Jottings from the Granite Studio

On April 17, 1895, Japan and the Qing Empire signed the Treaty of Shimonoseki, ending the Sino-Japanese War which had been a disaster for the Qing from start to finish.   The war began when the Qing court and the Japanese government vied for the role of “protector” of Korea, a longtime tributary state of the Qing but who in recent years had become a much valued prize for Japanese imperialist expansion.  If you want to think of this as China and Japan playing the “No, she’s MY BFF” game so beloved by 12-year old girls the world over, go ahead, I won’t stop you.

The vaunted Beiyang Fleet and Beiyang Army, products of a decade-long effort in local military modernization by Li Hongzhang, failed to live up to their promise (Artillery shells were filled with sand, cannons exploded backwards…let’s just say the relationship between corruption and product quality isn’t exactly a new problem in China) and Japan routed Qing forces in a number of key land and naval battles before finally bottling up and destroying the remains of the Beiyang Fleet at the Battle of Weihaiwei.

The Qing sued for peace, and the Japanese presented a list of demands