted the U.S. to “restore the trade relations” so they would get the materials they needed to fight the war; but the U.S. cannot “hinder efforts for peace by both Japan and China”(Iriye 17). By forbidding the U.S. to do so, Japan would be able to freely do what they want to gain control of China because they were willing to do anything they could to build and expand their empire.

The real beginning of the tension between America and Japan began during WWI. In 1915, Japan issued “Twenty-One demands” to China’s government. These demands included giving Japan control over Chinese ports, increasing Japan’s leasehold on the South Manchuria Railway Zone for 99 years, handing over rights to settle and commercialize Manchuria and Inner Mongolia, give control of the Hanyeping mining complex to Japan, barring China to give any coastal or territorial concessions to foreign powers, excluding Japan.

Corruption was also throughout many aspects of the administration of the Qing Dynasty. Many officials increased their own personal fortunes by raising peasant’s taxes and by pocketing money, which was to be used for infrastructure, such as the river mitigation project.

China suffered the worst of the two nations after trying to stand up to European powers during the Opium Wars and the anti-western Boxer Rebellion. Japan, however, embraced foreign ideas and was able to prove itself to be a threatening world power after their war with Russia.

The Second Sino-Japanese war began on July 7th, 1937 and ended on September 9th, 1945. It was a military conflict which was fought between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. As part of the struggle against fascism, Japan invaded China. It is clear that, due to the restriction of its natural resources, Japan tried to increase by robbing resources from other countries. Japan used the conquered Manchuria as a launching base for their troops. Manchuria was an enormous region that consisted of three provinces- Liaoning in the south, Jilin in the middle and Heilongjiang in the north. In 1905, when Japan defeated Russia in the Russo-Japanese war, Russia, which used Manchuria for business and

When the Japanese modernized they made sure to keep their traditional values. According to document 1, in the timeline, after the Meiji Constitution was adopted, The Sino-Japanese War Began( in which Japan fought the Qing Dynasty over Taiwan and Korea(Doc 1, N.d, line 7). Japan won these territories and benefited from their resources. It wasn’t until 1904 Japan declared another war on Russia to protect and keep Korea for its resources( Alfred Stead, 1904, Doc 9). This was the first time any other country defeated a European imperialist country.

Between 1031 and 1937, the Japanese army had invaded Manchuria and created a demilitarized zone in east Hubei and a Mongolian puppet state around Charchar and fought with Chinese in Shanghai. Fumimaro Konoe became prime minister in mid-1937, but the army which had conducted the war largely independently had taken over many position within the government. In China, Chiang Kai Shek, realizing he would have little support from the Leauge of Nations, strengthened the relationship with Nazi Germany to improve his armies. And with war loaming, he had united many of the warlords and communists into a united front. But some like the Guangxi Clique and Shanxi ran virtually independent states. And Xin Jiang was in a state of war and under Soviet influence. Plus, after years of war, China’s army was left weak. But in early 1937, Japanese soldiers, who had conducted military exercises outside Beijing for decades, exchanged fire with Chinses soldiers. The Japanese army responded to this, the Marco Polo bridge incident, with a full-scale invasion without support from Konoe. Within month they quickly captured Beijing and Tianjin, crushed a mutiny in Hubei and continued South to

The treaty of Shimonoseki is an agreement that ended the Sino-Japanese war in 1895. This treaty lead the war between Qing Dynasty and Meiji Japan to Japan’s victory. The treaty was made to keep peace, however it also affect China negatively and other countries positively, especially Japan as the treaty was in favouritism of Japan (Treaty). The Treaty of Shimonoseki leaded China to become weaker as it's obliged to sign the contract, hence the country itself is no longer powerful as it loses its power to the Japanese. This allowed the Western countries such as Russia, France, and Germany to see opportunity to cooperate and take over Japan’s

The Sino-Japanese War was an event that shook the structure of East Asia’s traditional world order, one that for more than 2000 years had centered around China and its civilization. The war didn’t just take away China’s centrality, it was also the catalyst for Japan’s transformation into an imperialist power.

Both Japan and China lie in the East of Asia. ‪To a certain extent，Japan and China own similar culture background, in the Confucian Cultural Circle. But when we look back into the modern history development, Japan and China made quite different decisions when facing the western countries’ aggression. China suffered the invasion in 1840 after the first Sino-British War. Japan was in a similar situation in the black boat incident in 1853, the Opium War made the West began to pay attention to East Asia. From then on, Japan began to face the western culture. ‬The reactions, as well as the result of Japan and China were quite disparate. This article wants to discuss what lead to the difference. ‬‬