On July 25, 1894, the Sino-Japanese Battle of Jia-Wu broke out, because the Japanese side had been planning the war for a long time, and the late Qing Dynasty was in a hurry, which finally led to the total annihilation of the Beiyang Marine Division. After the defeat of the late Qing Dynasty, the Qing government was forced to sign the Treaty of Maguan with Japan on April 17, 1895.
Less than a week after the signing of the humiliating Treaty of Maguan, on April 23, 1895, Russia, Germany, and France jointly lodged representations with the Japanese government against some of the land cession clauses. If they do not agree to their demands, they will unanimously take military action against Japan at sea. Sure enough, these three Western powers began to fight for the late Qing Dynasty, and they also drove their naval warships to the sea near Japan, and Russia also gathered an army of 50,000 people in Siberia, posing as if they were going to fight a big fight, demonstrating against Japan and demanding that Japan return the land ceded to them by China.
So what are the specific contents of this "Maguan Treaty" that has lost power and humiliated the country? Why did Russia, Germany, and France send warships off the coast of Japan to demonstrate against Japan?
The main contents of the "Maguan Treaty" were to recognize Japan's control over the DPRK; cede the Liaodong Peninsula, the entire island of Taiwan, and all its affiliated islands and the Penghu Archipelago; compensate the military expenditure of 200 million taels of silver; open four additional treaty ports in Shashi, Chongqing, Suzhou, and Hangzhou; and allow Japanese ships to sail into various ports and the Japanese army to occupy Weihaiwei.
Japan's bargain in China after the Sino-Japanese War was really familiar to the Western powers, especially Russia, who were extremely dissatisfied and indignant about the cession of the Liaodong Peninsula to Japan in the late Qing Dynasty, and they made Japan a direct threat to their monopoly of northeast China and domination of the Pacific. Therefore, Russia proposed to Germany and France that Germany, Russia, and France jointly advise Japan to return the Liaodong Peninsula, and issued a circular: "Today, the occupation of Liaodong by itself is not only a danger to the capital of China (Beijing), but also makes the independence of the Korean State in name only and hinders the maintenance of peace in the Far East. "And time limit Japan to reply within fifteen days, otherwise it will be rude!"
In the face of the interference of Russia, Germany, and France, Japan was also in a hurry, and he still did not dare to fight the late Qing Dynasty and the three Western powers. Japan can only ask the United States and Britain for help, but the United States and Britain also have their own small calculations, and they do not want to see That Japan's power in China is too strong, so they also persuade Japan to accept the demands of the three countries.
Under pressure from these three countries, Japan announced on May 4, 1895, that it would abandon the Liaodong Peninsula, but would require China to pay a "redemption fee" of 30 million taels of silver. What a robber!
The three countries in Russia, Germany, and France that came out of the late purge are, of course, not good stubble, and they will never take the initiative to help demonstrate without benefits.
First of all, Russia, in 1896 after Japan's retreat from the Liaoning, signed the Sino-Russian Secret Treaty with the late Qing Dynasty, which stipulated that in the event of war with Japan, Russian warships could sail into all Chinese ports; Russia was allowed to build Russian railroads in the northeast region, and within the scope of the railway, Russia enjoyed administrative judicial power, in fact, Russia controlled the northeast region.
After Japan withdrew from the Liao, Germany used the merits of "retreating" to demand the Hankou Concession from the late Qing Dynasty, and later signed the "Jiao'ao Concession Treaty" with the late Qing Dynasty, bringing Shandong Province into Germany's sphere of influence.
Finally, let's talk about France. France forcibly occupied Mengwu and Wude on the border of Yunnan, forcing the late Qing Dynasty to open more estuaries and Simao in Yunnan as commercial ports, and obtained the priority of mining in Guangdong, Guangxi, and Yunnan; he also demanded that the late Qing Dynasty should not cede Hainan Island to other countries, etc. Later, France gained railway, postal and other privileges in these three provinces, and since then the three provinces of Guangdong, Guangxi, and Yunnan have become France's sphere of influence.
On the surface, the intervention of the three powers in making Japan retreat was the beginning of the further division of China by the Western powers at the end of the 19th century.