First Sino-Japanese War
During the second half of the 19th century, while China was reluctantly opening and modernizing, Japan’s modernization was going from zero to sixty. (That’s zero to 100, if you’re using the metric system.) Moving up in the world, the Japanese were eagerly looking beyond their island shores. They particularly turned their eye towards very close-by, resource-rich Korea, which had been under under China’s sphere of influence for centuries. Both within Korea and beyond, tensions had been increasing between China and Japan for decades. Japan knew that the Opium Wars had weakened China. Additionally, China’s modernization and reform movement, provoked by the Second Opium War, wasn’t going so hot, largely due to corruption and resistance. In the summer of 1894, tensions over Korea finally boiled over into war in Korea between China and Japan.
China was stunned by the advanced military power of the much smaller Japan. By fall, the Japanese had defeated the Chinese in Korea and invaded Manchuria, the homeland of the Qing Dynasty. In a preview of what was to come several decades later, Japanese imperial forces massacred thousands of civilians in the Manchurian port city of Port Arthur. (A Chinese city with an English name? Blame the Second Opium War.) By spring, the Japanese controlled maritime access to Beijing and Taiwan. In April of 1895, once again, the defeated Chinese signed a punishing treaty. Another enormous sum in war reparations was made. More ports were opened for trade. Japan was permitted to join the West in sailing up the Yangtze. Korea now fell under Japan’s influence. And Japan got Taiwan. But the biggest blow to China was one of prestige: Japan, a tiny island nation, was now considered the East’s dominant power.
In the next few years, the West took advantage of China’s weakened position. The Russian navy set up shop in Port Arthur once it had been relinquished by Japan. The German and French acquired various port cities. And the British took possession of additional territory adjacent to Hong Kong, as well as a northern port city. The 19th century, so brutal to China, finally came to an end. But the humiliation didn’t. And the next time, humiliation came from all directions.
[Historical information is primarily gathered from Wikipedia, so you know it must be true.]
It’s so weird to think a small island nation, like Japan, can dominate China so easily like that!
Japan is a powerhouse. And they were in a race to modernize, unlike Japan. But even so, it’s still hard to imagine.