THE FIRST SINO-JAPANESE WAR DOCUMENTARY - PART 1

[Music] in the late 19th century east asia a land conflicted between modernization and tradition would see the unprecedented transformation of many nations the kingdom of korea last isolationist state of asia nicknamed the hermit kingdom by western observers would become the theatre of the most groundbreaking conflict between two asian countries up to them it would lead to one empire's rise and another's fall this is a story of the first sinnoh japanese war for many centuries the kingdom of korea under the leadership of the joseon dynasty enjoyed external peace with only sporadic peasant uprisings as a tributary state to the great singh dynasty it had the superpowers protection allowing its culture to thrive however after the western powers entered the picture the political status quo would irreversibly change in the mid-19th century as the powerful modernized western nations boomed their interest in exotic asia spiked after focusing on china first they turned their attention to the choson kingdom of korea in response the country under the regency of yi hong the father of a child king gojong closed its doors to the outside world through isolationist policies the western nickname of hermit kingdom would later appear to designate the nation however in 1873 as his son king gorjung came of age the ambitious monarch sought to open up and modernize his state seeking examples to follow on the other side of the sea the newly founded empire of japan was slowly emerging isolated itself for many centuries japan was forcibly opened by the united states in 1854 and soon afterwards western influence grew in the feudal country to take back control japan had no choice but to modernize embracing technology and western style administration as a symbol of a new era the young emperor meiji was brought back into formal power overruling the shogun with the help of his officials japan was transformed from a feudal society into an industrial nation and emerging world power the imperial japanese army and navy were greatly modernized and expanded and further advised by the french and british they soon became the most technologically advanced in asia modernity was however not the only principle the empire of japan learned from the west as it soon developed a sense of imperialism wishing to expand its influence the first neighbor to fall was the ryukyu kingdom a tributary state of china which integrated japan in 1872 this event raised many questions at the chinese imperial court but most officials dismissed it confident in the qing dynasties might after this success japan soon turned its size to korea in the hermit kingdom japan was an example to follow according to korean reformists king kojong slowly began to establish formal diplomatic relations with the empire of japan the reformist officials at the kingdom's court were nonetheless a minority and most koreans remained suspicious of japan which had in the past invaded korea an incident would irreversibly change the course of events when a patrolling japanese gunboat was attacked by korean coastal defenses in 1875 the empire of the rising sun seized the occasion to force an unequal treaty between the two nations greatly expanding its influence over its neighbor gaining privileges and trade and extra territorial rights in addition gorjong accepted the reformist official's request to employ a japanese military attache to train some korean soldiers in a modern way this new force was named pyolgikun or special skills force consequently his father the retired isolationist regent yihaong denounced the reformists while claiming the importance of conservative values furthermore the traditional army neglected by king gorjung in favor of the new modernized force rebelled in 1882 they stormed the japanese legations in seoul and assassinated the japanese military advisor however most members of the japanese delegation successfully escaped the following day the traditionalist rebelling army attacked the korean royal palace and restored regent hieharing to power these events did not hit well with the empire of japan which immediately dispatched forces it however also attracted the xing dynasty's attention to korea the chinese intervened first sending forces to quell the uprising they captured yihang since he was both a threat to the qing dynasty's own sovereignty over korea and a provocation to the powerful japanese inciting them to attack the region and placed him on the house arrest in china shortly after that singh dynasty restored king gorjung to the throne and formally reasserted chinese authority over the kingdom gorjung's actual power was very limited by the tsing dynasty whose troops were now permanently stationed in seoul under general yenshokai who acted as representative of the team court in korea and soon took over the training at the korean force japan would however not give up its influence over korea so easily although the incident was seemingly settled trouble would soon shake the korean peninsula again in 1884 japanese-backed korean reformists attempted a coup to purge the court from conservative and pro-chinese officials the short conflict however failed due to the intervention of yuen shukai's team forces who crushed the reformist trebles during these events the japanese legation in seoul was burned down and a few dozen japanese soldiers supporting the coup were killed by ryan shakai's men as a result the outraged empire of the rising sun immediately dispatched seven warships overseas in a show of force the situation was tense but thanks to sensible singh and japanese officials li hong-jang and ito hirobimi the conflict was settled with the 1885 convention of it stated that the tsing dynasty and empire of japan would withdraw their troops from korea and never send forces again without informing the other nation first an incident would nonetheless revive hostilities just a year afterwards the bay young fleet china's own modernized naval force which included two iron clads that jongren and the dinwen docked at the japanese port of nagasaki during a tour of asian harbours after a trip to the city's red light district xing sailors parked a ride with locals that ended with dozens of casualties and the diplomatic crisis confident in its traditional domination of all of east asia the qing dynasty refused to apologize for the incident as a result anti-chinese and anti-japanese sentiment rose in japan and china respectively tensions between both empires were at an all times high and the situation would not improve in 1894 the kingdom of korea suffered a massive peasant uprising the donghak rebellion the insurgents organized in massive militias aimed to overthrow the korean government in panic korean authorities asked for their chinese overlords forces to intervene on the 6th of june the qing authorities subsequently embarked about three thousand men on the general year churchill a veteran of the taiping and yen rebellions they crossed the yellow sea from tenzin to asan harbour on the korean peninsula upon learning of this the outraged japanese government claimed this action violated the 1885 tencent convention indeed it stipulated that china or japan had to inform the other nation about any movement of troops in korea first subsequently the empire of japan decided to send warships and landed about 5 000 men on the general oshima yoshimasa in chimulepo on the 8th of june 1894. the japanese