Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Maps
- Acknowledgments
- Part I The Clash of Two Orders: The Far East on the Eve of the War
- Part II The War: The Dividing Line Between Two Eras
- Part III The Settlement: The Modern Era in Far Eastern Diplomacy
- 7 The Treaty of Shimonoseki and the Triple Intervention
- 8 The Era of Global Politics
- 9 The Cultural Dimensions of the Sino-Japanese War
- Epilogue: Perceptions, Power, and War
- Bibliographic Essay
- Bibliography
- Index
8 - The Era of Global Politics
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 January 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Maps
- Acknowledgments
- Part I The Clash of Two Orders: The Far East on the Eve of the War
- Part II The War: The Dividing Line Between Two Eras
- Part III The Settlement: The Modern Era in Far Eastern Diplomacy
- 7 The Treaty of Shimonoseki and the Triple Intervention
- 8 The Era of Global Politics
- 9 The Cultural Dimensions of the Sino-Japanese War
- Epilogue: Perceptions, Power, and War
- Bibliographic Essay
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
A version of the old fable in which a wolf and a jackal quarrel over the prostrate form of a lamb, while an eagle hovers overhead prepared to pounce down so soon as the combatants have reduced themselves to a state of helplessness, is just now being reproduced in North- Eastern Asia. China and Japan are contending for supremacy in Korea, while … the Russians on the northern frontier are prepared to take part in the fray.
The Japan Weekly Mail, September 1894The present situation in the Far East is not the result of a gradual chain of events, but of the absolute surprise created by the unexpected results of the Chino-Japanese War. No doubt the collapse of China in 1894 was only the last act in a long drama of decadence, but it revealed to astonished Europe the utter incapacity of China either to reform or to defend herself, a fact for which we were quite unprepared … China had systematically fooled both Governments and public alike, who shared the same illusion as to her power … By dissipating these illusions and exhibiting to the world the truth concerning China's decrepitude, the Japanese victories produced almost the effect of an earthquake.
Pierre Leroy-Beaulieu, writer, lecturer, world-traveler, 1900With the Sino-Japanese War, Japan had achieved the key international goal that had precipitated three decades of Meiji reforms: It had acquired the status of an international power. Gone was the era of unequal treaties for Japan – but not for China. Westerners were falling over themselves to applaud Japan's successes.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Sino-Japanese War of 1894–1895Perceptions, Power, and Primacy, pp. 295 - 332Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2002