The disastrous defeat in the First Sino-Japanese War made the great powers of various countries see clearly the vulnerability of the once great powers in the East. This war not only fueled the ambitions of the great powers to carve up China, but also allowed Japan to ascend to the throne of East Asian hegemony, burying the last glimmer of hope for the Westernists of the late Qing Dynasty. Some people believe that this is a mistake of Li Hongzhang's policy of "protecting ships and avoiding war", while others accuse the Empress Dowager Cixi of extravagance and profligacy, resulting in insufficient military spending. But what exactly led to this fiasco? In fact, neither Li Hongzhang nor Cixi were the most directly responsible. Even without them, the Qing Dynasty was still unable to win, and behind this was the combined effect of multiple factors such as system, equipment, and internal contradictions, and the Qing Dynasty was doomed to defeat the advanced Japan at that time. So, what were the reasons for the Qing Dynasty's defeat in the Sino-Japanese War?
The political system is backward and the foreign policy is wrong
As a feudal dynasty that lasted for hundreds of years, the Qing Dynasty's deep-rooted hierarchical and autocratic system doomed it to fall into the predicament of being passively beaten in the face of the challenge of Western capitalist countries.
As early as 1793, Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty rejected the request of King George III of England for a "treaty port", and adhered to the arrogant attitude of "I have a small country, cherish China, and pay tribute to our state". This arrogant mentality was the beginning of the Qing Dynasty's foreign policy mistakes.
In the subsequent Opium War, the Second Opium War, and the First Sino-Japanese War, the Qing Dynasty was defeated in one war after another, and the land was ceded and reparated. But even so, the Qing rulers remained complacent, turning a blind eye to the advanced capitalist system and productive forces of the West, and clinging to the backward feudal autocracy.
For example, on the eve of the First Sino-Japanese War, the Qing government still had great conceit and misconceptions about Japan's strength. In June 1894, the Donghak Party of Korea launched a peasant uprising, and the Qing Dynasty and Japan respectively sent troops to interfere in the internal affairs of Korea, and an armed conflict broke out between the two sides in Korea. At that time, the prime minister of the Qing Dynasty, Minister Yamen, was instructed to say: "Although Japan has a small navy, it is a small country after all, so how can it compete with our Qing Dynasty?"
This blind and arrogant mentality is precisely the concentrated embodiment of the Qing Dynasty's foreign policy mistakes. In the face of an increasingly powerful Japan, the Qing rulers remained complacent, seriously underestimating Japan's strength.
After the Meiji Restoration, Japan completely got rid of the feudal autocracy, established a constitutional monarchy under the leadership of the bourgeoisie, and vigorously developed the capitalist productive forces. By the time of the First Sino-Japanese War, Japan already had the most advanced military power in the East at that time.
In contrast, the Qing Dynasty's political system and foreign policy were already seriously behind the times. This backwardness doomed it to complete defeat in the First Sino-Japanese War.
The military equipment is backward, and the quality of the army is low
On the eve of the outbreak of the First Sino-Japanese War, the military equipment of the Qing army lagged far behind that of the Japanese. At that time, the main fleet of the Qing Dynasty, the Beiyang Naval Division, had only a few wooden battleships like "Gide" and "Guangshun", and their firepower and mobility were far inferior to those of Japanese steel armored ships.
In 1888, Li Hongzhang sent Chinese workers to Germany to build two steel armored ships, "Jingyuan" and "Zhenyuan", but unfortunately due to a shortage of funds, the guns and machinery of the two ships were dismantled from the old ships, and the range and power were greatly reduced.
In contrast, the Japanese Navy already had first-class steel armored ships such as "Yanmas" and "Chikuma", equipped with the most advanced large-caliber artillery at that time. In terms of firepower, speed and armor, it far surpassed the Beiyang Naval Division of the Qing Army.
In terms of army equipment, the main force of the Qing army, the "Green Battalion" New Army, was also far inferior to the Japanese army. Although the Green Battalion was equipped with some Marsa rifles purchased from Germany, its ammunition reserves were extremely limited due to a lack of funds. The Japanese army was fully equipped with the most advanced "Black Artillery" small-caliber rifles at that time, and the range and rate of fire far exceeded that of the Qing army.
More importantly, the Qing army lacked a modern, well-trained army. Although Li Hongzhang and others advocated the Westernization Movement of "Mastering the Skills of the Emperor to Conquer the Empire", the Westernization Movement was never promoted on a large scale throughout the country because the Qing rulers still had a major prejudice against Western learning.
In contrast, after the Meiji Restoration, Japan vigorously learned from the West, not only introducing advanced military equipment, but more importantly, building a modern standing army. The Japanese army not only received the most advanced European army instructors at that time, but also sent a large number of officers to study in Europe to learn the most advanced military theories at that time.
Thus, by the time of the First Sino-Japanese War, the Japanese army already had a well-trained and well-equipped modern army. The Qing army, on the other hand, was still an old-style army with outdated equipment and poor training, and it was simply unable to compete with the Japanese army.
To make matters worse, the Qing army also had serious problems of factionalism and warlord division, and lacked a unified command system. For example, Ding Ruchang, the commander of the Beiyang Naval Division, is Li Hongzhang's protégé, while Ye Zhichao, the commander of the other main fleet, is the protégé of Li Hongzhang's political opponent Zuo Zongtang. The two fleets simply could not work together with each other.
