The First Sino-Japanese War: A Pivotal Moment in Asian History

and welcome to feature history featuring the first sino-japanese war where just like in my greetings korea came last

the overshadowed first cynon sino-japanese war is often seen as a stepping stone in the story of japan's

imperial expansion and china's decline preceding the second world war japan cements itself as the asian power

in its battle with the old qing dynasty but often ignored as the decades of political wrestling that went into

upsetting centuries-old power dynamics and completely forgotten is how korea was used and abused in establishing the

westernized asia of the 20th century so why is it that the asian power was set on turning the hermit kingdom into a

war zone why is it that war became the tool of industrialization and how could a war that lasted no more than a year

destined east asia to its fate in the 20th century well those are some big scary questions

you pose viewer i'm just trying to make an animated video but i'm more than happy to do my best to tell the story

the last of the chinese dynasties the qing dynasty had by the 19th century stood for centuries as the greatest

power in asia and the korean joseon kingdom had stood for centuries as their obedient tributary it was in the 19th

century though the qing was set upon by just about all western imperialists through the opium wars and many other

expeditions and interventions outside of that hard times call for strong rulers and it

was readily apparent that the dynasty under the region empress dawa jashishi didn't have that instead it was plagued

with corruption the japanese had also been subject to western intrusion that so famously

resulted in the meiji restoration of 1868 so while the qing were weakened in civil strife and rebellion japan was

centralized under its emperor and began to be rapidly modernized or frankly westernized

in 1864 gujong ascended to the throne of the joseon kingdom ripe old age of 12.

obviously a 12 year old does not govern a kingdom instead he was under the regency of his father the daewon goon

under the daewon gun the hermit kingdom lived up to its name seeing korea secluded and rejecting foreign intrusion

however gujong would be married to queen min who formed political factions against the daewongun's influence in

1873 gujong now 22 would be instructed to have his father retire and take self-rule or what really happened have

his father retire and allow queen min to claim control of the royal court with the daewon gun gone and his

policies of seclusion in question the japanese empire's interest spiked in korea

meiji's cabinet looked for new ways to fuel japan's modernization in growing population with food and resources they

were also interested in securing the korean peninsula as they saw it as a vital entryway into the home islands the

empire would attempt to open diplomatic relations with the joseon kingdom in a letter given to the government in 1868

japan introduced itself hey on the japanese empire however the joseon kingdom only recognized one empire and

rejected the letter believing meiji saw himself as equal to the qing emperor which he did the japanese gunboat the

unyo would introduce itself instead in 1875 when it sailed into the restricted waters of hengwa island korean shore

batteries would fire on the vessel prompting the japanese to land a shore party that destroyed the fort and killed

35 subsequently the joseon kingdom was forced into signing the treaty of

huanghua accepting japanese trade and envoys and distancing itself from its traditional

suzerain the qing it was after this treaty in 1881 that queen min would be given a book a

strategy for korea by a chinese diplomat it warned of threats to korea from western powers such as russia and how it

should look to learn from japan and ally with the qing to play both sides so that the joseon kingdom could come out on top

queen men looked to adopt plans of self-strengthening and modernising the kingdom the qing's own

self-strengthening movement was frustrated heavily given china's decentralized nature and the dynasty's

corruption the queen min believed korea could copy japan's success meiji's cabinet understood that japan

was still too weak to annex korea outright and saw a modernized and independent korea as beneficial it would

secure a buffer between japan and its rivals and see korea removed from ching or russian influence

queen min collaborated with the japanese to instate reform but these attempts were unpopular with her military and the

wider populace it was believed that widespread poverty was being ignored and the japanese were being invited into

korea unpaid wages would trigger a mutiny in 1882 many government officials were

killed and the japanese legation was run out of the kingdom queen min would escape the royal palace as the daewon

gun came out to support the mutiny and attempt to re-establish order under himself four and a half thousand qing

soldiers arrived in korea and captured the daewon gun quelling the rebellion and reasserting the qing's influence

over the kingdom the japanese responded only by placing an armed guard on its returning vacation but this prompted

meiji to begin a massive military build-up reform in the kingdom suffered major

setbacks after the mutiny and positions in the government fell to traditionalist yangbun in 1884 the japanese would

resort to supporting the gapshin coup that sought to expel traditionalists from the government and modernize korea

gujong would be placed in the custody of the japanese legation but the qing garrison soon had the legation burned

