Treaty of Shimonoseki
The Treaty of Shimonoseki (Japanese: 下関条約, "Shimonoseki Jōyaku"), known as the Treaty of Maguan (Traditional Chinese: 馬關條約; Simplified Chinese: 马关条约; pinyin: Mǎguān tiáoyuē) in China, was signed at the Shunpanrō hall on April 17, 1895 between the Empire of Japan and Qing Empire of China, ending the First Sino-Japanese War. The peace conference took place from March 20 to April 17 1895.
Overview
The Treaty of Shimonoseki ended the First Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, giving Japan a clear victory. The war was fought between Qing Dynasty China and Meiji Japan over control of Korea. The treaty recognizes the independence of Korea and forced China to renounce any claim to that country. It also ceded the Liaodong peninsula, the islands of Taiwan, and the Pescadores Islands to Japan. China also paid Japan a war indemnity of 200 million Kuping taels over seven years. A commercial treaty, similar to ones previously signed by China with various Western powers after the Opium Wars, was also signed, confirming the opening of various ports and rivers to Japanese trade.
The treaty was signed on July 17, 1895, after four months of negotiations. The treaty was signed by Ito Hirobumi for Japan and Li Hongzhang for China. It was enforced on May 8, 1895.[1] It provided a wealth of new economic opportunities for Japan, and merchants were even given the right to open up factories, rent warehouses and transport goods without the payment of any taxes to the Chinese government.[2] What started for China as a Korean rebellion ended in ruin, but for Japan it was the beginning of an Asian Empire.
Articles
The Treaty of Shimonoseki is comprised of eleven articles. These articles were based upon the agreed Armistice that came before it. Three articles were added later, relating specifically to Weihaiwei. A few of the most important articles are listed below.
- Article 1: China recognizes definitively the full and complete independence and autonomy of Korea, and, in consequence, the payment of tribute and the performance of ceremonies and formalities by Korea to China, that are in derogation of such independence and autonomy, shall wholly cease for the future.
- Articles 2 and 3: China cedes to Japan in perpetuity and full sovereignty of the Pescadores group, the island of Taiwan and the eastern portion of the bay of Liaotung together with all fortifications, arsenals and public property.
- Article 4: China agrees to pay to Japan as a war indemnity the sum of 200,000,000 Kuping taels
- Article 6: China opens Shashih, Chungking, Soochow and Hangchow to Japan. Moreover, China is to grant Japan most-favored-nation treatment.
Value of the indemnity
In the treaty, China had to pay an indemnity of 200 million silver kuping taels to Japan. One kuping (treasury) tael is about 37.3 grams in weight. The 200 million kuping taels is about 7.45 million kg of silver.
Later, when Japan was forced to re-cede the Liaodong peninsula to Russia (for Port Arthur), Japan asked for more money—30 million kuping (1.12 million kg) of silver—from China; the total amount is over 8 million kg of silver.
Signatories and diplomats
The treaty was drafted with John W. Foster, former American Secretary of State, advising the Qing Dynasty. It was signed by Count Ito Hirobumi and Viscount Mutsu Munemitsu for the Emperor of Japan and Li Hongzhang and Li Jingfang on behalf of the Emperor of China. Before the treaty was signed, Li Hongzhang was attacked by a right-wing Japanese extremist on March 24: He was fired at and wounded on his way back to his lodgings at Injoji temple. The public outcry aroused by the assassination attempt caused the Japanese to temper their demands and agree to a temporary armistice. The conference was temporarily adjourned and resumed on April 10.
Aftermath
Entry of the Western powers
The conditions imposed by Japan on China led to the Triple Intervention of Russia, France, and Germany, western powers all active in China, with established enclaves and ports, just three days after its signing. They demanded that Japan withdraw its claim on the Liaodong peninsula, concerned that Lüshun, then called Port Arthur by Westerners, would fall under Japanese control. Tsar Nicholas II of Russia (a de jure ally of France) and his imperial advisers, including his cousin, friend, and rival, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, had designs on Port Arthur, which could serve as Russia's long sought-after "ice-free" port.
Under threat of war from three Western political powers, in November 1895, Japan—a weaker emerging nation not yet perceived as even a regional power—receded control of the territory and withdrew its de jure claim on the Liaotung peninsula in return for an increased war indemnity from China (as noted above). At that time, the European powers were not concerned with any of the other conditions, or the free hand Japan had been granted in Korea under the other terms of the Treaty of Shimonoseki, and this would prove to be a diplomatically short sighted error.
