Feature History - First Sino-Japanese War

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

Channel: Feature History

Views: 440,390

Keywords: Feature History, History, Education, Entertainment, Academic, Presentation, First Sino-Japanese War, Sino-Japanese War, Qing, China, Japan, Korea, Joseon Kingdom, Meiji, Dowager Cixi, Gojong, Queen Min, Daewongun, Yalu River, War, Combat, 19th Century, Qing Dynasty, Beiyang Army, Self-Strengthening, Industrialization, Modernisation, Russia, Empire of Korea, Asia, East Asia, Yuan Shikai, Western, Liaodong, Port Arthur, Pyongyang, Seoul, Hermit Kingdom, Revolution, Gapsin Coup, Imo Incident

Id: LdWY8aWxNL4

Length: 12min 56sec (776 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 23 2020