The First Sino-Japanese War of 1894 to 1895

The First Sino-Japanese War of 1894 to 1895 From August 1, 1894, to April 17, 1895, the Qing Dynasty of China fought against the Meiji Japanese Empire over who should control late Joseon-era Korea, ending in a decisive Japanese victory. As a result, Japan added the Korean Peninsula to its sphere of influences and gained Formosa (Taiwan), the Penghu Island, and the Liaodong Peninsula outright.   However, this did not come without loss. Approximately 35,000 Chinese soldiers were killed or wounded in the battle while Japan only lost 5,000 of its fighters and service people. Worse yet, this would not be the end of tensions - the Second Sino-Japanese War started in 1937, part of the first actions of World War II. An Era of Conflict In the second half of the 19th century, the American Commodore Matthew Perry forced open ultra-traditional and secluded Tokugawa Japan. As an indirect result, the power of the shoguns ended and Japan went through the 1868 Meiji Restoration, with the island nation quickly modernizing and militarizing as a result. Meanwhile, the traditional heavy-weight champion of East Asia, Qing China, failed to update its own military and bureaucracy, losing two Opium Wars to the western powers. As the preeminent power in the region, China had for centuries enjoyed a measure of control over neighboring tributary states, including Joseon Korea, Vietnam, and even sometimes Japan. However, Chinas humiliation by the British and French exposed its weakness, and as the 19th century drew to a close, Japan decided to exploit this opening. Japans goal was to seize the Korean Peninsula, which military thinkers considered a dagger pointed at the heart of Japan. Certainly, Korea had been the staging ground for earlier invasions by both China and Japan against one another - for example, Kublai Khans  invasions of Japan in 1274 and 1281  or Toyotomi Hideyoshis attempts to invade Ming China via Korea in 1592 and 1597. The First Sino-Japanese War After a couple of decades of jockeying for position over Korea, Japan and China began outright hostilities on July 28, 1894, at the Battle of Asan. On July 23, the Japanese entered Seoul and seized the Joseon King Gojong, who was retitled the Gwangmu Emperor of Korea to emphasize his new independence from China. Five days later, fighting began at Asan. Much of the First Sino-Japanese War was fought at sea, where the Japanese navy had an advantage over its antiquated Chinese counterpart, mostly due to the Empress Dowager Cixi reportedly siphoned off some of the funds meant to update the Chinese navy in order to rebuild the Summer Palace in Beijing. In any case, Japan cut the Chinese supply lines for its garrison at Asan by a naval blockade, then Japanese and Korean land troops overran the 3,500-strong Chinese force on July 28, killing 500 of them and capturing the rest - the two sides officially declared war on August 1. Surviving Chinese forces retreated to the northern city of Pyongyang and dug in while the Qing government sent reinforcements, bringing the total Chinese garrison at Pyongyang to about 15,000 troops. Under cover of darkness, the Japanese encircled the city early in the morning of September 15, 1894, and launched a simultaneous attack from all directions. After approximately 24 hours of stiff fighting, the Japanese took Pyongyang, leaving around 2,000 Chinese dead and 4,000 injured or missing while the Japanese Imperial Army only reported 568 men injured, dead, or missing.   After the Fall of Pyongyang With the loss of Pyongyang, plus a naval defeat in the Battle of Yalu River, China decided to withdraw from Korea and fortify its border. On October 24, 1894, the Japanese built bridges across the Yalu River and marched into Manchuria. Meanwhile, Japans navy landed troops on the strategic Liaodong Peninsula, which juts out into the Yellow Sea between North Korea and Beijing. Japan soon seized the Chinese cities of Mukden, Xiuyan, Talienwan, and Lushunkou (Port Arthur). Beginning on November 21, Japanese troops rampaged through Lushunkou in the infamous Port Arthur Massacre, killing thousands of unarmed Chinese civilians. The outclassed Qing fleet retreated to supposed safety at the fortified harbor of Weihaiwei. However, the Japanese land and sea forces laid siege to the city on January 20, 1895. Weihaiwei held out until February 12, and in March, China lost Yingkou, Manchuria, and the Pescadores Islands near Taiwan. By April, the Qing government realized that Japanese forces were approaching Beijing. The Chinese decided to sue for peace. The Treaty of Shimonoseki On April 17, 1895, Qing China and Meiji Japan signed the Treaty of Shimonoseki, which ended the First Sino-Japanese War. China relinquished all claims to influence over Korea, which became a Japanese protectorate until it was annexed outright in 1910. Japan also took control of Taiwan, the Penghu Islands, and the Liaodong Peninsula. In addition to the territorial gains, Japan received war reparations of 200 million taels of silver from China. The Qing government also had to grant Japan trade favors, including permission for Japanese ships to sail up the Yangtze River, manufacturing grants for Japanese companies to operate in Chinese treaty ports, and the opening of four additional treaty ports to Japanese trading vessels. Alarmed by the quick rise of Meiji Japan, three of the European powers intervened after the Treaty of Shimonoseki was signed. Russia, Germany, and France particularly objected to Japans seizure of the Liaodong Peninsula, which Russia also coveted. The three powers pressured Japan into relinquishing the peninsula to Russia, in exchange for an addition 30 million taels of silver. Japans victorious military leaders saw this European intervention as a humiliating slight, which helped spark the Russo-Japanese War of 1904 to 1905.

