First Sino-Japanese War

Finally, the Empire of Japan won the war. They signed the Treaty of Shimonoseki in 1895.

First Sino-Japanese War
First Sino-Japanese War, major battles and troop movements
Date 1 August 1894 – 17 April 1895 Location Korea, Manchuria, Taiwan, Yellow Sea Result Japanese victory; a significant loss of prestige for the Qing Dynasty. Korea becomes independent from China. Territorial changes China loses the influence of the Korean Peninsula to the Empire of Japan. Qing Dynasty China cedes Taiwan, Penghu, and the Liaodong Peninsula to the Empire of Japan.
Belligerents
Qing Empire	Empire of Japan
Commanders and leaders
Guangxu Emperor Li Hongzhang Ding Ruchang † Deng Shichang †	Emperor Meiji Yamagata Aritomo Itō Sukeyuki
Strength
630,000 men Beiyang Army Beiyang Navy	240,000 men Imperial Japanese Army Imperial Japanese Navy
Casualties and losses
35,000 dead or wounded	1,132 dead, 3,973 wounded 11,894 died of disease

 

China had 65 warships before the outbreak of the First Sino-Japanese War. They were divided into four fleets (Beiyang Fleet, the Nanyang Fleet, the Guangdong Fleet and the Fujian Fleet). Only the Beiyang Fleet participated in the war. In order to save their ships, the other fleets' commanders did not join the war.

In the Beiyang Fleet, there were 25 warships. Dingyuan and Zhenyuan were the most powerful warships in the fleet. They were made in Germany. Dingyuan had 6,000 horsepower and displaced 7,670 tons loaded. Nevertheless, as Empress Dowager Cixi wanted to build a grand garden she embezzled the money originally allocated for expanding the Beiyang Fleet, the commanders did not have enough money to buy the latest weapons for the fleet. Most of the warships in the fleet were not well equipped before joining the war.

There were totally 240,616 soldiers could be mobilized in Japan before the outbreak of the war. Also, there were 32 battleships and 24 torpedo boats in the Imperial Japanese Navy. All of them had the latest, and newest weapons.

 

1. Battle of the Yalu River

On 17 September 1894, the Beiyang Fleet and the Imperial Japanese Navy fought at the Yalu River, the border between China and Korea. In this battle, the commander of the Beiyang Fleet was Ding Ruchang, originally a cavalryman, and Sukeyuki Ito was the commander of Japanese fleet. The battle lasted 5 hours. Finally, 4 battleships of the Beiyang Fleet was destroyed and 1,000 soldiers were killed. Only 1 battleship was lost in the Imperial Japanese Navy. The commander of the Beiyang Fleet retreated to the port of Lushun.

2. Battle of Lushunkou

On 17 September 1894, the Japanese armies occupied the fortresses with powerful cannons and cities in Lushun and Dalian. The Japanese troops entered the cities and killed 20,000 Chinese civilians within 4 days. This incident was historically called Port Arthur massacre.

3. Battle of Weihaiwei

In January 1895, the Japanese armies invaded Weihaiwei. The Beiyang Fleet was fairly defeated. 11 battleships of the team was seized.

• Video footage of a naval battle during the First Sino-Japanese war^{[permanent dead link]}