Within months after Japan receded the Liaodong peninsula, Russia started construction on the peninsula and a railway to Harbin from Port Arthur, despite a protesting China. Eventually, Russia agreed to offer a diplomatic solution (the Kwantung Leased Territory) to the Chinese Empire, and agreed to a token lease of the region to save face, instead of annexing Manchuria outright, its de-facto effect. Within two years, Germany, France, and Great Britain had similarly taken advantage of the economic and political opportunities in the weak Chinese Empire, each taking control of significant local regions. Japan also took note of how the international community allowed the great powers to treat weaker nation states, and continued its remarkable measures to bootstrap itself into a modern industrial state and military power, with great success as it would demonstrate in the Russo-Japanese War less than a decade later.
In Taiwan, pro-Qing officials and elements of the local gentry declared a Republic of Formosa in 1895, but failed to win international recognition.
In China, the Treaty was considered a national humiliation by the bureaucracy and greatly weakened support for the Qing dynasty. The previous decades of the Self-Strengthening Movement were considered to be a failure, and support grew for more radical changes in China's political and social systems, which led to Hundred Days Reform and the abolition of the bureaucratic examinations followed by the fall of the Qing dynasty itself in 1911.
The Triple Intervention is regarded by many Japanese historians as being a crucial historic turning point in Japanese foreign affairs—from this point on, the nationalist, expansionist, and militant elements began to join ranks and steer Japan from a foreign policy based mainly on economic hegemony toward outright imperialism—a case of the coerced turning increasingly to coercion.
Both the Republic of China on Taiwan and the communist People's Republic of China consider that the provisions of the treaty transferring Taiwan to Japan to have been reversed by the Instrument of Surrender of Japan. On April 28, 1952, the contents of this treaty were formally nullified through what is commonly known as the Treaty of Taipei with the Republic of China on Taiwan, although the People's Republic of China does not recognize this treaty.
Prelude to war
Russia wasted little time after the Triple Intervention to move men and materials down into the Liaodong to start building a railroad from both ends—Port Arthur and Harbin, as it already had railway construction in progress across northern Inner Manchuria to shorten the rail route to Russia's sole Pacific Ocean naval base at Sakhalin Island, a port closed by ice four months of each year. Russia also improved the port facilities at Port Arthur and founded the commercial port town at Dalny (Dalian), before inking the Lease of the territory.
When the de-facto governance of Port Arthur and the Liaodong peninsula was granted de jure to Russia by China, along with an increase in other rights she had obtained in Manchuria (especially those in Jilin and Heilongjiang provinces), the construction of the 550 mile Southern spurline of the Manchurian Railway was redoubled. Russia finally seemed to have gotten what the Russian Empire had been wanting in its quest to become a global power since the reign of Peter the Great. This ice-free natural harbor of Port Arthur/Lüshun would serve to make Russia a great sea as well as the largest land power. Russia needed this ice-free port to achieve world power status, as it was tired of being blocked by the Balance of Power politics in Europe (The Ottoman Empire and its allies had repeatedly frustrated Russian power fruition).
However, the omission of the geopolitical reality in ignoring the free hand Japan had been granted by the Treaty of Shimonoseki, with respect to Korea and Japan ,was short-sighted of Russia with respect to its strategic goals; to get to and maintain a strong point in Port Arthur, Russia would have to dominate and control many additional hundreds of miles of Eastern Manchuria (the Fengtian province of Imperial China, modern Jilin and Heilongjiang) up to Harbin. Japan had long considered the lands paralleling the whole Korean border as part of its strategic Sphere of Influence. By leasing Liaodong and railway concessions, Russia crashed its Sphere of Influence squarely into Japan's.
This acted as a further goad to emerging Japanese anger at their disrespectful treatment by all the West. In the immediate fallout of the Triple Intervention, Japanese popular resentment at Russia's deviousness and the perceived weakness of its own government caving in to foreign pressure led to riots in Tokyo. The disturbance almost brought down the government, as well as a strengthening of imperial and expansionist factions within Japan. The Russian spear into the sphere also brought about the ensuing struggle with Russia for dominance in Korea and Manchuria. These events eventually led to the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905, by a renewed and modernized Japanese military.
See also
- Unequal Treaties
- Triple Intervention
- Kwantung Leased Territory
- Manchurian Railway
- South Manchurian Railway
- Yeongeunmun Gate
- Independence Gate
Notes
- ↑ Exploring Chinese History, Treaty of Shimonoseki. Retrieved July 29, 2008.
- ↑ Lee Taylor, Treaty of Shimonoseki.] Retrieved July 29, 2008.
ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
- Chamberlain, William Henry. Japan Over Asia. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1937.
- Cheng, Pei-Kai, and Michael Lestz (eds.). The Search for Modern China: A Documentary Collection. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1999.
- Colliers (ed.). The Russo-Japanese War. New York: P.F. Collier & Son, 1904.
- Sedwick, F.R. The Russo-Japanese War. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1909.
- Warner, Dennis and Peggy. The Tide At Sunrise. New York: Charterhouse, 1974
External links
All links retrieved July 29, 2008.
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