It was precisely due to multiple reasons such as backward equipment, insufficient training, and internal divisions that led to the Qing army's successive defeats in the First Sino-Japanese War, and finally led to a complete fiasco.
The Qing government was corrupt and incompetent, and internal factional strife was serious
During the First Sino-Japanese War, the problems of power struggles and factions within the Qing government reached a point where they could not be concealed. This not only directly affected the command and decision-making of the war, but also exacerbated the corruption and incompetence of the Qing Dynasty.
At that time, the Qing government was mainly divided into two major factions: one faction was the Westernization faction headed by Li Hongzhang, which advocated learning advanced technology from the West and strengthening its national strength, and the other faction was the Qing faction headed by Weng Tongyi, which adhered to the old system and opposed reform.
The contradiction between the two factions has been around for a long time, but on the eve of the First Sino-Japanese War, this contradiction reached a fever pitch. Weng Tongyi repeatedly obstructed Li Hongzhang's military reform, and specially recommended Li Bingheng, who disagreed with Li Hongzhang's political views, to Emperor Guangxu as the commander of the Beiyang Naval Division.
Li Hongzhang had no choice but to hand over the power of the Beiyang Navy Division to his protégé Ding Ruchang. And Ye Zhichao, the commander of the other main Nanyang Naval Division, is a protégé of Li Hongzhang's political opponent Zuo Zongtang.
The commanders of the two fleets came from different backgrounds, and the two sides also had private disagreements, so they could not work together at all. In the First Sino-Japanese Naval Battle, Ding Ruchang repeatedly called on Ye Zhichao to increase his troops, but Ye Zhichao ignored it, which eventually led to the defeat of the Beiyang Naval Division.
To make matters worse, at a critical juncture in the war, the Qing government was still in turmoil. At that time, the prime minister and the ministers of the Yamen had serious differences about whether they should continue to fight, and they passed the buck to each other, which eventually caused the Qing army to miss the best opportunity to attack.
And in this infighting, the biggest victims are the Qing soldiers. For example, Ding Ruchang, the commander of the Beiyang Naval Division, once wanted to be martyred after the defeat, but was threatened by Emperor Guangxu to "punish the nine tribes", so he could only barely survive.
On the other hand, the corruption of the Qing government also seriously affected the course of the war. At that time, the Qing Dynasty's treasury was empty, and military spending was tight, and it was simply unable to support a large-scale war.
What's worse is that even if there is military spending, it will be exploited by corrupt officials and corrupt officials, and in the end, what is really used for armaments is only a drop in the bucket. For example, the prime minister Yamen, who was in charge of building the Summer Palace at that time, appropriated a large amount of military expenditure for himself, resulting in a serious backwardness in the equipment of the warships of the Beiyang Naval Division.
It was precisely because of the internal power struggle and corruption problems of the Qing government that the Qing army was defeated in the First Sino-Japanese War, and finally led to a complete fiasco.
The Great Powers intervened, and the Qing Dynasty was in a difficult situation
During the First Sino-Japanese War, the intervention of the great powers undoubtedly dealt another heavy blow to the Qing Dynasty, which had been defeated and retreated.
As early as the beginning of the war, the Qing Dynasty tried to seek the mediation of the great powers in the hope of avoiding a rupture. However, Britain and other Western powers at the time secretly supported Japan in an attempt to profit from it.
On August 1, 1894, the Chargé d'Affaires of the British Minister to China made it clear that he did not approve of mediating the Korean incident. This was undoubtedly a major setback to the Qing Dynasty and directly led to a further escalation of the armed conflict between the two sides in Korea.
After the First Sino-Japanese Naval War, Britain openly expressed its support for Japan. The British minister to Japan at that time once said to the Japanese: "You have now defeated China, and you will be the master of the East in the future." ＂
In addition to Britain, the other powers were also rejoicing in Japan's victory. The French saw Japan's victory as "conducive to the establishment of a new balance of power in the Far East," while the Russians hoped that Japan would "weaken China."
In the face of this attitude of the great powers, the situation of the Qing Dynasty can be described as even worse. At the critical moment of the war, the Qing Dynasty was not only unable to obtain the support of the foreign powers, but was isolated and suppressed by the foreign powers.
To add insult to injury, after the end of the First Sino-Japanese War, the Great Powers began a comprehensive partition of the Qing Dynasty. In April 1895, Russia forcibly seized Lushun and Dalian Bay under the pretext of protecting the northeastern frontier; in 1897, Germany forcibly occupied Jiaozhou Bay under the pretext of teaching a plan; and in 1898, Britain, France, Japan, and other countries followed suit and leased a series of important ports and cities in China.
In the face of this frenzied plundering by the great powers, the Qing Dynasty was powerless to resist. At that time, the prime minister and the ministers of the Yamen were also helpless about this, and could only cede land and pay compensation in the "unequal treaties" again and again, barely maintaining the last breath of the Qing Dynasty.
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It was with the intervention and partition of the great powers that the Qing Dynasty's crushing defeat in the First Sino-Japanese War was even worse. This not only completely destroyed the last glimmer of hope for the Westernists of the late Qing Dynasty, but also laid the foundation for the comprehensive partition of China by the great powers in the future.