Japan and China have been and remain rivals in the Asia-Pacific region for centuries. On the one hand, Japan has borrowed a lot from China: weapons, customs, and characters. On the other hand, we can observe a constant confrontation between the two countries. The obstacle has always been Korea - intermediate country between two lions. Sino-Japanese War 1894-95 - Japan's aggressive war against China in order to establish control over Korea (nominal vassal of China) and penetration in China.
Sino-Japanese War of the Meiji period began in 1894. It was caused by a violation of China the Tianjin Convention (1885), according to which neither Japan nor China could not place the troops in Korea or to transfer them to the peninsula without prior written notice . At the beginning of 1894 in response to the killing of Korean progressives’ leader Kim Okkyuna in Shanghai, protests broke out in South Korea, where China for their suppression has sent three thousand troops. In response, Japan August 1, 1894 officially declared war on China.
First, the war showed that in the Pacific has grown a new imperialist state, which stopping at nothing to achieve its aggressive goals. This war laid down all the major conflicts of interest of the imperialist states in the Far East. Tsarist Russia, England, Germany, France began to prepare its forces to prevent the Japanese samurai unchallenged control over vast and rich territories of the Far East.
In this war, it became quite apparent that Japan finally broke from its former isolation and entered the arena of world politics, making extensive use of the European experience in the organization and training of their armed forces.
The war, which lasted 8 months, demanded strong tension of Finance of Japan, the war expenses, reached 233.5 million yen, while Japan's annual budget was only 80 million yen . In this first Sino-Japanese war, the Chinese people defeated. Heroically defending their homeland as it was under the Penyangom, Formosa in fleet operations, Chinese and Korean peoples could not then give a proper rebuff the Japanese samurai.
Economically weak China essentially has not yet started to develop its vast natural resources and cannot adequately cover the material maintenance of a defensive war against one of the world's rapacious imperialist predators.
The Chinese government is relying on the rotten and corrupt state apparatus, completely broke away from the broad masses of the working people of China and Korea, and could not organize a successful defense of its country against the Japanese aggressors.
According to Shimonoseki world, Liaodong Peninsula with Port Arthur, Dalian and the adjacent islands, Taiwan, the Pescadores moved to Japan. In addition, China has recognized the full independence of the vassal Korea, opened four ports to Japanese trade, allowing Japanese ships sail along the Yangtze River, Yellow River and Channel Shanghai - Hangzhou, China gave a temporary occupation of Weihai.
The value of this contract was enormous: it was signed in 1894, a trade agreement in the United Kingdom under which liquidated closed British settlements that existed in the Japanese cities, and provided over the next five years, the rejection of extraterritoriality. By 1897 other powers, it had a contractual relationship with Japan under the influence of its military successes and victories over China, signed with her new agreements providing for transfer by 1911 of all relations on an equal basis.
The victory over China had a number of important implications for Japan. This event caused an explosion of patriotism throughout the country. Newspapers were filled with heroic front-line reports. The patriotic feelings of the masses burned printing long war novels with the continuation, the opening competition of the best patriotic song.
However, the war has given a sharp jolt to the Chinese people, awakening theirs national identity. The war showed that the Japanese greedy aggressor could be counteracted only by organized armed force of the whole country. With a win over China, the national militarism reached its apogee. The people began to fully support a government, which pursued a militaristic policy.
In the next 40 years, the Japanese invaders repeatedly tried to encroach on the territory of China. Moreover, although they sometimes have been successful, but each time more and more resistance to the invaders provided the working masses of China, steadily walking along the historical path of national unification.
However, the European states met the strengthening of Japan in China with danger. Especially Russia felt wounded, because consolidation of Japan in southern Manchuria threatened the Russian Empire, and can lead to the seizure of Korea by the Japanese. In that case, Russia, Germany and France, on April 23 in Tokyo announced categorical protest, demanding the Japanese to give up the Liaodong Peninsula. Since the protest was accompanied by a concentration of the three European fleets in Asian waters, the Japanese government was forced to give up the Liaodong Peninsula in exchange for an increase in the indemnity to 364 million yen .
Research the causes of the Sino-Japanese War of 1894 - 1895 and its results is important for Korea. First, it expands the understanding of the international situation in the Far East in the late XIX - early XX century and place in it Korea. While Korea itself could not protect their sovereignty, and China does not want to lose their suzerainty over Korea. Japan, which then began development of capitalist relations, tried to oust China from Korea. Secondly, this war was the beginning of change in the relations between Korea, China and Japan. In the third place, followed by Japan's victory in the war was followed by the collapse of the Korean state. Fourthly, the desire of Russia, France and Germany to change the outcome of the war indicated that these countries had their own interests in the Far East.
Comparing historical events around the world, in my opinion Sino-Japanese and Spanish-American wars have something familiar. Especially, I want to highlight the aggressive position of winners: the USA and Japan. Both countries according to wars strengthened their positions and announced themselves as an imperial and strong state. The USA and Japan used to impose their rules and style during the wars. Another kind of similarity is the position of European countries: all of them did not support the aggressors, on the one hand, and did not help for weaker countries, from another hand.
Works cited
Duus, Peter. The rise of modern Japan. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1976.
Jansen, Marius. The Making of Modern Japan. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2002.
Lone, Stewart. Japan's First Modern War: Army and Society in the Conflict with China. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1994.
Paine, S.C.M. The Sino-Japanese War of 1894–1895: Perceptions, Power, and Primacy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002.
