Causes and Conduct of the first Sino-Japanese War
Key Points
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LinksThe Sino-Japanese war-Overview from Princeton
Overview of the War -Website dedicated to the war Sarah Paine lecture on the war- Excellent for strategic background to the war Online textbook covering the war-Comprehensive The 'Throwing off Asia' Curriculum from MIT -Covers Sino-Japanese War and the Russo-Japanese War |
Historiography: Why was the Sino-Japanese war fought?-two views
To prevent the russians from threatening JapanSource A: "Ostensibly the Sino-Japanese War was a conflict between Japan and China for dominance over China's tributary, Korea. In reality, it was a Japanese attempt to preempt Russian expansion down the Korean Peninsula to threaten Japan." |
To build a Japanese empireSource B: "According to E.H. Norman, a post-World War II scholar of modern Japan, this war and its results-the victory and humiliation under force-marked Japan's turning point toward imperialism." |
Conduct of the War: Why did the Chinese lose? Jonathan Fenby
"In 1894, one of the great international conflict lines of modern times opened up between China and Japan. ‘999 out of every 1000 Chinese are sure big China can thrash little Japan,’ wrote Robert Hart. On paper, China had just over a million men at arms to throw into the war - 325,000 of them Banner troops, about the same number of ‘Green Standard’ Han soldiers, plus 400,000 other men said to have undergone training. The real numbers fell some way below these totals, however, and some elite Manchu forces still prided themselves in their expertise with bows and arrows rather than guns. Japan’s 270,000 troops were well trained and had modern arms. Tokyo had also broken China’s military cable codes. Qing armies were split between regional and princely chiefs; Japan’s were unified. On the other hand, Japanese commanders were given clear objectives and left to get on with the job in pincer attacks which flummoxed the Chinese. The focus now switched to the sea, providing the first test for the navy of thirty warships which Li had built up with purchases from Europe, despite the depredations of members of his family, who had pocketed the money allocated for explosives and packed shell casings with sand. Two days after the Japanese took Pyongyang, they won a six-hour naval battle at the mouth of the Yalu river on the Korean border. China lost four ships."
Task: Jonathan Fenby gives several reasons why the Chinese forces were defeated in the first Sino-Japanese war, what are they? Use evidence from the passage quoted above to support your answers
The Impact of defeat on China
Internal Consequences
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Both Internal and External
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External consequences
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Source C: "China and Japan may have engaged in a bloody and terrible war, but the admiration that many Chinese felt for Japan’s successes in building a new type of state and army was not diminished by China’s losses. On the contrary, the sacrifices that China had to make were often blamed on the Qing dynasty and its inability to follow the examples set by Japan. To some Chinese, the Japanese model was in a perverse way validated by its victory." Odd Arne Westad
Source D: Drawing from Punch Magazine 29 September 1894. (Punch was a British satirical magazine)
Task: Analyse this source, how the Sino-Japanese war changed international perspectives of both a) China b) Japan?
Task: Analyse this source, how the Sino-Japanese war changed international perspectives of both a) China b) Japan?
Source E: An illustration from supplement to french magazine "Le Petit Journal", 16th January 1898. The artist was Henri Meyer
scamble_for_concessions.pptx | |
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