Lecture 11

End of Chinese World Order: Sino-Japanese War

Japanese print of Sino-Japanese War

I) Korea after Ganghwa Treaty
A) United States
o 1880, Commodore Robert Shufeldt approaches Tokyo, then China

Commodore Robert W. Shufeldt

B) US-Korean Treaty of Amity and Commerce (1882)
1) Unequal treaty
o Extraterritoriality, most favored nation clause

2) Provisions for Korea

o U.S. “good offices;” 10, 30% tariffs; provisions to abolish extraterritoriality;

ban on opium traffic

3) Korea in Chinese world order
o Article XII: treaty as “first one negotiated by Korea”

o Note to US: Korea “has been a state tributary to China from ancient times,”

call for US non-interference

US Minister’s residence, Seoul, 1884
 B) China and Korean diplomacy
o 1879, Imperial Commissioner for Northern Ports
o Li Hongzhang (1823-1901) negotiates Korea's treaties with US(1882), Britain
(1882), Germany (1882), Italy (1884) and France (1886)

Li Hongzhang and British PM

William Gladstone, 1882
C) China and Korean politics
o 1882 Soldier’s Riot kills Jpse training officer, burns Japanese legation to ground
o 1884 failed Gapsin coup

Utagawa Kunimatsu, Flight of the Japanese Legation in 1882

1) Director General Resident in Korea, 1885-94

Yuan Shikai (1859-1960)

2) Queen Min

o Modernization on Chinese model, following

Chinese and Prussian advisers
o Yuan Shikai train new military force
o Chinese merchants allowed to reside, conduct
business, travel freely within K
D) Age of Empire
o By 1882, 1,500 Chinese, 700 Japanese troops in Seoul

Chinese troops, 1868

II) Japan in Korea
A) Empire and army
1) New Imperialism
o Ito Hirobumi: “to manifest abroad the dignity and power of Japan”
2) Japanese army

o 1873, nat’l conscription for nat’l unity

o 1880s, transformation of Japanese army objectives

Founder of Imperial Japanese

Army, Yamagata Aritomo
Major Meckel
Meckel in J, 1885:
o Korea as the “dagger pointing at
the heart of Japan”
 B) Agent of reform
o Japanese Foreign Minister Mutsu Munemitsu urges removal of “old, deep-rooted
abuses,” in Korea which “endangered peace and order”

Japanese demand Korean “reform” on eve of Sino-Japanese War

C) Agent of “civilization”
o Japan must "break with our evil
friends of Eastern Asia" to "join
the camp of the civilized
countries of the West.”
-Fukuzawa Yukichi,
1885

o “We only intend to develop

world civilization and only
intend to defeat the people who
disturb it. Therefore, this is not
a war between people and
people and country and country,
but it is a kind of religious
war.”-Jiji shinpo, 1894

Japanese woodblock of Sino-Japanese War

o “The spectacle of this Eastern nation fighting and manoeuvering and organizing with a
nerve and intelligence worthy of a first-class European war has sent a thrill of admiring
wonder through the military world.” -Illustrated London News, 1894
o
”(Japan is the) pioneer of progress in the Orient.” -John Stoddard, 1896

Japanese print of Battle of Pyongyang, Sino-Japanese War

III) Sino-Japanese War
A) Foregone conclusion?
o Chinese superiority on paper: 65 ships to Japan’s 32, impressive forts at Port

Arthur, Dairen, Weihaiwei, Krupp guns

o Modern Japanese state

Japanese naval engagement in Yellow Sea, 1894

B) Treaty of Shimonoseki
o Chinese recognition of “full and complete independence and autonomy” of Korea
o 4 additional Chinese cities opened for commercial, industrial purposes
o cession of Formosa, Pescadores Islands, Liaodong Peninsula to Japan

Image: Shimonoseki Treaty negotiations, 1895