down and 40 japanese killed the coup was suppressed japanese warships would be sent out to

demand reparations for the incident and this led to 1885's convention of chianzin that would have the qing and

japanese agree to remove their forces from the korean peninsula the convention held peace for 10 years

but things unraveled as the pro-japanese revolutionary kim okiyun was lured to shanghai and assassinated for his

involvement in the earlier coup outrage spread in japan alongside a peasant rebellion breaking out in the

joseon kingdom over oppressive taxation the rebellion spiraled out of control and queen min would make the call for

ching intervention seeing the qing dispatch its modernized ish bay young army to seoul

meiji saw this as a violation of the convention of qian sin and japanese troops were dispatched to the peninsula

ignoring the joseon kingdom's request to really just not do that japanese soldiers occupied the royal

palace in seoul and secured king gujong in july of 1894 they forced or at least heavily influenced the recruitment of a

pro-japanese government that ordered the expulsion of qing troops the qing denied the illegitimate korean

government which granted japan the ability to expel the qing by force battle soon took hold of the surrounding

seoul area as on july 25th ching transports were sunk by the imperial fleet killing over 1100 qing soldiers

and crew the japanese army then made an attack on the baiyang army on the 28th the qing's centerpiece of its

modernization efforts suffered a decisive loss to the german conscript army of the japanese

these two victories left the royal court seoul and effectively all of southern korea firmly under japanese control as

the qing army fled to pyongyang it was only on august 1st of 1894 that formal declarations of war were

actually made [Music] the coordinated japanese forces would

arrive and outmaneuver the outnumbered bay young army defending pyongyang in september inflicting heavy casualties

the coinciding battle of the yali river saw the japanese navy intercept reinforcements headed to pyongyang the

qing's modernized fleet was showcased to lack cohesion and the corruption had seen many weapons sold off and their

munitions to be defective the fleet suffered heavy losses and after these battles the peninsula was effectively

abandoned by the qing the japanese advance however was not completely unimpeded japanese troops were not

equipped for a full-scale land war they lacked winter clothing and proper supply lines japan relied on speed to keep the

ching on the back foot and force them into a quick surrender they would construct bridges to cross the yalu

river only to find most qing troops had deserted their post with winter setting in the japanese

would also land in lee shenko later named port arthur only defined once again the bulk of the qing army had

deserted leaving mutilated corpses of captured japanese troops behind enraged the japanese army committed a

large-scale massacre against civilians and surrendered qing soldiers the winter would threaten to freeze the

japanese offense and a war of attrition would most likely see a japanese defeat or at least stalemate to force the qing

into a treaty the japanese forces would have to threaten the capital of beijing in february of 1885 using their naval

supremacy the japanese coordinated a naval and land attack on we highway's fort

they would capture the land batteries and lay siege which resulted in the commanding admiral ding's suicide and

the destruction of the baiyang fleet when winter passed in april and beijing was open to attack by the japanese the

qing would sue for peace and enter negotiations the treaty of shimonoseki was soon signed forcing the qing to

recognize total independence of korea and seed the laodong peninsula taiwan and pengu islands to japan

when the war closed it cemented in history how far the qing dynasty had decayed the 19th century had seen the

dynasty repeatedly undermined by western empires and then japan a subordinate of china's cultural sphere had outpaced the

qing in two short decades the stagnation and corruption was clear the west began to circle in for further

concessions and the dynasty's ability to rule had come to question the empire of japan itself was able to

take territory and capital with no major loss the war was the fruits of the meiji restoration showcased on an

international stage japan was the greatest asian power but it would still be considered

inferior to western powers russia with the support of germany and france was able to diplomatically

pressure japan into a withdrawal of the laodon peninsula as russia had its own imperial ambitions in the area

the russians would also work their way into korea japan had been sponsoring massive reforms in the kingdom and

crushing any descent in 1895 queen min would be assassinated for her anti-japanese stances and this would

lead the king into the arms of the russians who would personally guard him the joseon kingdom would become the

empire of korea totally independent but all knew this would be short-lived with russian and japanese imperial

interests strongly butting heads on the peninsula war would be inevitable

japan had reformed and modernized following the example of western imperialism to carry out the ambitions

of the empire would require following this example closely and so asia in the 20th century

would know war thanks to the patrons and thanks to expressvpn for keeping me out of the

real job not really too much to add after the video there will be another video most likely next month

and yeah that's pretty much it bye now