The Qing Dynasty was the last feudal dynasty in our country, which has a very special significance for the history of our country, and many battles broke out in this calamitous dynasty, because these battles set a precedent for China to quell the war by paying indemnities for land cession, which is also the greatest shame in the history of the Chinese nation, especially the Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese War that broke out at the end of the Qing Dynasty.
Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese War broke out on July 25, 1894, this battle not only had a very great impact on China and Japan, but also had a fierce impact on the pattern of the entire Southeast Asia, in the previous thousands of years of rule, China has always belonged to a relatively leading ruler position in East Asia, but after the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War, China lost to Japan, the Beiyang Marine Division was completely destroyed, and the status of China and Japan was quickly reversed. Originally the ninth navy in Asia, the Beiyang Marine Division became the greatest shame of the Qing Dynasty, and even because of the defeat of this war, it signed the Maguan Treaty, which humiliated the country.
At the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese War, the whole world was undergoing earth-shaking changes, the industrial power of the time Britain began to decline, the United States seized the opportunity at this time to rise rapidly to catch up with the old capitalist country Of england, and as for other countries in Europe, including the German Empire, etc., are just established in the embryonic stage, but one by one is very bad, during this period these modern capitalist countries have rapidly developed and risen This boom has spread to Asia. This includes Japan.
In 1868, Japan began the Meiji Restoration, this reform movement made Japan not only transform into a capitalist country, but also rapidly rose to become one of the world's largest capitalist powers, but Japan faced a very fatal problem, that is, its own resources are difficult to meet the speed of national development, to know that Japan is an island country, the land area is very limited, the resources are scarce, and the market is small.
This was a very large slow-selling effect on the development of Japan at that time, so the emperor led other rulers of the country to aim at the development of Japan to foreign expansion, so in 1887 the Japanese emperor formulated a set of Qingguo conquest strategy, which was actually a clear and clear combat strategy for invading China, which could also see the terrible ambitions of the Japanese.
At that time, the Japanese planned to start this campaign from Taiwan, first conquer Taiwan and then annex Korea, and finally occupy China, and even want to conquer all of Asia in the end, dominate the world and rise through the Meiji Restoration, Japan, at that time not only had this ambition, but also had this strength, let's look at the Qing Dynasty at the same time.
At that time, it was the late Qing Dynasty, but since the 1860s and 1870s, the Qing Dynasty has erupted a self-help movement, and the Westerners have set off a movement with the slogan of self-improvement and seeking prosperity, which is the first effort made by China for the development of the country's modern industry.
But in fact, this is just a return to the light of the Qing Dynasty, even if science and technology and military equipment are learned like Western society, but China at that time still could not get rid of the poison of feudal rule, the Qing Dynasty ruling class was corrupt and extravagant, the life of the lower classes was difficult, the country's internal and external troubles, at that time in East Asia, China and Japan were two completely different scenes, China was like an elderly man who returned to the light, and Japan was like a newborn and vigorous teenager, and it was in this context that the Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese War broke out.
After all, we know that the Japanese war of aggression has always been grandiose, and when Emperor Mukijin ascended the throne in 1867, he had the intention of expanding overseas, until 1871, when China and Japan signed the first reconciliation treaty, which stipulated that the two countries should live in peace and respect each other's territorial integrity.
But obviously the Japanese did not put this treaty in their eyes but still set their sights on the invasion of China, the Japanese will be this war, with the Ryukyu as a springboard, ready for a full outbreak, in 18714 Ryukyu refugees were killed by the Taiwanese mountain tribes became the fuse for the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese War, when the Qing Officials were confused, blamed each other, decay, it was this attitude that allowed the Japanese to use this as an excuse to attack the island of Taiwan. This is also the first time in modern history that Japan has carried out a real armed invasion of China, but there was still a certain disparity in the strength of Japan and China at that time.
As the saying goes, the skinny camel is bigger than the horse, the last years of the Qing Dynasty belonged to this situation, coupled with the relatively weak combat experience of Japan at that time, and the unfamiliarity with the terrain of Taiwan and the phenomenon of many soldiers appearing to be dissatisfied with the water and soil, japan lost to China in this war, and then the United States and Britain operated behind the scenes, so that Japan extorted 500,000 taels of silver from China, forcing the Qing Dynasty to admit that the Japanese army invaded Taiwan to defend its own people, in fact, this is to let the Qing Dynasty relax, the Ryukyuan people thus became the people of Japan. Moreover, due to the decay and weakness of the Qing Dynasty, a war that was clearly victorious was still subjugated to the obscenity of the Japanese.
Not many years after that, the Japanese once again broke out a war of aggression, this time the Japanese set their sights on Korea, in 1876 Japan invaded Korea, opened the door of Korea, Korea signed the Ganghwa Treaty, so that the Japanese in Korea to obtain a series of privileges, at the beginning, the Qing Dynasty did not care much, all the way to Korea, after the character mutiny in 1882, China and Japan simultaneously sent troops to Korea, in this battle, the Qing Dynasty still won the victory.
However, although the Japanese army was suppressed, Japan still obtained the right to send troops and the right to garrison troops, and after the Japanese began to expel Chinese troops in Korea, they signed the Treaty of Jiwupu and the Special Article of the Tianjin Conference, which gave Japan the right to carry out activities in Korea like China, and these two powers became the biggest foreshadowing of the Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese War.
The outbreak of the last war was because of the economic crisis in Japan in 1890, this economic crisis made the Japanese finally unable to sit still, the demand for war was like ants on a hot pot, and more importantly, the Japanese prime minister at that time had such a theory in the Imperial Diet, that is, the theory of the sovereignty line and the interest line, saying that Japan must have these two lines, the Japanese mainland is the sovereignty risk, and China and the Korean Peninsula are the meat on the Japanese board, which is the so-called interest line, saying that the Japanese population is insufficient. We must defend our country's interests by force and expand our national strength.
So in 194, during the middle school party uprising that broke out in Korea, due to insufficient troops, the Qing Dynasty asked for support, and after the Japanese saw this situation, they took the opportunity to send troops to Korea against the Qing Dynasty, so the Qing Dynasty at that time directly sent the upright admiral Ye Zhichao and the general of Taiyuan Town Nie Shicheng to lead the Huai army of 2,000 people to land in two groups at Asan in Korea after June 6.
By July 1894, the war was about to break out, the Qing Dynasty at that time was the main war faction composed of the Guangxu Emperor and Hubu Shangshu Weng and Su, but Empress Dowager Cixi was unwilling to have a war on her sixtieth birthday, and Li Hongzhang was not willing to break out war, mainly because in order to protect his Huai Army and the Beiyang Marine Division, so he also wanted to reconcile, these people became the main peace faction, the two factions within the imperial court, because of whether this war broke out and there was a fierce quarrel, and it remained stalemated until the Sino-Japanese negotiations broke down. Li Hongzhang saw the situation clearly and promised the Guangxu Emperor to send troops to reinforce Korea.
After China sent troops, the Japanese also made a decision to fight, on July 20, 1894, the Japanese combined fleet came to Chinese waters, ready to provoke trouble, at the same time, the Japanese ambassador to Korea also issued an ultimatum like Korea, North Korea chose to continue to perfunctory Japan, The attitude of Korea and the reinforcements of the Qing Dynasty made Japan decide to start this war, in the early morning of July 23, 1894, the Japanese army raided the Han Dynasty palace, crushed the Korean defenders, and directly held the King of Korea hostage to demand the abolition of the pro-Chinese government. On July 25, 1894, the Japanese side attacked Qing Warships in the korean sub-missile sea, and the Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese War officially began.