[1] In the late 19th century, China, which had been ruled for over two hundred years by the Qing dynasty, was subject to a series of humiliating unequal treaties with foreign powers after a devastating military defeat at the hands of the emerging Empire of Japan.

In order to rebuild their military and reassert their own national sovereignty, the Qing government appointed the Marquis of Suyi, Li Hongzhang, as a special envoy to Europe in May 1896.

The two ships were based on an improved Buenos Aires design, which Armstrong Whitworth had built for Argentina a year earlier but made to Chinese dimensional specifications.

Eventually on 16 June 1900, the twenty-three ships of the Eight-Nation Alliance anchored off Dagu made an ultimatum to the fort, demanding its surrender to the allied fleet in order to relieve the Siege of the International Legations in the capital, Beijing.

[2] Less than four years later at 5:30 AM on 25 April 1904, Hai Tien under the command of future admiral Liu Guanxiong was sailing to Shanghai from Zhifu when he became engulfed in fog at Weihai.