Term 2 Post 3

The First Sino-Japanese War occurred from 1 August 1894 to 17 April 1895. It was a battle between the Qing Dynasty of China and Meiji Japan, primarily over the control of Korea. After more than six months of continuous successes by Japanese army and naval forces and the loss of the Chinese port of Weihaiwei, the Qing leadership sued for peace in February 1895.
Direct results of the war showed that the military strength and sovereignty of the Qing Dynasty had been severely weakened during the nineteenth century. It demonstrated that forced reform had modernized Japan significantly since the Meiji Restoration in 1867, especially as compared with the Self-Strengthening Movement in China. Regional dominance in East Asia shifted from China to Japan. The Qing Dynasty, along with the classical tradition in China, were the ones who suffered a major blow.

In order to protect its own interests and security, Japan wanted to either add Korea to its own force before it was seized by another power or at least ensure Korea's effective independence by developing its resources and reforming its administration. As Prussian advisor, Major Klemens Meckel put it, Korea was "a dagger pointed at the heart of Japan". Japan felt that another power having a military presence on the Korean peninsula would have been a threat to Japanese national security and so they resolved to end the centuries-old Chinese control over Korea. Moreover, Japan realized that having access to Korea’s coal and iron ore deposits would benefit Japan's growing industrial base.

The Second Sino-Japanese War occurred from July 7, 1937 to September 9, 1945. It was a conflict fought primarily between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. From 1937 to 1941, China fought Japan with some economic help from Germany, the Soviet Union and the United States. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour, the war merged into the greater conflict of World War II as a major front of what is broadly known as the Pacific War. The Second Sino-Japanese War was the largest Asian war in the 20th century.

The war ended with the surrender of Japan. Before 1937, China and Japan fought in small, localized engagements, so-called "incidents". Yet the two sides, for a variety of reasons, refrained from fighting a total war. In 1931, there was a Japanese invasion of Manchuria. The last of these incidents was the Marco Polo Bridge Incident, which took place in 1937, marking the beginning of total war between the two countries.