Salt Flats Formation, Activity, and Examples

Salt Flats Formation, Activity, and Examples Salt flats, also called salt pans, are large and flat areas of land that were once lake beds. Salt flats are covered with salt and other minerals and they oftentimes look white because of the salt presence. These areas of land generally form in deserts and other arid places where large bodies of water have dried up over thousands of years and the salt and other minerals are the remnants. There are salt flats found around the world but some of the largest examples include the Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia, the Bonneville Salt Flats in the state of Utah and those found in California’s Death Valley National Park.   Formation of Salt Flats   According to the United States’ National Park Service, there are three basic things that are needed for salt flats to form. These are a source of salts, an enclosed drainage basin so the salts do not wash out and an arid climate where evaporation is greater than precipitation so the salts can get left behind when the water dries up (National Park Service).   An arid climate is the most important component of salt flat formation. In arid places, rivers with large, meandering stream networks are rare because of a lack of water. As a result, many lakes, if they exist at all, do not have natural outlets such as streams. Enclosed drainage basins are important because they hinder the formation of water outlets. In the western United States, for instance, there is the basin and range region in the states of Nevada and Utah. The topography of these basins consist of deep, flat bowls where the drainage is enclosed because water draining out of the region cannot climb up the mountain ranges surrounding the basins (Alden). Finally, the arid climate comes into play because evaporation must exceed precipitation in the water in the basins for the salt flats to eventually form. In addition to enclosed drainage basins and arid climates, there must also be an actual presence of salt and other minerals in the lakes for salt flats to form. All water bodies contain a variety of dissolved minerals and as lakes dry up through thousands of years of evaporation the minerals become solids and are dropped where the lakes once were. Calcite and gypsum are among some of the minerals found in water but salts, mostly halite, are found in large concentrations in some bodies of water (Alden). It is in places where halite and other salts are found in abundance that salt flats eventually form.   Salt Flat Examples   Salar de Uyuni Large salt flats are found around the world in places such as the United States, South America, and Africa. The largest salt flat in the world is the Salar de Uyuni, located in the Potosi and Oruro, Bolivia. It covers 4,086 square miles (10,852 sq km) and is located at an elevation of 11,995 feet (3,656 m). The Salar de Uyuni is a part of the Altiplano plateau that formed as the Andes Mountains were uplifted. The plateau is home to many lakes and the salt flats formed after several prehistoric lakes evaporated over thousands of years. Scientists believe that the area was an extremely large lake called Lake Minchin around 30,000 to 42,000 years ago (Wikipedia.org). As Lake Minchin began to dry up due to a lack of precipitation and no outlet (the region is surrounded by the Andes Mountains) it became a series of smaller lakes and dry areas. Eventually, the Poopà ³ and Uru Uru lakes and the Salar de Uyuni and Salar de Coipasa salt flats were all that remained. The Salar de Uyuni is significant not only because of its very large size but also because it is a large breeding ground for pink flamingoes, it serves as a transportation route across the Altiplano and it is a rich area for the mining of valuable minerals such as sodium, potassium, lithium and magnesium.   Bonneville Salt Flats   The Bonneville Salt Flats are located in the U.S. state of Utah between the border with Nevada and the Great Salt Lake. They cover about 45 square miles (116.5 sq km) and are managed by the United States Bureau of Land Management as an Area of Critical Environmental Concern and a Special Recreation Management Area (Bureau of Land Management). They are part of the United States’ Basin and Range system.   The Bonneville Salt Flats are a remnant of the very large Lake Bonneville that existed in the area about 17,000 years ago. At its peak, the lake was 1,000 feet (304 m) deep. According to the Bureau of Land Management, evidence for the lake’s depth can be seen on the surrounding Silver Island Mountains. The salt flats began to form as precipitation decreased with a changing climate and the water in Lake Bonneville began to evaporate and recede. As the water evaporated, minerals such as potash and halite were deposited on the remaining soils. Eventually, these minerals built up and were compacted to form a hard, flat, and salty surface. Today the Bonneville Salt Flats are about 5 feet (1.5 m) thick at their center and just are just a few inches thick at the edges. The Bonneville Salt Flats are about 90% salt and consists of about 147 million tons of salt (Bureau of Land Management).   Death Valley The Badwater Basin salt flats located in California’s Death Valley National Park cover about 200 square miles (518 sq km). It is believed that the salt flats are the remnants of the ancient Lake Manly that filled Death Valley about 10,000 to 11,000 years ago as well as more active weather processes today. The main sources of Badwater Basin’s salt are what was evaporated from that lake but also from Death Valley’s nearly 9,000-square mile (23,310 sq km) drainage system that extends to the peaks surrounding the basin (National Park Service). During the wet season precipitation falls on these mountains and then runs off into the very low elevation Death Valley (Badwater Basin is, in fact, the lowest point in North America at -282 feet (-86 m)). In wet years, temporary lakes form and during the very hot, dry summers this water evaporates and minerals such as sodium chloride are left behind. After thousands of years, a salt crust has formed, creating salt flats.   Activities on Salt Flats   Because of the large presence of salts and other minerals, salt flats are often places that are mined for their resources. In addition, there are many other human activities and development that have taken place on them because of their very large, flat nature. The Bonneville Salt Flats, for example, are home to land speed records, while the Salar de Uyuni is an ideal place for calibrating satellites. Their flat nature also makes them good travel routes and Interstate 80 runs through a portion of the Bonneville Salt Flats.