From 1883 to 1885, war broke out between the Qing Dynasty and France, known in history as the "Sino-French War". In the war, France once had the upper hand, eliminating the Qing Dynasty's Fujian marine division in the Battle of Mawei and marching into Taiwan Island and Hangzhou Bay, and the Chinese and French armies also broke out in the Sino-Vietnamese border area.
The French occupied Keelung and were repulsed by Liu Mingchuan, the governor of Taiwan, when they attacked Tamsui. The Qing army also held Hangzhou Bay. In the Sino-Vietnamese border battlefield, the veteran general Feng Zicai defeated the French army, won the victory of Zhennanguan, and occupied Langshan.
In the end, the result of this war was that the Qing Dynasty recognized the French suzerainty in Vietnam, without cutting off land or paying reparations. History textbooks call it "France wins without victory, and China wins without defeat."
Although the Qing Dynasty performed badly in the Sino-French War, France did not completely defeat the Qing Dynasty in the war, and the two sides won and lost each other. France, which claims to be the "second in the world", has also been humiliated, and the cabinet has fallen, and it can only be accepted when it is good.
Nine years later, the Sino-Japanese War broke out between the Qing Dynasty and Japan. The Qing Dynasty suffered a particularly disastrous defeat in the war, first in the Battle of the Yellow Sea, then in the land battle on the Korean Peninsula, and then the Japanese landed on the Liaodong Peninsula and the Shandong Peninsula and occupied the home port of the Beiyang Fleet, and all the warships became the spoils of war for the Japanese.
Finally, the Qing Dynasty also ceded Taiwan Province, the Liaodong Peninsula (later redeemed), with a compensation of 200 million taels of silver.
At that time, France's national strength was obviously several times stronger than Japan's, and even France could not defeat the Qing Dynasty, so why could Japan do it?
Some people say it's because it's close.
Some say it's because the Japanese are belligerent.
Some say it's because of the Meiji Restoration.
These are all one of the reasons, but by no means the main ones. Why?
There are many countries close to the Qing Dynasty, and before the Sino-Japanese War, I had never seen any neighboring country that could fight the Qing Dynasty so badly, and pay 200 million taels in reparations.
In the face of modern weapons, belligerence is less important.
Many people think that after the Meiji Restoration, Japan was reborn and soared. In fact, although Japan became stronger through the Meiji Restoration, it was still far from defeating the Qing Dynasty. At the same time, Japan vigorously set up industry, the burden on the peasants became very heavy, the people at the bottom of Japan became poorer, and social riots often occurred.
The Soviets and Chinese have the best understanding of how much burden an agricultural country will bring to the peasants if it wants to vigorously develop industry. Japan's arable land is far less than that of Russia and China, and the population pressure is even greater, so you can imagine how much pressure the japanese people at that time were.
At that time, Japan was already a very densely populated country, with a population of about 40 million, and internal contradictions were accumulating, like volcanoes, which could erupt at any time.
Japan urgently needs to divert the focus of society through foreign wars, transfer internal contradictions to the outside, and plunder foreign wealth to reduce the pressure on the domestic people.
But invading neighboring countries also requires capital, and invading a huge country like the Qing Dynasty requires a lot of money. Japan is poor like this, where does the money come from?
Many books say that at that time, the whole of Japan, from the emperor and the secretary of state to the people, all of them were reduced in food and clothing, and more than a million Japanese women even went to Southeast Asia to engage in special services, and all the money they earned was used to build weapons and warships.
These are all true.
But the question is, how much can this save?
Can savings double a country's revenue? The Japanese people are too poor to be poor anymore, and even if they are conscious, they will not save much space.
The key moment. A "living thunderbolt" appeared, and this was Britain.
Britain, the world's largest power and rich country at the time, gave Japan a total of 150 million taels of silver unsecured loans, which was several times Japan's fiscal revenue. It was with this huge sum of money that Japan built and purchased armaments on a large scale, surpassing the Qing Dynasty in weapons and equipment.
The Beiyang Marine Division spent a total of tens of millions of taels of silver. Far less expensive than Japan spends on armaments.
Since Britain lent Japan so much money, it must support Japan in winning. Britain must have given Japan a lot of covert support in intelligence, political promises, and other aspects.
The Sino-Japanese War was actually a war of plunder waged by the British and the Japanese, jointly launched against the Qing Dynasty. Japan is only an agent of Britain. The defeat of the Qing Dynasty was already doomed.
Britain has always pursued a policy of "continental balance of power", supporting a sub-powerful country in a region and weakening the strongest country, and Japan has served as a tool for Britain to weaken the Qing Dynasty and Russia in East Asia.
This is why it is very difficult for France to single out the Qing Dynasty, and why Japan, which has a weak national strength, can completely defeat the Qing Dynasty. It is somewhat strange that Britain was the decisive factor in the Sino-Japanese War and is not mentioned in the textbooks at all.
The family's words, welcome everyone to express their opinions.