The First Sino-Japanese War and East Asia

Abstract

This chapter covers the First Sino-Japanese War of 1894–1895, a “watershed in world history,” according to the author. It uses maps of the Korean Peninsula to shed light on other conflicts in Northeast Asia that both preceded and followed this war, which the author suggests remains unfinished and affects current geostrategic thinking. In tracing the road to war and the consequences of it, the significance of Manchuria in relation to the security of the Korean Peninsula is highlighted and the “historical deficiency of mutual understanding” lamented.