claimed they only wanted to protect their interests in the country three days later the tonghak rebellion had been temporarily pacified but the troops of the two empires were still in the area tensions rose more and more worrying the other world powers an attempted british mediation of the conflicts turned out unsuccessful and it soon became clear the two empires were ready to fight on the 19th of july 1894 the japanese navy formed the combined fleets composed of most of its imperial japanese navy warships which would exist until 1945. just four days later an event would mark a point of no return as the japanese forces in korea marched on seoul deposed king gorjung and overthrew the korean government replacing it with pro-japanese officials the puppet government then gave permission to the japanese troops to expel singh forces in the country by force charles 3 000 men were still stationed in assan harbour with a couple of warships and expecting reinforcements taking the initiative the japanese combined fleet dispatched three of its cruisers to set up a naval blockade of the area two days later the first open military conflict would take place as the naval battle of pungtor broke out the chinese forces only consisted of one cruiser and the gunboat facing the three japanese cruisers following an hour of fighting the chinese cruiser was shipwrecked and exploded while the gunboat escaped during the conflict the privately owned british ship kawasing transporting 1100 elite chinese reinforcements to assange was strategically sunk by the japanese most of the western crew and transported chinese soldiers drowned and only a few of them were rescued by other western ships in the area the battle of pungdor had been a decisive japanese victory yidra charles forces in and around assange were now isolated on the korean peninsula and within reach of the japanese land troops in seoul general oshima simply marched down and attacked this easy target on the 27th of july 1894 after a battle that lasted all night the chinese soldiers were decisively defeated counting 500 casualties and escaped to the south west in their flight they abandoned precious arms and equipment to the japanese who reportedly only suffered 88 casualties this battle was a turning point from there on there could be no de-escalation of the situation emperor guanxi of china and emperor meiji of japan both officially declared war on the other nation the first sino-japanese war had formally begun although the chinese detachment had been defeated its survivors rallied and found their way to the remaining chinese stronghold in korea pyongyang the qing dynasty still had about 13 000 troops stationed in pyongyang who understood that japanese attention would soon shift this way in the following weeks they considerably developed the city's defenses the immediate objective of the imperial japanese army was to crush all chinese forces in korea before the conflict could drag on into winter thousands of imperial japanese army soldiers were subsequently set from the mainland to the korean peninsula as reinforcements the bulk of the japanese forces now led by general yamagata aritomo marched over 160 kilometers north reinforced on the way with additional disembarked troops they finally arrived at pyongyang on the 15th of august preparing for a staunch defense seeing general dwarba a hui muslim performed the islamic ritual purification before the fighting could begin after japanese arrived heavy rain began to fall upon the region the first column of japanese forces marched towards the city on the fire as the downpour turned the battlefield into a muddy mixture of blood and corpses the first japanese attack was successfully repelled which led the teen to believe they had won the battle however after having secured hill fortresses around the city their opponents deployed their artillery which proceeded to relentlessly bombard pyongyang eventually the qing forces had no choice but to surrender during the canon eight the ting suffered about two thousand killed and four thousand wounded including the death of huai muslim general dorba which was more than 10 times what the japanese had suffered the chinese survivors who escaped the city during the night retreated towards the yalu river where they planned to establish the new line of defense after having established order in pyongyang the imperial japanese army followed within a few more days all of the korean peninsula was effectively under the control of the empire of the rising sun thus fulfilling an ancient japanese desire in the meantime the team authorities had not remained idle it was time for them to deploy their secret weapon the modernized baeyang fleet a huge part of china's modernization efforts had gone into this fleet which counted many modern steam war vessels including the two iron clads the genuine its flagship and the tinuen the baiyang fleet was under the command of admiral dhingru chang a seasoned officer who had originally been a rebel soldier of the typing heavenly kingdom but later changed allegiance and swore loyalty to the tsing dynasty he was a veteran of the nyan rebellion and of the emo incident where he and his men had captured king gorjung's father yihang before news of the tsing dynasty's defeat at pyongyang ding chang had mustered about 6 500 men to be dispatched as reinforcements to korea however as the chinese imperial courts discovered the disastrous turn of events emperor guanxi and his officials were shocked ding rouchang nonetheless kept his composure and accurately guessed that the retreating xing land forces had established a new line of defense along the yalu river he subsequently sent the reinforcements there which landed on the 16th of september korea had fallen but the ting dynasty was determined as ever the yellow sea soon became of prime strategic importance in the conflicts securing it was now the main objective of the japanese combined fleet led by admiralitos the naval commander was a friendly acquaintance of his opponent admiral dingo chang as they had reportedly met twice and kept in touch prior to the war however for both men duty was above personal feelings the combined fleet began searching the water for its opponents the baiyang fleet during several dates finally one morning both navies met at the mouth of the yalu river where the baeyong fleet had just disembarked the 6500 reinforcements on land the baiyang fleet was on paper superior to the japanese combined fleet counting two ironclads and was further assisted by foreign advisors on board the japanese were however absolutely determined to defeat the traditional superpower of east asia the greatest naval battle between two rapidly modernized empires was about to take place its outcome would be decisive for the war thank you for watching my video i hope you enjoyed it if so please leave a like and subscribe to the channel part 2 will be available shortly if you have any questions or requests feel free to leave them in the comment section below you

Channel: History of China

Views: 101,463

Keywords: first sino-japanese war, full documentary, sino-japanese war, first sino japanese war 1894, first sino japanese war naval battle, battle of pyongyang, battle of pungdo, ding ruchang, ito sukiyeki, treaty of shimonoseki, batte of weihaiwei, port arthur massacre, nagasaki incident

Id: 4JMNwmcNKdA

Length: 16min 24sec (984 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 06 2021